BATON ROUGE – The LSU Fighting Tiger men’s basketball team is ranked No. 19 on the preseason USA Today Sports men’s basketball coaches poll announced on Thursday.
The poll is conducted weekly through the regular season using a panel of head coach at Division I schools. The panel is chosen in consultation with the National Association of Basketball Coaches with representation from each of the 32 Division I conferences that receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers open their 2015-16 schedule at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Friday, Nov. 6 with a free exhibition game against Southwest Baptist at 7 p.m. The season opener is set for Friday, Nov. 13 against McNeese State in an 8 p.m. game that will be televised by ESPNU.
LSU and fourth-year Coach Johnny Jones is coming off a 22-win season that saw the Tigers advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In his first three years as the LSU Head Coach, Jones has won 61 games, the most by any LSU head coach in their first three years in position in Baton Rouge) and he is the first LSU Head Coach to take a Tiger team to post-season play in two of his first three years on the job (NIT-2014, NCAA -2015).
The Tigers were last in the coaches poll at the end of the 2008-09 season when the Tigers were ranked 20th at the end of the regular season.
LSU brings in a No. 3-consensus ranked recruiting class with three Top 40 recruits including No. 1 Ben Simmons, No. 13 Antonio Blakeney and No. 39 Brandon Sampson. Returning for the Tigers are two players that scored in double figures last year: junior Tim Quarterman and senior Keith Hornsby. Also joining the team after the first semester will be New Orleans native, Craig Victor II.
Other SEC teams ranked are Kentucky (tied for first) and Vanderbilt at No. 20. Texas A&M is receiving votes.
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USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll
Oct. 15, 2015
Rank, Team (First-place Votes), 2014-15 Record, Points
t1, Kentucky (11) 38-1, 749
t1, North Carolina (12) 26-12, 749
3, Maryland (5) 28-7, 723
4, Duke (3) 35-4, 686
5, Kansas (1) 27-9, 675
6, Virginia, 30-4, 667
7, Iowa St., 25-9, 541
8, Oklahoma, 24-11, 520
9, Villanova, 33-3, 498
10, Arizona, 34-4, 477
11, Gonzaga, 35-3, 468
12, Wichita St., 30-5, 461
13, Michigan St, 27-12, 386
14, California, 18-15, 350
15, Indiana, 20-14, 312
16, Utah, 26-9, 250
17, Wisconsin, 36-4, 181
18, Notre Dame, 32-6, 172
19, LSU, 22-11, 163
20, Vanderbilt, 21-14, 153
21, Baylor, 24-10, 145
22, Butler, 23-11, 132
23, West Virginia, 25-10, 125
t24, Purdue, 21-13, 110
t24, Connecticut, 20-15, 110
Others Receiving Votes
Michigan 108; Louisville 93; Texas A&M 58; UCLA 48; Georgetown 45; Cincinnati 43; North Carolina State 36; Oregon 33; Texas 29; Xavier 25; Florida State 25; Miami (Fla.) 11; San Diego State 10; Iowa 8; Davidson 5; Boise State 5; Providence 5; Stephen F. Austin 2; Belmont 2; Ohio State 2; Tulsa 1; Dayton 1; Old Dominion 1; Marquette 1.
List of Voters
The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 32 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The board for the 2015-16 season: Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s; Jim Boeheim, Syracuse; Todd Bozeman, Morgan State; Glenn Braica, St. Francis Brooklyn; Scott Cherry, High Point; Tim Cluess, Iona; Ed Conroy, Tulane; Keith Dambrot, Akron; Cameron Dollar, Seattle; Scott Drew, Baylor; Matt Driscoll, North Florida; Steve Fisher, San Diego State; Bruiser Flint, Drexel; Mark Fox, Georgia; John Gallagher, Hartford; Matthew Graves, South Alabama; Ray Harper, Western Kentucky; George Ivory, Arkansas-Pine Bluff; Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa; Rob Jeter, Wisconsin-Milwaukee; James Jones, Yale; Mike McConathy, Northwestern State; Greg McDermott, Creighton; Chris Mooney, Richmond; Matt Painter, Purdue; Randy Rahe, Weber State; Heath Schroyer, Tennessee-Martin; Joe Scott, Denver; Zach Spiker, Army; Wayne Tinkle, Oregon State; Bob Williams, UC-Santa Barbara; Mike Young, Wofford.