BATON ROUGE – The calendar shows less than one month until the opening game of the 2016-17 LSU men’s basketball schedule (Nov. 12, Wofford) and three newcomers are “All-In” as part of the Tigers efforts to make a difference.
Junior college transfer Duop Reath and freshman Kieran Hayward and Wayde Sims are working hard to help the LSU team be prepared for the opening of a new season. For the three, it will be their first playing for Coach Johnny Jones and the Tigers so they are quickly adapting to major college basketball.
The Tigers will host 16 home games at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in the upcoming season and season ticket deposits are now being accepted at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office.
Reath, a junior college transfer out of Lee College in Texas, came to America from Perth, Australia the label “rim protector” has been used about Reath. But he can also score, averaging 14.6 points a game last year and 8.4 rebounds. He shot over 56 percent from the field in junior college action.
Reath was born in South Sudan and his family moved to Australia at the age of 9 looking for a better situation due to the civil war in Sudan. He started out playing soccer and Australian Rules Football before starting to play basketball in high school as he began to grow in height.
Another Australian, Hayward comes to LSU as a freshman but he has already shown in practice his ability to shoot the long-range jumper and an intelligence regarding the game.
Hayward averaged 18 points and eight rebounds at St. Joseph’s College in Australia where he was a two-year captain and MVP of the basketball team. He came to the knowledge of American schools after an Aussie Tour of America for AAU play in the summer of 2015.
Sims has a very familiar name to students of LSU basketball since his father, Wayne, played for the Tigers in the late 1980s. Wayde Sims was the 2015 Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year and a First-Team All-State selection at University High in Baton Rouge. He was part of three straight title teams under head coach Joe Spencer in 2014, ’15 and ’16. He averaged 21.2 points per game and 9.6 rebounds as a senior.
Sims, who won the 2014 and ’15 title with then teammate Skylar Mays, was outstanding player at the LHSAA Top 28 twice.
Fans can see these three and the rest of the Tigers by taking advantage of new season ticket deposits and other offers that will be announced in the days and weeks ahead for the 2016-17 men’s basketball campaign. Information is available online at www.LSUtix.net and at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office.
Deposits are $25 a ticket to reserve your season tickets for the upcoming season. Season tickets start at $100 for men’s basketball.
Follow updates on LSU men’s basketball at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball.