Men’s Basketball: UL to play in Las Vegas tournament

Chad Washington, The Advertiser, July 25, 2014

The MGM Grand Garden Arena hosted last year’s Pac-12 Conference college basketball tournament. UL will play an early-season tournament at the arena this November.(Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

The UL men’s basketball team will play in Las Vegas in an early season tournament to kick off the 2014-15 season.

The Ragin’ Cajuns will be a part of the MGM Grand Main Event, a tournament with two four-team brackets to be held Nov. 24-26 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, part of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

UL will be grouped in the Middleweight bracket with Milwaukee, Oral Roberts and another team to be named later. The Heavyweight bracket features Auburn, Oklahoma State, Oregon State and Tulsa.

The pairings for both brackets will be announced on ESPN.com Tuesday, Aug. 5 and six of the games will be televised on the ESPN networks. An additional eight games will be played at home sites preceding the games in Las Vegas.

UL enters the new season as the defending Sun Belt Conference tournament champions. The Cajuns will be led by junior forward Shawn Long and senior guard Xavian Rimmer.