BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers came in at No. 24 in the preseason coaches’ poll posted Thursday morning in USA Today.
The Tigers received 86 votes in the poll of 32 Division I coaches, all members of the supporting National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Michigan State is No. 1 with Kentucky (2), Florida (6), Auburn (23), LSU (24) and Tennessee (25) representing the Southeastern Conference.
The Tigers open the 2019-20 regular season on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. against Bowling Green in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Season ticket information and seat availability can be found at LSUTix.net.
LSU was ranked in the final nine coaches’ polls a year ago, including No. 15 in the final poll of 2019, taken following the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers were 28-7 overall and 16-2, winning the SEC regular season championships. LSU defeated Yale and Maryland in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16.
LSU has now been ranked in 10 straight coaches’ polls and that is the sixth longest in the history of the poll, which began as the UPI poll and is now a feature of USA Today. This marks the 196th poll as voted on by coaches that LSU has been in the Top 25.
USA Today College Basketball Coaches’ Poll
Rank Team (1st place votes)/Pts
1 Michigan St (30)/792/
2 Kentucky/734
3 Kansas (1)/687
4 Duke (1)/683
5 Louisville/670
6 Florida/610
7 Gonzaga/544
8 Maryland/536
9 Virginia/532
10 Villanova/531
11 North Carolina/503
12 Texas Tech/417
13 Seton Hall/403
14 Oregon/344
15 Memphis/331
16 Ohio St./280
17 Arizona/229
18 Baylor/228
19 Utah St. /218
20 St. Mary’s/163
21 Xavier/149
22 Purdue/123
23 Auburn/105
24 LSU/86
25 Tennessee/78
Receiving Votes: Marquette 62; Washington 59; Florida State 47; Michigan 28; Colorado 28; Houston 17; Creighton 13; Davidson 11; Southern California 9; Providence 8; Mississippi State 7; Wisconsin 6; UCLA 6; Texas 6; Syracuse 6; Georgetown 6; Liberty 5; Dayton 5; Harvard 4; Oklahoma 3; Illinois 2; NC State 1.