BATON ROUGE – CBSSports.com columnist Gary Parrish, with the aid of several of the web site and network analyst have put together a preseason All-America team and LSU freshman Ben Simmons is one of the five first-team members.
As Parrish wrote, no member of CBS Sports’ First Team All-Americans returned from last season and the only rule for the team was “that each All-American team had to look something like a real team, meaning we weren’t going to have five guards and no bigs on one team, then four bigs and no ball-handler on another. In other words, we decided, each group of five had to be a group that could theoretically take a court together.”
Simmons, who is expected to rejoin practice any day now after a precautionary sit out by the LSU coaching staff to allow treatment on a sore leg, joins guard Kris Dunn of Providence, guard Buddy Hield of Oklahoma (Sooners and Tigers meet in Baton Rouge on Jan. 30), forward Kyle Wiltjer of Gonzaga (preseason POY choice), and forward Skal Labissiere of Kentucky.
Kentucky and LSU will play home-and-home this year on Jan. 5 in Baton Rouge and in the regular season finale in Lexington (March 5).
Of Simmons, Parish wrote: ”Simmons is a uniquely talented prospect who projects as a top-five pick in the NBA Draft. The 6-foot-10 forward should be a star in what will likely be his only season of college basketball. He averaged 20.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 3.6 steals and 2.2 blocks during LSU’s five-game tour of Australia this preseason.”
Season tickets for the 2015-16 men’s basketball season are now on sale at LSUtix.net. Follow updates on the Tigers at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball.