BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team will finally get the chance to return to play Saturday at 1 p.m. against Nicholls in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Nicholls was named the opponent late Christmas Eve and the game time changed to 1 p.m. after Texas Southern was forced to withdraw from the game because of NCAA Covid-19 protocols. LSU (4-1) last played on Dec. 14 against Sam Houston State.
Nicholls is 2-3 and hasn’t played a contest since Dec. 1 because of cancelations.
The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (BR flagship Guaranty Media Eagle 98.1 FM) and telecast on the SEC Network.
The 88-66 win over Sam Houston State was a last-minute replacement game for LSU after the team’s trip to Atlanta to play South Florida was canceled.
The game will serve as a final tune-up for LSU before opening the 2020-21 Southeastern Conference portion of the season on Tuesday (Dec. 29) at 6 p.m. against Texas A&M in the Maravich Center.
Four LSU players enter the game averaging in double figures with freshman Cam Thomas as 21.6 points a game and sophomore Trendon Watford, who is expected to be back Saturday after a minor practice ankle injury kept him out of the Sam Houston game with 18.8 points a contest.
Juniors Darius Days is at 15.8 points and Javonte Smart at 14.4 a contest. Days leads the team in rebounds at 8.4 a game.
In five games, the Tigers are averaging 89 points a game while giving up 66.
Nicholls is led by Ty Gordon at 14.0 points a game, shooting over 40 percent from the three-point arc, with Najee Garvin averaging 11.8 points and a team best 7.4 rebounds a game. The Colonels are averaging 65.4 points a game.
The teams last played in November of 2019 in the Maravich Center with LSU getting a 10-point, 85-75 victory over the Colonels.