BATON ROUGE — LSU has been awarded a first and second round site for the 2004 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee announced on Monday.
LSU is one of 16 sites to be awarded first and second round contests, marking the first time the Pete Maravich Assembly Center will serve as a host site for first and second round games since 2000. LSU is also the only Southeastern Conference school to host first and second round games next year.
“I’m excited because you just never really know when it comes to things like this,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “It wasn’t unexpected. We should have been awarded one last year. This is one of those things that is a result of how well we played last year and the fan support we had a year ago.”
Last year, the Lady Tigers posted a 30-4 overall mark and reached the round of eight at the NCAA Tournament. LSU also won the SEC Tournament title with a win over Tennessee.
LSU ranked 20th in the nation in attendance last year by averaging a school-record 4,457 fans for its 15 home games, which included a sellout crowd of 15,217 against Tennessee in February. LSU also had a crowd of 11,252 for its nationally-televised home game against Penn State in January.
Other schools awarded first and second round sites for the 2004 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament include: New Mexico, Iowa State, Texas, Virginia Tech, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Ohio State, Duke, Fairfield, Minnesota, Montana, Temple, Cal-Santa Barbara, Notre Dame, Florida State and Arizona State.
Dates for next year’s first and second round NCAA Tournament games will be held on either March 20 and 22 or March 21 and 23.