21 home games on LSU hoops slate

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 3, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Getting to know the 2008-09 LSU men’s basketball team and first-year coach Trent Johnson won’t be a problem for Tigers fans next season.

They’ll certainly have plenty of opportunities to check the Tigers out up close and personal.

LSU’s schedule for Johnson’s initial campaign features a school-record 21 home games, including 12 in the first 13 games before Southeastern Conference season gets under way.

The Tigers’ non-conference schedule is anchored by seven games against in-state foes — all four of the state’s Southland Conference teams, Centenary, Grambling State and Louisiana-Lafayette — two other Southwestern Athletic Conference foes (Jackson State, Alcorn State) and another from the Sun Belt Conference (Troy).

The highlights of the non-league schedule are home games against Washington State (Dec. 27) and Xavier of Ohio (Jan. 24), and trips to Houston to face Texas A&M (Dec. 20) and at Utah (Jan. 6). Cal State Fullerton will also visit the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Dec. 2.

Every team in that group played in the postseason last year — two losing to eventual Final Four teams.

• Xavier advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to UCLA and finished 30-7. The Musketeers won the Atlantic 10 Conference championship last season and knocked off Georgia, Purdue and West Virginia in the tournament before losing to the Bruins.
• Washington State routed Notre Dame in a first-round game and then tumbled to North Carolina to finish last season 26-9. Cougars coach Tony Bennett was regarded as a leading candidate for the LSU job but declined an interview.
• Texas A&M eased past BYU in the first round and nearly ended UCLA’s run in the second round, losing 51-49 on a last-second shot.The Tigers and Aggies will meet for the fourth straight season, the first time in Houston since they played at Reliant Stadium in 2002. On its way to a 25-11 mark last year, A&M crushed LSU 79-53 in College Station.
• Cal State Fullerton won the Big West Conference tournament to earn an NCAA bid for the first time since 1978. The Titans pushed Wisconsin before falling 71-56 in the opening round to finish 24-9, Fullerton’s best record as a Division I program.
• Utah played in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational, winning at Texas-El Paso 81-69 before falling at eventual tournament champion Tulsa 69-60 to wind up 18-15.

Before LSU gets into the meat of the non-conference schedule, the Tigers will host a two-weekend, round-robin tournament on Nov. 20-23 and 28-30.

LSU will entertain Troy, Centenary, Northwestern State and Alcorn State for an event that features two games each on Nov. 20, 21, 28 and 29 and single games involving the Tigers on Nov. 23 and 30.

In conference play, LSU will play the five West Division teams home-and-away, entertain East Division foes Florida, South Carolina and Vanderbilt at the PMAC and go on the road for games at defending champion Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky.

The Tigers begin league play at Alabama on Sunday, Jan. 10. LSU and the Crimson Tide will also meet in a Sunday game in Baton Rouge on Feb. 8.

LSU will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the program’s first game throughout the season and with a home game against Arkansas on Jan. 31.