The Pete Maravich Assembly Center is a 13,215-seat multi-purpose arena in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The arena opened in 1972. It was originally known as the LSU Assembly Center, but was renamed in honor of Pete Maravich, a Tiger basketball legend, shortly after his death in 1988. Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer signed an act to rename the building in Maravich's honor (under Louisiana law, no LSU or state owned building may be named after a living person). Maravich never played in the arena as a collegian but played in it as a member of the Atlanta Hawks in a preseason game. But his exploits while at LSU led the university to build a larger home for the basketball team, which languished for decades in the shadow of the school's football program.[3] The Maravich Center is known to locals as "The PMAC" or "Pete's Palace", or by its more nationally known nickname, "The Deaf Dome", coined by Dale Brown. The Maravich Center's neighbor, Tiger Stadium is known as "Death Valley".[4]
The slightly oval building is located directly to the north of Tiger Stadium, and its bright-white roof can be seen in many telecasts of that stadium. The arenaconcourse is divided into four quadrants: Pete Maravich Pass, The Walk of Champions, Heroes Hall and Midway of Memories. The quadrants highlight former LSU Tigerathletes, individual and team awards and memorabilia pertaining to the history of LSUbasketball, gymnastics and volleyball.[3] There are 11,230 permanent seats in the arena: 6,931 upper-level seats, 4,299 lower-level seats and 2,000 seats on retractable risers.
Prior to building the Assembly Center, LSU played its games at John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum (aka, the "Cow Palace"), located on the southeast corner of the campus.[6]
The LSU Basketball Practice Facility is the practice facility for the LSU Tigers basketball and LSU Lady Tigers basketball teams. The facility is connected to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center through the Northwest portal. The facility features separate, full-size duplicate gymnasiums for the women's and men's basketball teams. They include a regulation NCAA court in length with two regulation high school courts in the opposition direction. The courts are exact replicas of the Maravich Center game court and have two portable goals and four retractable goals. The gymnasiums are equipped with a scoreboard, video filming balcony and scorer's table with video and data connection. The facility also houses team locker rooms, a team lounge, training rooms, a coach's locker room and coach's offices.[7]
The building also includes a two-story lobby and staircase that ascends to the second level where a club room is used for pre-game and post-game events and is connected to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center concourse. The lobby includes team displays and graphics, trophy cases and memorabilia of LSU basketball including a statue of Lady Tiger Coach Sue Gunter. A 900-pound (410 kg) bronze statue of LSU legend Shaquille O'NealPete MaravichBob Petit is located in front of the facility.[7]
LSU Volleyball Practice Facility
The LSU Tigers Volleyball Practice Facility is located in the arena. It includes a state-of-the-art locker room facility, film room, equipment room and training rooms off the arenas southwest corridor. The auxiliary gym located underneath the north section of the arena is a volleyball-only practice facility.[8]
NCAA tournament
The Maravich Assembly Center has been a host site for both the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournament.
It played host to the NCAA men's basketball tournament three times, in 1976, 1977 and 1986. In 1976, Indiana University defeated Alabama and Marquette in the Mideast Regional en route to an undefeated season and the national championship, and in 1986, LSU defeated Purdue and Memphis State (now Memphis) to begin an unlikely run to the Final Four as a #11 seed, the first of only four 11 seeds to reach the national semifinals (the others being George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011 and Loyola-Chicago in 2018).[3][4]
In addition to sporting events, the arena hosts concerts, stand-up comedy shows, graduations, convocations, lectures and other special events. A stage can be lowered into place at the north end allowing 4,000 additional seats for theatrical productions. An additional 1,000 seats can be placed on the floor.[5]
In October 1977, the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was involved in a plane crash on their way to play at the arena from their last show ever in Greenville, SC. Several band members including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, died in the crash. The concert was scheduled during LSU's homecoming the night before the Tigers' football game vs. the Oregon Ducks.
After the NBA's New Orleans Hornets (now New Orleans Pelicans) were displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the arena was under consideration as a possible temporary home for the team. The Hornets played just one of six scheduled home games at the Maravich Assembly Center during the 2005–06 season.
The arena hosted the Louisiana High School Athletic Association boys basketball state semifinals and championship games from 1983 through 1996. It also hosted the Louisiana high school wrestling state tournament, which was not sanctioned at the time by the LHSAA, in 1972, '73 and '74.
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