Lady Tigers earn No. 5 seed, host No. 12 San Diego State
BATON ROUGE – For the 21st time in program history, the LSU women's basketball team has punched its ticket to "March Madness" as the Lady Tigers drew the fifth seed in the Kingston Region and will play host to No. 12 seed San Diego State (25-6) in the NCAA Tournament first round at 6:30 p.m. CT Sunday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
No. 4 seed Penn State (24-6) takes on No. 13 seed UTEP (29-3) in the first contest at 4 p.m. CT. The two winners will face off in the second round at 8:30 p.m. CT Tuesday. All three games of the Baton Rouge first and second rounds will be televised live by ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.
All-session ticket books and group tickets are on sale now at LSUtix.net. Tickets can also be purchased by calling (225) 578-2184 or in person on the first floor of the LSU Athletic Administration Building.
Adult all-session ticket books cost $25, which includes admission to all three games of the tournament. Youth all-session ticket books are $15. Group tickets for parties of 10 or more are available for $5 and that includes admission to one session of your choosing. Single-session tickets will be available to purchase beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Single session tickets cost $16 for adults and $11 for youth. Details on LSU student tickets will be announced later this week.
"I'm extremely excited for this group and I'm excited for our fans and our community as we host the first and second rounds," said LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell. "We're looking forward to some very, very competitive basketball.
"I really feel like our fans have been amazing the entire season. We just really want everyone to come out Sunday and support us and take a look at us during postseason because this team definitely has a different mentality right now."
LSU (22-10) returns to the NCAA Tournament after missing the tournament for the first time since 1998 last season. The Lady Tigers led by first-year head coach Nikki Caldwell rode a six-game Southeastern Conference winning streak to finish 10-6 in league play.
LSU then went on a run through the SEC Tournament and reached the SEC Tournament championship game before losing to Tennessee. Two of the Lady Tigers' wins came against SEC regular season champion Kentucky, who drew a No. 2 seed.
Caldwell is certainly no stranger to postseason play. In a combined 15 years as a player, graduate assistant, assistant coach and head coach, she has reached the NCAA Tournament 14 seasons and amassed a 47-10 record with three national championships dating back to her playing days at Tennessee.
LSU owns a 38-20 record in NCAA Tournament play and the Lady Tigers are playing host to the first and second rounds for the seventh time since the event expanded to the current 64-team format. The Lady Tigers will take a 13-game NCAA first round winning streak into Sunday's contest and a 13-2 overall mark in tournament games played in Baton Rouge.
All-SEC forward LaSondra Barrett has recovered since suffering a concussion in the SEC Tournament championship. Barrett led the Lady Tigers in scoring and rebounding on the year with 12.5 points and 6.9 boards per contest. Junior guard Adrienne Webb earned a spot on the SEC All-Tournament team after averaging a team-best 14.0 points in LSU's three games.
"There's no better feeling than knowing that you're playing in front of your home fans at LSU," said Barrett. "We have special fans here, and we play well at home. I think right now we're just excited that we got a five seed. To look at our season it's amazing to see where we came from at the beginning of the year until now and how close we've grown."
San Diego State earned an automatic bid, after winning its second Mountain West tournament title with a 57-43 victory over New Mexico this past Saturday in Las Vegas. This is the third trip to the NCAA tournament for the Aztecs in the last four years and ninth in school history.
Junior guard Courtney Clements, the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, is SDSU's leading scorer with 17.4 points per game. San Diego State and LSU will be meeting for the first time.
Penn State is making its 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and second straight. The Lady Lions, ranked 11th in the Associated Press poll and 12th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, feature All-Big 10 Conference players Maggie Lucas and Alex Bentley, who post 19.1 and 14.2 points per game, respectively.
UTEP is making its second all-time NCAA Tournament appearance. The Miners claimed the Conference USA regular season and tournament championship, setting a school and C-USA record for 29 regular season victories.
Quotes from Monday night's media session are below:
HEAD COACH NIKKI CALDWELL
Opening Statement…
"I'm extremely excited for this group and I'm excited for our fans and our community as we host the first and second rounds. We're looking forward to some very, very competitive basketball."
On not being content with just making the NCAA tournament…
"Well, you never want to just go into a season, because you look at all the things you did prior to all the 6 a.m. runs, all the weight training, those times when it was tough in practice and all those mental challenges and us developing their toughness. All that comes in to play here in the postseason, and you draw from that. That's why you decide to come to LSU, to wear the purple and gold, is to go after a national championship. If anything less than that is your goal, then it would be a problem. I feel like this team has worked extremely hard, again, to put themselves in a great situation where they can go after that national championship."
