BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team remained ranked for a fourth straight week as the team began to turn a page and prepare for the Southeastern Conference Tournament beginning this week in Tampa.
LSU is now ranked 16th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 20th in the Associated Press media poll announced on Monday. It is the 193 time LSU has appeared in an Associated Press poll since LSU made its first appearance in December, 1952.
LSU is 256-93 (73.3 percent) when playing as a ranked team. This will mark the first time LSU has played as a ranked team in the Southeastern Conference Tournament since being ranked 18th by AP in the 2006 edition.
LSU is the only team ranked or receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, while Auburn and Tennessee are both getting votes in the AP media selections.
The Tigers enjoyed their second day off on Monday after falling twice last week to Vanderbilt on Wednesday and at Auburn on Saturday. They will resume practice on Tuesday and depart for Tampa on Wednesday to get in a practice session at the tournament site ? the St. Pete Times Forum. The team will practice Thursday at another location in Tampa with the arena hosting the first four games of the event.
This marks the first time the tournament has been held in Florida since the event was held in Orlando in 1990. This is the first of a four-year swing of cities that will see the tournament in Nashville in 2010, Atlanta in 2011 and in the New Orleans Arena in 2012.
LSU will play the winner of Thursday’s first game at Noon CDT between Ole Miss (W5) and Kentucky (E4). The winner of this game will play LSU Friday at Noon CDT in a game to be regionally televised on the Raycom affiliates (WAFB, Channel 9 in Baton Rouge). The game will also be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net.
The other teams on LSU’s side of the bracket are Georgia (E6) and Mississippi State (W3) who meet in Thursday’s second game and the other bye team on the top of the bracket is South Carolina, the co-champions of the Eastern Division.
The AP Top 25
Record Pts Pvs
1. North Carolina (35) 27-3 1,7342
2. Pittsburgh (33) 28-3 1,731 3
3. Connecticut 27-3 1,592 1
4. Memphis (2) 28-3 1,544 5
5. Louisville (1) 25-5 1,513 6
6. Oklahoma 27-4 1,399 4
7. Michigan St. 25-5 1,349 8
8. Wake Forest 24-5 1,246 10
9. Duke 25-6 1,237 7
10. Villanova 25-6 1,108 11
11. Kansas 25-6 1,038 9
12. Gonzaga 25-5 978 14
13. Washington 24-7 910 16
14. Missouri 25-6 779 15
15. UCLA 24-7 752 20
16. Butler 26-4 536 22
17. Clemson 23-7 528 18
18. Syracuse 23-8 518 25
19. Xavier 24-6 465 17
20. LSU 25-6 461 12
21. Marquette 23-8 453 13
22. Florida St. 23-8 333 24
23. Arizona St. 22-8 199 21
24. Purdue 22-9 169 19
25. BYU 24-6 158 NR
Others receiving votes: Illinois 131, Texas A&M 63, Saint Mary’s, Calif. 56, Utah 21, West Virginia 17, Auburn 9, Dayton 7, Utah St. 6, Va. Commonwealth 6, Weber St. 5, Creighton 4, N. Iowa 3, Oklahoma St. 3, Siena 3, California 2, New Mexico 2, Penn St. 2, Texas 2, American U. 1, Ohio St. 1, Tennessee 1.ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top 25
March 9, 2009
Rank, Team (First-Place Votes), Record, Points
1. North Carolina (23) 27-3 767
2. Pittsburgh (5) 28-3 740
3. Memphis (3) 28-3 702
4. Connecticut 27-3 679
5. Louisville 25-5 659
6. Michigan State 25-5 608
7. Oklahoma 27-4 592
8. Duke 25-6 545
9. Wake Forest 24-5 532
10. Washington 24-7 466
11. Kansas 25-6 444
12. Gonzaga 25-5 426
13. Villanova 25-6 410
14. UCLA 24-7 369
15. Missouri 25-6 327
16. LSU 25-6 274
17. Butler 26-4 251
18. Clemson 23-7 223
19. Xavier 24-6 196
20. Syracuse 23-8 182
21. Marquette 23-8 157
22. Florida State 23-8 135
23. Arizona State 22-8 133
24. Purdue 22-9 68
25. Illinois 23-8 57
Dropped out: None.
Others receiving votes: Saint Mary’s (25-5) 43; Brigham Young (24-6) 30; Utah State (27-4) 23; Dayton (25-6) 11; California (22-9) 9; Utah (21-9) 7; Boston College (21-10) 3; Texas (20-10) 3; Texas A&M (23-8) 2; Siena (25-7) 1; Weber State (21-8) 1.