The 1985–86 LSU Tigers basketball team represented

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) during the

1985–86 NCAA Division I men's basketball season Season headlines * Blocked shots and steals both became official statistics tracked by the NCAA. David Robinson of Navy became the first national blocked shot champion, averaging 5.91 per game for the season. The first steals champion was Darr ...

. It is best known for being the lowest seeded team (11th) in the NCAA tournament to reach the Final Four (later matched by George Mason in

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, VCU in

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, Loyola–Chicago in 2018, and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

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).Top five lowest seeds to make the NCAA Final Four - College Basketball - Rivals.com
/ref> They remain the only 11 seed to beat the 1, 2, and 3 seeds in their region in the same tournament.

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 Alfredo William "Tito" Horford (born January 19, 1966) is a Dominican retired professional basketball player who was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round (39th overall) of the 1988 NBA draft. Horford played three years in the Natio ...

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 Nikita Franciscus Wilson (born February 25, 1964) is a retired American professional basketball player. He was selected by the National Basketball Association's Portland Trail Blazers with the 30th overall pick in the second round of the 1987 N ...

failed two courses in the fall semester, ruling him out for the spring semester. As a result of these losses,

Ricky Blanton Ricky Wayne Blanton (born April 21, 1966) is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns in the 2nd round (46th overall) of the 1989 NBA Draft. A 6'7" and 215 lb for ...

switched positions from guard to center, and team captain

Don Redden Don Redden (October 10, 1963 - March 8, 1988) was an American basketball player. Redden, a 6-foot-5 guard/forward for Louisiana State University (LSU) who averaged 13 points and five rebounds as a senior in 1985–86, was captain of the LSU team ...

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 Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease caused by the initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV). The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which eventually scab ...

outbreak, with star forward

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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 Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

due to a lack of healthy players, and coach

Dale Brown Dale Brown (born 2 November 1956) is an American writer and aviator known for aviation techno-thriller novels. At least thirteen of his novels have been ''New York Times'' Best Sellers. Early life Brown was born in Buffalo, New York, and w ...

even went so far as to draft

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player Chris Carrier as emergency cover.

Roster

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1985-86 LSU Tigers Basketball Team LSU Tigers men's basketball seasons

Lsu Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four seasons

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...