BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team held an open practice on Wednesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, providing LSU students with free pizza and a chance to watch the final 60-plus minutes of the session.
The team began with drills and a 10-minute scrimmage before allowing the fans to participate. The team was happy to see the fans come out and support them.
“We love our fans to death,” said senior Andre Stringer. “They can create a hostile environment, and that’s so important. Playing tough teams like we do, creating a hostile environment, a loud environment, teams don’t want to play in our gym if we create that.”
The fans were encouraged to participate in a dribbling contest, a group shooting contest, and an individual three-point shooting contest. The players participated with the fans in some of the drills.
“I like the activities that we incorporated with the fans,” Stringer said. “Giving the fans an opportunity to get some shots up with us, giving them our personality, letting them get close to us and showing them that we really care, that’s the thing that’s big with me.”
“I liked the relay and the other fan activities,” said freshman Nick Kragthorpe. “I thought it was cool how we got to meet some of the players. It was a good experience.”
Tickets for the 2013-14 season are on sale at LSUtix.net beginning at $100 and mini-plans of various lengths and varieties are also available at the ticket web site. The Tigers will play a free to the public exhibition game on Nov. 6 against Xavier of New Orleans in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU opens the 2013-14 regular season on the road at UMass on Nov. 12 as part of the ESPN Tipoff Marathon. The Tigers regular season home opener is Saturday, Nov. 16 against Northwestern State.
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