PITTSBURGH — The wait is over for the LSU men’s basketball team and Thursday will mean the LSU men’s basketball team will play its second round NCAA Basketball Tournament game against NC State at approximately 8:20 p.m. CDT here at the downtown Consol Energy Center.
LSU, the ninth seed in the East Region, will play the eight-seeded Wolfpack in the fourth and final game of the afternoon and the second of the evening session, 30 minutes following the Villanova-Lafayette contest which begins at 5:50 p.m. CDT. The winner of the LSU-NC State game will meet the winner of the 1-16 game between Villanova and Lafayette in the third round at a time to be determined on Saturday.
The LSU game will be televised by TBS, one of the four CBS/Turner networks televising the entire tournament, with Brian Anderson and Steve Smith on the call. The broadcast will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network with Jim Hawthorne and Ricky Blanton on site and Kevin Ford, the studio host.
Affiliates covering the game on the network include – Baton Rouge: WDGL, 98.1 FM; Alexandria; KSYL, 970 AM; Bogalusa: WBOX, 92.9 FM; Ferriday: KFNV, 107.1 FM; Houma: KJIN, 1490 AM; Jena: KJNA, 102.7 FM; Lafayette/Opelousas: KLWB, 103.7 FM; Lake Charles: KXZZ, 1580 AM; Leesville: KJAE, 93.5 FM; Monroe: KMLB, 540 AM; Morgan City: KFRA, 1390 AM; Natchitoches: KWLV, 107.1 FM; New Orleans: WWL, 870 AM, 105.3 FM; Ruston: KRUS, 1490 AM; Shreveport: KWKH, 1130 AM; Tallulah: KTJZ, 97.5 FM; Tylertown, Miss.: WFCG, 107.3 FM; Ville Platte: 1050 AM, KVPI.
The Tigers are 22-10 entering the event after finishing in a four-way tie for third at 11-7. NC State is 20-13 overall and making its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolfpack was 10-8 in the ACC. This will be the first ever meeting between the Tigers and Wolfpack in a meeting of coaching friends as Johnny Jones of LSU served one year on the staff of Mark Gottfried during Gottfried’s time at the University of Alabama. Jones was between head coaching jobs when he served as interim head coach at Memphis and one year after the Alabama season when he became the head coach at North Texas.
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While LSU will be making its first tournament appearance since 2009, this will be Jones’ third time in the event as a head coach, having taken UNT to the first round as a 15 seed in both 2007 and 2010. He will be trying to win a tournament game at LSU as a player, assistant coach and head coach and if it happens, he would be only one of two in this year’s tournament to hold that distinction (Chris Mack, Xavier).
After arriving at the Pittsburgh airport at approximately 11:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, the Tigers spent Wednesday in study hall and resting at the team hotel in the downtown area. The team went to Duquesne’s arena in late afternoon for scouting report walkthrough before coming to the Consol Energy Center – home of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins – for the pregame media conference and open practice early Wednesday evening.
Keith Hornsby is the only Tiger to have played in the NCAA when he was at UNC-Asheville and his team then was a 16 seed in an opening game. Hornsby is playing consistently well for LSU, having scored in double figures for the last 15 games, equaling a streak set by Tasmin Mitchell of 15 games during the 2009-10 season.
Hornsby is averaging 13.6 points per game and 4.2 rebounds with a team best 70 treys and he is expected to start at guard with Jalyn Patterson (who is coming off of back-to-back double figure games; averaging 6.7 ppg) and Tim Quarterman (11.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 3.9 apg), while LSU’s two All-SEC forwards will have the other two spots – Jarell Martin (16.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 51.0 FG%) and Jordan Mickey (15.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, nation’s best 3.57 bpg, 51.1 FG%).
The possible North Carolina starters are former Alabama player Trevor Lacey (15.8 ppg, 3.5 apg, 40.7 3FG%), former LSU two-year player Ralston Turner (13.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 82.9% FT) and Cat Barber (12.1 ppg, 3.8 apg) at guards with Abdul-Malik Abu (6.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Lennard Freeman (3.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg) at forwards.
While this is the first game between LSU and NC State, Mark Gottfried played and coached at Alabama with a record of 12-9 versus LSU as a head coach. Ironically, neither team excelled in the neutral court with the Wolfpack going 1-2 and LSU 1-3 on neutral courts. NC State lost to West Virginia in Madison Square Garden (83-69) and split games in the ACC Tournament (defeating Pittsburgh, 81-70 and losing to Duke, 77-53).
LSU went 1-2 in November in the US Virgin Islands and then fell to Auburn in the SEC Tournament in their neutral court games.
The Tigers are 24-23 in their 20 previous appearances in the NCAA Tournament with four Final Four national semifinals appearances (1953, 1981, 1986, 2006), 6 Elite 8 appearances and 9 times to appear in the Sweet 16.
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