BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s and women’s basketball teams continued a pre-season tradition with its annual appearance at “Mall Ball” at the Mall of Louisiana, giving the teams, the Tigers Girls, LSU cheerleaders and Mike the Tiger to entertain fans both young and old.
Coaches Nikki Caldwell and Johnny Jones spoke to the crowd and gave the microphone to the players to introduce themselves before group of players shot hoops with youngsters of all ages and heights, with tall Tigers like Darcy Malone and Elbert Robinson III helping lift some small Tiger fans up to the rim for their chance to dunk as the players and crowd applauded.
Other players were at tables signing autograph cards and taking pictures with fans as “Mall Ball” again allowed fans the opportunity to mingle with their fans up close and personal.
“It is exciting to get out on a Sunday afternoon and have an opportunity to interact with our fans at another annual Mall Ball,” said Coach Jones, who is entering his third season as the head coach of the Tigers and his 20th season overall at LSU as either player, assistant coach or head coach. “We are glad to be here with our women’s basketball team and happy that the crowd really showed up (Sunday) and was excited about meeting our players and like us, they are looking forward to the new season.”
The Tigers open their 2014-15 regular season at noon on Nov. 15 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against Gardner-Webb in the first of 17 home games.
“It’s really exciting to kick off our season coming here for the Mall Ball,” said Caldwell, who took her Lady Tigers to a second straight Sweet 16 in 2014. “Coach Jones and his team are going to have a great year and it’s great to be here with them and we are going to be rooting them on. It’s exciting for us to come back and meet the fans and for them to have an opportunity to shoot some hoops with our players. More importantly, it gives the fans the chance to have some one-on-one time with both teams and get an autograph or two. We are very excited about the future of men’s and women’s basketball here at LSU.”
The Lady Tigers will open their regular season with back-to-back home games on Nov. 14 and 15.
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