BATON ROUGE – With less than two weeks before the opening game of the 2017-18 season, the LSU Tigers will get an opportunity to see how they stack up against an opposing team when they meet the Tulane Green Wave at the Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse in New Orleans Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
The game is part of a national series of exhibition games for charity taking place in the last couple of weeks which the NCAA has granted waivers allowing Division I teams to play games in a public setting. Admission for Tuesday night’s game is $5 and all proceeds will go to the American Red Cross hurricane relief fund.
There will no television or radio broadcasts of the game by either team. Tickets can be found at Tulanetix.com and will be available at the arena on game night.
Coach Will Wade is entering his first year as the head coach of the Tigers and he and his staff and the team has some video to look at going into the exhibition game after a closed scrimmage against South Alabama on Saturday.
He has used the term “work in progress” when talking about his team but he still remains concerned about what his team needs to do to improve on defense. But he also knows what he has seen from his team and what he wants fans to see when the Tigers open up on Nov. 10 against Alcorn State.
“I think you will see a blue-collar, tough, hard working group that wants to win,” said Coach Wade at recent media day activities of what fans hopefully will see from the Tigers. “Does that mean we are going to win every night? No. We are going to care, lay it on the line and I think it will be a group that represents our people well, represents our state well, and represents our school well. You are going to see a tough team. A team that is diving all over the floor, flying around the court, a team that is giving great effort. A team that does all the little things well. A team that sprints out of the huddle, sprint on the court.
“You are going to see a bench that is into it. You are going to see a coaching staff that is enthusiastic. That is the sort of stuff that will be recognizable off the jump and then we have to continue to get better with details and playing smarter.”
Statistics are not published from the closed scrimmages but Tiger fans will get their first look at how the returning players will mesh with some of the new recruits off a recruiting class that was ranked No. 16 in the country including four-star Louisiana signees Brandon Rachal of Natchitoches and Galen Alexander of Breaux Bridge.
LSU returns 45 points of its 74.8 points per game average from last season and 20.1 rebounds of a 36.1 rebounds per game total last year. Senior Duop Reath is the returning leading scorer and rebounds at 12.0 points per game and 6.2 rebounds a game. Brandon Sampson averaged 11.6 points per game in his sophomore season.
However, LSU averaged 74.8 points per game a year ago, but opponents scored at one of the highest opponents scoring averages in years at 83.0 points a contest. Opponents last season made more three-pointers than any year of the three-point shot against the Tigers, 277, which was 81 more than LSU made in last year’s play.
The Tigers will open the season on Nov. 10 against Alcorn State at the Maravich Center. Tickets for that game start at $1 and are available at LSUtixnet. There will be a pregame Fan Fest outside the Maravich Center from 5:30-6:30 p.m. with a live band, inflatables, face painters and more. LSU students get free admission with their LSU ID.
The Tigers will face Samford on Nov. 16 before traveling to Maui for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, Nov. 20-22.
Several ticket plans are available online as well as season tickets starting at $100. There are three-game and five-game mini-plans and group tickets available for groups or 10 or more.
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