BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, with some 10 practices under their belt under new head coach Trent Johnson, will step on the court for the first time in a public setting as they participate in the Purple-Gold scrimmage Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The event is free of charge and open to the public. Gates will open at 6 p.m. at which time the 2008-09 Tigers will be on the floor for a practice/warm-up session at 6 and the scrimmage is expected to begin at about 6:30 p.m. The team will sign autographs following the scrimmage and posters and schedule cards for the 2008-09 season will be available.
Tiger Concessions will also be offering specials during the evening with all hot dogs on sale on a two-for-one basis and all students will receive a coupon for a free order of nachos.
All fans are requested to enter the South ramps for the event and because of the preliminary construction for the new practice facility taking place on the North side of the building, seating for the scrimmage will be limited to the lower bowl and the South side of the arena only.
This will be LSU’s only public appearance on the court prior to the opening game of the 100th anniversary season of LSU basketball on Nov. 15 when the Tigers host Jackson State in a 1 p.m. game at the Maravich Center. That will be the front half of the first ever Maravich Center-Tiger Stadium basketball-football doubleheader as LSU will host Troy State in football at 7 p.m. that same evening.
“Basically, what we are concerned with is that we get down and execute and do the things that we have been doing in practice,” said first year head coach Trent Johnson. “That guys play within the system on offense and defensively there is a maximum effort in terms of transitional defense, talking and communication, rebounding the basketball, taking care of the basketball. We’ve put a lot in on the offensive end since Sept. 15 when we were individually in groups when we could go five-on-0.”
Sophomore Garrett Green has been out since before the team practices began on Oct. 17 and junior Alex Farrer missed most of practice after banging his knee in Sunday’s practice and is probably questionable for the scrimmage leaving 12 players for the event.
“The big concern for us is that our freshmen have to come along at a faster pace than usual. So, there is a little separation right now in terms of the veterans and the freshmen, but that’s to be expected. My biggest concern is that we come out and execute the things that we have been doing in practice.”
Coach Johnson said he plans to go with the five veterans on one team led by senior captain Garrett Temple along with seniors Marcus Thornton and Chris Johnson, junior Tasmin Mitchell and sophomore Bo Spencer. The other team will start with seniors Terry Martin and Quintin Thornton who are according to Johnson “definitely in the top seven.”
Members of the teams may be interchanged as the session proceeds.
Tickets for the 2008-09 season remain on sale at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and online at www.LSUsports.net. Tickets for the record 21-game home schedule start at the Centennial Special price of $100 and those $100 tickets if renewed are guaranteed by LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva to remain at $100 for five seasons. Buying the tickets will save $155 just this season on the normal price of tickets in that section of the building.
Also the men’s and women’s basketball teams will appear outside the LSU Union and the LSU Parade Grounds for a two-hour (11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.) block party for LSU students, featuring both teams, coaching staffs and an interactive area including a spot court for students to participate in various games.
Scrimmage Notes:
- 6 p.m. ? Doors Open For Free Admission; Team will begin warmup on the floor; Seating in the lower bowl and South side of PMAC (enter up the South ramps)
- Approximately 6:30 p.m. ? Introductions and start of scrimmage
- Approximately 7:30 p.m. ? Autograph Session
- Concessions: Tiger Concessions will sell two-for-one hot dogs and LSU students with their ID will receive a coupon for free nachos.
- Fan Zone: Schedule posters and schedule cards will be available.