INDIANAPOLIS — LSU’s top-seeded Lady Tigers basketball team began its run toward a national championship by arriving at the Final Four’s host city on Thursday afternoon.
The team touched down in Indianapolis around 4 p.m. EST via charter plane and headed to the team hotel, the Omni Severin. The LSU players, coaches and staff were met by a welcoming committee that comprised of hotel and NCAA staff and local girls’ basketball teams.
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| NBA All-Star and Miami Heat Shaquille O’Neal (back, center) poses with the Lady Tigers upon their arrival in Indianapolis for the Final Four. |
Also among the welcoming party was former LSU star and current Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal, in town for Thursday night’s Heat vs. Pacers NBA game.
Later in the evening the team attended the NBA game at Conseco Fieldhouse, thanks to both the Indiana Pacers and O’Neal, a college friend of Lady Tigers’ first-year head coach Pokey Chatman.
On Friday the team will begin its official Final Four activities, including interviews and a photo shoot with ESPN. LSU will conduct a practice at a local university before attending the Salute Dinner.
The Salute Dinner, a formal event, is an annual function at the Final Four to honor the four teams remaining in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.