Dear Tiger Fan,
The month of March is one of the most exciting months of the year for college sports fans. The thrill of March Madness is universally enjoyed by even the most passive fan of basketball.
LSU basketball is roaring into March as both the men’s and women’s teams are riding high into the post-season. The men’s team has captured LSU’s 10th SEC basketball championship and the women’s team is enjoying a late-season surge that included a win over Tennessee last week.
I encourage you to follow your teams into post-season play. It starts this week with the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament in North Little Rock, Ark. Tickets in the LSU section are still available at www.LSUtix.net for $90 for the entire tournament.
Also, LSU will host the NCAA Women’s Basketball First and Second Rounds at the Maravich Center on March 22 and March 24. Tickets are regularly $25 for the tournament, but for this week you can buy them for only $15 at www.LSUsports.net.
Come out this Wednesday night to the Maravich Center to salute the men’s SEC champions when the Tigers play host to Vanderbilt in their home finale. Only a handful of players have started on two SEC championship teams in the 100 years of Tiger Basketball, and Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple are among them.
Next week the men’s team starts play in the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Tampa, Fla. Tickets in the LSU section are still available at www.LSUsports.net for $300 for the entire tournament.
LSU fans are known for following their teams in big numbers in football and baseball. I hope we can develop the same passionate following for our basketball teams during March Madness. Come out and support these student-athletes who work hard every day to represent their school.
Speaking of great fans, my thanks to everyone who came out for the opening of LSU’s new softball and baseball stadiums. Without the sellout crowds on hand, we would not have had the magnificent and historic opening nights in those parks that we will always remember.
We are hoping for another record-setting crowd this Saturday night when our soaring LSU gymnastics team competes for the final time at home in the Etta James Memorial Meet against NC State beginning at 6 p.m. in the Maravich Center. The meet is designated to raise awareness of breast cancer and is named for the mother of former Tiger football great Bradie James. Last year’s meet drew a record crowd of over 7,000 and we are hoping to set a new mark.
There is a lot going on at LSU right now and I hope you will follow all the action. Besides the great success we are enjoying in basketball, the LSU baseball team is ranked No. 1 in the country, the gymnastics team is putting up big numbers to rank in the Top 10 — including its first victory at Alabama in 30 years — and the softball team is ranked in the Top 20.
The men’s golf team recorded one of its biggest wins in school history last week, taking first against a stellar field at Sawgrass Country Club. The women’s team is off to a good start behind sophomore sensation Megan McChrystal, the National Golfer of the Week last week. Also, the men’s and women’s tennis teams are both nationally ranked in the early stages of their seasons.
College Station, Texas, will be the home to national championship competition in both track and swimming later this month. LSU’s remarkable men’s and women’s track program will be competing there March 13-14 before our men’s and women’s swim teams, which have been setting records every week, enter national competition later in the month. The divers will participate in national competition at Knoxville, Tenn., next week.
There is no shortage of excitement in LSU athletics. Whether you attend the events or follow the Tigers on television, radio or the internet, I hope you will support our student-athletes this spring.
We welcome your comments at athletics@lsu.edu. Unfortunately we cannot answer every e-mail we receive, but please be assured they will all be read.
Geaux Tigers!
Joe Alleva
Director of Athletics