Maravich Center

Maravich

CENTER

The Pete Maravich Assembly Center and LSU Basketball begins its second half-century in the building as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of men’s basketball in the multipurpose venue which opened late in 1971 and hosted its first men’s hoops game in Jan. 1972.

For a program that will play its 113th season, the former LSU Assembly Center is the venue that LSU has called its official home the longest following in the primary venues of the Huey Long Field House (now the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes) and the Ag Center on the opposite side of the campus, more commonly known to basketball fans as the “Cow Palace.”

Even after all these years, the Maravich Center is still a great place for basketball on the portable wood playing surface.

The building took on a much needed new look for the 2017-18 season with the magnficent giant side and end video boards installed above the court that allows fans everywhere in the building to have a clear look at video and statistics.

There is also new modern light cabilities that offers some of the best light intensity that has been seen in the history of the building.

The building has seen constant changes since a three-year campaign began in 2005 to spruce up the building by the LSU Athletic Department.

In a year when the building would also become famous worldwide as the site of the largest triage unit in history after Hurricane

11.5 Million

Original cost of building -- $11.5 million; one of the most visible structures on campus.

NCAAs

Site of two NCAA Men’s Regional Basketball Tournaments: 1976, 1986

NITs

Site of six NIT pre- and post-season events: 1982, 1983, 1987, 1989, 2002, 2009, 2018

2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014

Site of NCAA Women’s Basketball First and Second Rounds in 2008 and 2009; 2012-2014.

East to West

East-to-West, you can put a football field and still have almost 33 yards of space left.

North to South

North-to-South, you can put another gridiron and have about 13 yards extra.

3,113,380

There are over one-fifth of a million square feet enclosed and over one-quarter of a million square feet throughout for a total of 3,113,380 cubic feet.

1,750

A total of 1,750 tons of air conditioning keeps the interior at year-round comfort.

13,215

Seats 13,215 spectators after $5 million renovation to concourse and seating areas.

Katrina, the athletic department was

able to finish its renovation in time for the 2005-06 season and turn the building back into a showcase for LSU men’s basketball.

An interactive concourse area depicting the history of the great players who have starred for LSU in the building, additional restrooms, new seats throughout the arena have taken the building to a new level. Now, the building features a practice facility for men and women along with a men’s locker room complex helping the Assembly Center’s appeal for players and fans for years to come.

The Maravich Assembly Center is, like the other venues LSU basketball has bounced around in through its long history, unique in its own way.

Before moving across from Tiger Stadium (in the 1971-72 season), the Tigers set up shop in the Pavilion on the old LSU campus, the Huey Long Field House Gym Armory (now the Cox Communications Academic Center) and the John M. Parker Agricultural Center. LSU and SEC fans knew the latter as the “Cow Palace” as it served as the primary home for LSU basketball for four decades.

The building opened as the LSU Assembly Center, but during the summer of 1988, then Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed legislation changing the official name of the building to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in honor of the LSU star who had died tragically earlier that same year.

The Maravich Center is also the home for the LSU volleyball, gymnastics and women’s basketball teams.