1985–86 LSU Tigers basketball team

Season

The team is also remembered for overcoming numerous obstacles during that season. Star forward Jerry Reynolds had left LSU early for the NBA draft. The Tigers originally had two seven-footers and a third player near that height on their roster, but only one was available by the start of the season—6–11 Damon Vance was declared academically ineligible, and 7–1 freshman and future NBA player Tito Horford either left the team or was dismissed, depending on the source. The other seven-footer, Zoran Jovanovich, suffered a season-ending knee injury during the team's Christmas break. Two other players were declared academically ineligible—Dennis Brown, reportedly a solid engineering student, took too few courses in his major and was ruled out for the entire season, and star forward Nikita Wilson failed two courses in the fall semester, ruling him out for the spring semester. As a result of these losses, Ricky Blanton switched positions from guard to center, and team captain Don Redden said at the time that the Tigers had "gone from an NBA-size team to a big junior high team." The team was then hit with a chickenpox outbreak, with star forward John Williams and backup forward Bernard Woodside hospitalized for a week and the team quarantined for several days. LSU was forced to reschedule what was intended to be a nationally televised game against Auburn due to a lack of healthy players, and coach Dale Brown even went so far as to draft football player Chris Carrier as emergency cover.

Roster

• Dale Brown ()
• Ron Abernathy ()
• Bo Bahnsen ()
• Johnny Jones ()

Schedule and results

|- !colspan=12 style="background:#33297B; color:#FDD023;"| Non-conference regular season |- !colspan=12 style="background:#33297B; color:#FDD023;"| SEC regular season |- !colspan=12 style="background:#33297B"| SEC tournament |- !colspan=12 style="background:#33297B;"| NCAA tournament

Rankings

Main article: 1985–86 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

References

1. [http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ycn-8116352 Top five lowest seeds to make the NCAA Final Four - College Basketball - Rivals.com]
2. Guilbeau, Glenn. (March 29, 2016). "30 years ago: LSU basketball's improbable Final 4 run made headlines". [[WWL-TV]].
3. Wilbon, Michael. (February 2, 1986). "LSU, a Team Full of Trouble, Faces Georgetown Today". [[The Washington Post]].
4. (2009). "ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game". [[Random House]].