On the bracket…
"I looked at our bracket and I'm very familiar with Coach (Beth) Burns. I played her while I was coaching at UCLA, and I know she's going to have her team very fired up. She always has been a coach that's defensive minded and has great guard play. So, I'm excited for that match up. Obviously you always want to take it one game at a time, and you never want to overlook an opponent. We understand what region that we're in and what road we have to take. That's part of March Madness. You're going to have to play the best in the country to beat the best."
On tonight's atmosphere being a preview of Sunday…
"I think it's a slight preview. I really feel like our fans have been amazing the entire season. Due to weather, I think that restricted some people, but we're definitely excited to be here. When you look at the attendance overall this year, and we finished third in the conference behind Tennessee and Kentucky, women's basketball is definitely vibrant here in Baton Rouge. We just really want everyone to come out Sunday and support us and take a look at us during post-season, because this team definitely has a different mentality right now."
On senior LaSondra Barrett…
"(LaSondra) Barrett is such a competitor, and there's not going to be anything that's going to stop her. Obviously, we're going to do whatever we need to do to secure the health of our student-athletes, and we would never put her in a situation where she would do any harm to herself. This is her last go around and we've been monitoring her closely, and she was into non-contact as of yesterday. Today, she had contact."
On coaching Sunday…
"I will be full go, probably not in my pumps. I think I'll still have to wear my tennis shoes. I really have an unbelievable staff. I can't tell you how they have not missed a beat. I've been sitting along the sidelines and watching them and Coach (Tony) Perotti has done an exceptional job of stepping in. Coach (Stacie) Terry and Coach (Tasha) Butts as well. We were able to activate Angel Elderkin, who was an assistant coach at the University of Virginia, who came here as my film director. I've left the program these few days in great hands, and the team has responded tremendously because we kept them in the loop the entire time of what was going to transpire. Because my staff has full communication, planning and development of the players, it wasn't that much of a difference because they all have input on our practice planning. They all break down and develop our players."
On the birth of her newborn daughter…
"We joked about winning the SEC Championship, and if my water was to break there. So, we missed it, basically, by one day. We went in for our weekly check-up and I thought I was having Braxton Hicks contractions, and they were the real contractions while we were in Nashville waiting to take off and fly back to Baton Rouge. The next day, it was time. Justice was ready. We talk about her being just the perfect little angel, and really being an on time baby, if you will. Obviously, we would never do anything to risk the health of our child. She was just ready.
SENIOR FORWARD LASONDRA BARRETT
On being back in the NCAA Tournament…
"We're excited. There's no better feeling than knowing that you're playing in front of your home fans at LSU. We have special fans here, and we play well at home. So, I think right now we're just excited that we got a five seed. To look at our season it's amazing to see where we came from at the beginning of the year until now and how close we've grown."
On recovering from a concussion…
"Right now we're just taking it day by day. Today, I went on the court and did contact stuff, and I felt pretty good. I will be ready for the first game in the tournament. Right now, I'm just trying to get as healthy and taking it slow, taking a lot of precaution so I won't have any setbacks."
On making a run in the last 10 games of the season…
"I think we just had a mentality that we never gave up. We were hit with a lot of adversity, with injuries and other personal things, but we just never gave up. I think we had that attitude. When you have everyone on the team that has that attitude, bringing so much intensity and effort, and I think our five seniors were a big contribution to that run, you just felt the love from the underclassmen. They didn't want to let us down, and I felt that from every last one of my teammates. I think that everyone stepped their game up a notch. It just wasn't me, (Adrienne) Webb, Courtney (Jones) or Jeanne (Kenney), everyone had that same goal, and we didn't want to have that feeling from last year again. I remember when Coach Caldwell came here that first day, she said 'I want to play in April.' I remember that exact quote that came out her mouth that we want to play in April. To sit up here today and have that feeling as a senior, I'm happy to play with this group and I'm happy for our coaching staff."
On the difference between playing in the tournament as a freshman and as a senior…
"I think the mental part is at its peak. As freshman, you're just playing off skill and talent, and by us having so much experience coming in our senior year, we know what to expect. Right now it's the teams that are mentally tougher than your opponent who win games. Right now a lot of people's legs are tired, a lot of shots probably won't fall, but it's the rebounding that gets you wins, and it's the hustle plays. I think just having that and having the intensity is what you need to get a victory."
Information provided by LSU Sports