BATON ROUGE – The nationally-ranked LSU men’s basketball team has its final tune-up for the 2015-16 regular season Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers, ranked 19th in the USA Today Coaches Poll and 21st in the Associated Press poll, will take on Southwest Baptist University of Bolivar, Missouri, at 7 p.m. CT.
Admission for the contest is free of charge and is the only game that will be played before regular season ticket prices kick in on Nov. 13.
The first 5,000 fans will receive a free Geaux 25/7 poster with basketball player Ben Simmons and football’s Leonard Fournette.
Friday’s game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network with Kevin Ford moving into the play-by-play chair for Jim Hawthorne, joined by former Tiger Ricky Blanton (Eagle 98.1 is the flagship in Baton Rouge). The game will also be available via streaming video on computer and devices through the SEC Network + package and also available on WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app with Lyn Rollins and former Tiger player Jordy Hultberg.
LSU opens the regular season on Friday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. against McNeese State in a game to be televised on ESPNU. LSU will open up with three home games in the first seven days of the schedule.
The Tigers hope to be that much further along after playing this exhibition game to go with a scrimmage matchup last week and the extra 10 practices and five games in Australia in August. Coach Johnny jones said in his Wednesday media session that they game will give LSU the opportunity to look at several player combinations, especially without senior guard Keith Hornsby.
“This exhibition Friday will serve a good purpose for us as we continue to strive and get ready for our season opener next Friday (Nov. 13) against McNeese,” said Coach Jones, entering his fourth year as the head coach of the Tigers. “The exhibition game will be a little different. We will have a lot of different looks at other guys and giving guys the opportunity to play.”
The Tigers will be without Hornsby for an indefinite time after surgery to deal with a nagging injury on Tuesday.
The game will mark the first action against an opponent on the Maravich Center floor for the highly-touted No. 3 ranked recruiting class in the country – Ben Simmons, Antonio Blakeney and Brandon Sampson. All three had good showings during the five games in Australia with Simmons, returning to his native country, averaging 20.0 points and 9.0 rebounds. Simmons shot 52.2 percent from the floor and had a team-high 27 assists, 11 blocks and 18 steals.
Blakeney hit nine treys and average 13.8 points per game and 6.2 boards a game on the trip, while Sampson hit eight treys and averaged 11.8 points and 3.4 rebounds.
Junior Tim Quarterman, who was picked second team on the media pre-season All-SEC team, averaged 16.4 points during the trip and had 23 assists in the five games.
Simmons, who was the preseason SEC pick for Player of the Year, has an interesting side story to the game Friday as his brother, Liam, is an assistant coach for Southwest Baptist, which opened its exhibition game schedule Thursday night in Ruston at Louisiana Tech.
Liam Simmons is in his second year on the bench for SBC head coach Clark Sheehy who was 11-18 in his first year. Prior to coming to Southwest Baptist, Simmons served as assistant coach at Nicholls State University during the 2013 season, helping lead NSU to their first winning conference record since 2009.
The game will give the fans the chance to see some of the new rules in play for men’s college basketball including the reduction of the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 seconds. It is the first change in the shot clock since the 1993-94 season when it dropped from 45 to 35 seconds.
There will be fewer timeouts and media timeouts can begin on a called team timeout throughout the course of the game if it is called within 30 seconds of a media timeout window. The coach can no longer call timeout when the ball is live (players still can) and with a few exceptions, the 10-second count is now a total count in the backcourt.
Finally, the restricted-area arc under the goal is now moved from three feet to four feet and officials can use the monitor to review potential shot clock violations. Also, the five-second closely guarded rule is eliminated while a player is dribbling the basketball.
With the season opener approaching, men’s basketball season tickets remain on sale starting for $100 for the 18-home games. Also available are single-game non-conference tickets (with the exception of the Oklahoma game) Pick 3 and Pick 5 mini-plans and group tickets. Tickets can be purchase din person at the LSU Athletics Department or at LSUtix.net online.
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