BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team looks to get the Southeastern Conference season off on a good note Thursday night when the Tigers host the Vanderbilt Commodores at 8 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
It is the annual Gold Game and fans are invited to wear gold to the game. Fans will receive gold rally towels as they enter the Maravich Center.
Tickets will be available at LSUtix.net and from 1-5 p.m. Thursday at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office. Tickets will go on sale at the upper concourse windows of the Maravich Center at 6:30 p.m.
The game will be televised by ESPNU with Kevin Fitzgerald and Chris Spatola on the call while the game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in BR) with the Voice of the Tigers Chris Blair and Henry Hays on the call.
LSU is 8-3 entering the game while Vanderbilt is 6-6 under first-year Coach Bryce Drew. Drew is the son of longtime Coach Homer Drew, who before becoming a head coach served on the first staff at LSU under Coach Dale Brown (1972-76). Bryce was born in Baton Rouge in 1974.
The Commodores score the ball well like the Tigers with both teams averaging over 70 points a game. LSU averages 75.2 points per contest while Vandy comes in at 71.0.
But while LSU is in the top five in the nation in percentage of two-point field goals made, the Commodores as has been their strength for many years relies on good three-point shooting. Vandy has made 113 treys (compared to 63 for LSU) and is shooting 39.1 percent. LSU shoot 33 percent from the arc and right at 50 percent on two-point field goals.
Matthew Fisher Davis leads Vandy with a 15.8 average and 33 treys (42.3 percent from the arc). Luke Kornet averages 12.7 points. Of course, Antonio Blakeney and Duop Reath continue to lead the Tigers in scoring with Blakeney averaging 16.4 points per game and Reath 15.0 points per game.
Both teams are coming off losses with the Tigers getting beat at Wake Forest, 110-76, as the Demons shot 73 percent in the second half and made 16 threes for the game, while Vandy fell 68-63 at Dayton.
The Tigers have won the last five meetings in the series dating back to 2013. The last three meetings in the series have come in Nashville.
Follow updates on LSU Basketball on Facebook www.LSUBasketball.com/LSUBasketball and @LSUBasketball on Twitter.