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Men's Basketball to Depart for Sydney Late TuesdayMen's Basketball to Depart for Sydney Late Tuesday

Men's Basketball to Depart for Sydney Late Tuesday

Men’s Basketball to Depart for Sydney Late Tuesday

BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team went through their final practice Tuesday morning and around 2:30 p.m. left the campus for what would be a journey of some 9,100 miles from New Orleans to Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia.

The lengthy trip starts LSU on a whirlwind exhibition tour of Australia that will find the Tigers headquartering in three cities in the country and playing five games against teams from Australia’s National Basketball League or on two occasions, all-star teams involving various pro players in the area of the game.

LSU, which practiced for about 75 minutes Tuesday morning, will return to Baton Rouge on the night on Aug. 23 just in time for the players to start the fall semester of classes on Aug. 24.

Besides the chance to participate in a once every four-year foreign tour with a team that will have several new parts trying to blend in with players off last year’s NCAA Tournament team, the trip provides a homecoming for two players and a member of the LSU coaching staff.

Freshman Ben Simmons was born in Melbourne and moved to the United States to play at Montverde Academy in Florida, leading them to three-straight high school national championships and multiple player of the year honors in high school basketball last year. His dad, Dave, played for years in the NBL, including many years in Melbourne.

Darcy Malone has been at LSU for two seasons and will be near his home area for the opening game of the tour in Newcastle on Saturday. The 7-0 junior center came to LSU from the ACT Academy of Sports in Canberra.

Assistant Head Coach David Patrick grew up in Australia and after playing his college ball in America played in the NBL with Ben Simmons father, Dave, in Melbourne. He is also Ben Simmons‘ godfather.

The schedule of games for the trip is as follows:

Saturday, August 15, 4 a.m. (BR time) – LSU vs. Newcastle All-Stars at the Newcastle Basketball Stadium in Broadmeadow, New South Wales.

Sunday, August 16, 4 a.m. (BR time) – LSU vs. Sydney Kings at the University Sports & Aquatic Centre in Sydney (This game will be radio broadcast online by the Sydney Kings announcers and available through LSUsports.net.).

Tuesday, August 18, 4 a.m. (BR time) – LSU vs. Queensland All-Stars at the Auchenflower Basketball Stadium in Toowong, Queensland.

Thursday, August 20, 4:30 a.m. (BR time) – LSU vs. Melbourne United at the Dandenong Stadium in Melbourne.

Saturday, August 22, 4 a.m. (BR time) – LSU vs. Melbourne United at Hisense Arena in Melbourne.

The final game has drawn extra significance as the Victorian Government and corporate sponsors have paid the expenses at the arena to allow fans to attend the game for free. The arena, also used as one of the show courts for the Australian Open (tennis) seats about 8,000 fans.

The exhibition trips allow teams the opportunity to work on team chemistry and also for the coaching staff to play various combinations of players against outside competitions. In this case in Australia, it will be older professional players and several players who played college basketball in the United States.

“I think everything we are doing right now is building for the long haul,” said LSU Head Basketball Coach Johnny Jones. “Our practices have certainly been fast paced. They had to learn quick because you are talking about 10 days of practice prior to getting into play, but we’ve really been trying to prepare ourselves for the long haul and what we will be doing this coming November instead of just what’s going on in August. We are hopeful through that preparation and getting ready for a grueling season this is going to help us, and it’s going to be beneficial for us—these five games. It’s with our season in mind, not just exhibition games.”

LSU will be without Josh Gray, who is dealing with a compliance issue that Coach Jones announced on Monday. He will not make the trip. Under NCAA transfer rules, Craig Victor is not eligible to play after transferring from Arizona in January, but has been given a waiver to travel with the team and be at the games.

For updates during the games and throughout the trip follow LSU Basketball on Twitter and Instagram @LSUBasketball and at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball.