The 1985–86 LSU Tigers basketball team represented

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC) during the

1985–86 NCAA Division I men's basketball season Season headlines * The Big South Conference began conference play. It had been founded in 1983, but its members had played as NCAA Division I independent schools, Division I independents until this season. * The ECAC South renamed itself the C ...

. 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 George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His wr ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, VCU in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, Loyola–Chicago in 2018,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, and

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

).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 NBA draft is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual event, dating back to 1947 BAA draft, 1947, in which the teams in the league can Draft (sports), draft players who declare for the draft and that are Eligibility for the NBA dr ...

. 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 N ...

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

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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 due to a lack of healthy players, and coach

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even went so far as to draft

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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 and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four seasons

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...