LSU unveils b-ball slate

The LSU women’s basketball team will be stiffly tested this spring.

Lady Tigers coach Nikki Caldwell announced the team’s schedule this week – a challenging slate that will pit LSU against some of the most talented teams in the country.

Throughout the season, the Lady Tigers will play at least 11 teams who reached the NCAA Tournament in 2012-13. Headlining the team’s preseason slate is a bid in the Preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament – a tournament that will also feature Louisville, Oklahoma and Gonzaga.

LSU will also play in the Barclays Invitational in Brooklyn.

“We have a challenging non-conference schedule and have the privilege of playing in the WNIT and Barclays Invitational,” Caldwell said. “This will be a great opportunity for our team to experience playing in both of those events and against high-caliber opponents. It will definitely get us ready for conference play.”

From the opening tip of 2013-14, the Lady Tigers will be tested.

The team opens its regular season on Nov. 8 at home against Stephen F. Austin – a game that is part of the WNIT field.

If LSU wins and advanced in the field, they would continue playing in the tournament on Nov. 14 and then Nov. 17.

The Nov. 8 game will also be special for the soul of LSU’s program as it is slated to be the Sue Gunter Classic. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach spent 12 seasons with the Lady Lumberjacks before becoming the most successful coach in LSU history during her 21 years with the program.

“It is important that we keep coach Gunter’s legacy alive here at LSU,” Caldwell said. “She meant so much to the sport and this is a great way to recognize her because of how much she meant to the programs she put on the map at LSU and Stephen F. Austin.”

Following the WNIT tournament, LSU will play two mid-majors opponents to serve as a tune-up for the Barclays Center Women’s Invitational in Brooklyn.

LSU will open the Barclays against Rutgers on Nov. 29. Depending on the outcome of that game, the Lady Tigers will then play Michigan or Texas Tech the following day.

The preseason tournaments will serve as polish before the two-month SEC schedule – a 16-game slate that always pits LSU against the best teams in America.

The fun starts for the Lady Tigers in the opening conference game on Jan. 2 – a road tilt with perennial power Tennessee. That game is special because it pits two of the best teams in the SEC against one another in early season action. But it is also special because Caldwell is a former Tennessee player and assistant coach.

While LSU’s first league game will be a homecoming of sorts for Caldwell, the second will be a homecoming for a different reason.

On Jan. 9, LSU will host Texas A&M. That game will bring longtime Lady Tigers assistant coach Bob Starkey back into Baton Rouge for the second time as an opposing coach.

Starkey was an assistant coach for both LSU’s men’s and women’s basketball programs throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

He left the program before the start of Caldwell’s first season because she wanted to bring in her own coaching staff.

Throughout the rest of the SEC schedule, LSU will be challenged. The Tigers will travel to take on Vanderbilt on Jan. 19. They will also make road trips to Texas A&M on Feb. 9 and to Georgia on Feb. 20.

The final home game of LSU’s season will maybe be the Lady Tigers’ biggest of the year – a senior night tilt with Tennessee on Feb. 27.

Caldwell said the entirety of the SEC schedule is a challenge for any team.

But with several returnees back, including preseason All-American and former Vandebilt standout Theresa Plaisance, the coach thinks LSU has a squad that is capable of navigating through the year in style.

Because of those returnees, both Plaisance and Caldwell have been open this offseason about their ambitions to return LSU to the Final Four.

“We have a dynamic team that can change the tempo of the game,” Caldwell said. “This team will play like they are on a mission. We are excited about the future of our program and look forward to seeing our fans at the Maravich Center this season.”

Nicholls unveils men’s slate

The Nicholls State men’s basketball team released its 2013-14 schedule this week. Like the LSU women, the Colonels will face many fierce non-conference foes.

Throughout the course of the season, Nicholls will play non-conference road tilts with Auburn, North Texas, Troy, Memphis, San Francisco and IUPUI.

The team’s last pre-Southland tilt will likely be the biggest, as Nicholls will travel to play Indiana on Dec. 20.

The Colonels will open Southland play on Jan. 2 against UNO.

Nikki Caldwell