BATON ROUGE – For the first time since the 2015-16 season, the LSU men’s basketball team opens the 2018-19 basketball season nationally-ranked as the Tigers host Southeastern Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers are ranked No. 23 and will host the defending champions of the Southland Conference no earlier than 7:30 p.m. or approximately 30 minutes following the season opener for the LSU Lady Tigers, who will host Sam Houston State at 5:30 p.m.
After the men’s game is finished, fans are encouraged to stay for a postgame tribute to the late Tiger Wayde Sims, who died in late September. The basketball player will be honored with a video tribute of his life and a brief on-court ceremony involving the team and Wayde’s parents, former LSU basketball player Wayne and Fay Sims.
Tickets for the doubleheader are on sale for $5 at LSUtix.net and will be available at the LSU Ticket Windows on the upper level of the Maravich Center beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Tickets will allow fans a general admission seat for the women’s game and their reserved seat for the men’s game.
The LSU-Southeastern contest will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network with Chris Blair and former LSU Coach John Brady on the call (Eagle 98.1 FM is the network flagship in Baton Rouge). The game will be video streamed on the SEC Network+ and the ESPN app with Lyn Rollins and Victor Howell on the call.
LSU enters the second year of the Will Wade coaching era off an 18-win season a year ago in which the Tigers advanced to the second round of the NIT. The Tigers are young but talented after the LSU staff brought in the No. 4 ranked recruiting class in the 247 composite ratings.
Naz Reid, a 6-10 freshman from Asbury Park, New Jersey, was named to the Abdul-Jabbar Watch List for big men, while returning sophomore point guard Tremont Waters was named to the Bob Cousy watch list.
Waters is a preseason first team All-SEC selection and has been named to the Naismith and NABC POY watch list as well after averaging 15.9 points and 6 assists a year ago as a freshman. He passed out 198 assists, the second most in any season by a Tiger and 40 more than the previous mark for freshman at LSU (158, Ben Simmons, 2016).
Coach Wade’s two-point guard system he likes to run might be stretched to three at times as Skylar Mays returns for his junior season. Mays averaged 11.3 points and 2.9 assists last year. Freshman Ja’vonte Smart from Scotlandville could be used as a possible third point guard on the floor if Coach Wade elects to go that way.
Southeastern won 22 games last year, 15 in league play for Coach Jay Ladner who enters his fifth year as head coach in Hammond. This will be the 13th time the teams have met with LSU holding an 11-1 advantage. The last meeting was in November 2013. Southeastern has played a public exhibition game and defeated Delta State, 68-63. Moses Greenwood led Southeastern with 21 points and 14 rebounds.
This is the first of four straight games at home to open the 2018-19 season. The Tigers will play UNC Greensboro on Friday at 7 p.m., Memphis on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. and Louisiana Tech on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.
Follow updates throughout the game on Twitter @LSUBasketball and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball.