BATON ROUGE – LSU women’s basketball head coach Nikki Caldwell and the Lady Tiger team conducted a free youth basketball clinic on Wednesday prior to a 30-minute autograph and photo session with the kids.
Since returning from Lithuania with a gold medal from the champion USA Basketball U19 team, Caldwell has been busy in the Baton Rouge community making numerous public speaking events, including stops at the Kiwanis Club and the LSU Stripes program featuring incoming LSU freshmen.
The kids were divided into age groups and went through a series of drills with all of the Lady Tiger players from ball handling and dribbling to shooting drills. Senior forward Theresa Plaisance, a 2014 National Player of the Year candidate, worked with the kids on the proper jump shot technique. Plaisance is coming off a junior season where she led the Southeastern Conference in scoring and became LSU’s first conference scoring champion since Seimone Augustus in 2006.
“Our team had a great time teaching kids the fundamentals of the game,” said Plaisance. “They were so energetic and enthusiastic about learning. We had a great time signing autographs too. We hope to see their familiar faces in the crowd this season.”
Plaisance, Caldwell and the Lady Tigers then spent Wednesday afternoon and Thursday gearing up for an upcoming Spain trip where LSU will play four exhibition games. NCAA regulations allow schools to participate in a foreign trip once every four years. The squad departs for Barcelona from New Orleans on Sunday morning and will embark on an 11-day journey with stops in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Madrid.
LSU will wrap up a pre-tour schedule of eight practices on Saturday. For more information on the Lady Tigers, follow the team on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/LSUwbkb), Twitter (www.Twitter.com/LSUwbkb) and Instagram (@LSUwbkb).