BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers are headed back to Jacksonville, Florida, the site of the team’s last great NCAA Tournament run.

LSU last played an NCAA Tournament game in the Florida city along the Atlantic Ocean in 2006. That year, the Tigers began the NCAA Tournament playing in Jacksonville and advanced all the way to the Final Four, the program’s fourth such appearance.

On Sunday, LSU (26-6) earned the No. 3 in the East Regional and will open up NCAA Tournament play this year against No. 14 Ivy League champion Yale (22-7) at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Tip off is set for Thursday at 11:40 p.m.

The No. 3 seed is the highest for the program since 1981 when the Tigers reached the Final Four under legendary coach Dale Brown.

The winner of LSU-Yale will face either No. 6 Maryland or the winner of the First Four game between Belmont and Temple on Saturday. 

The East Regional semifinals and final will be held in Washington D.C. on March 29-31. 

The Final Four will be played this year in Minneapolis from April 6-8. Other notable teams in the East Regional are No. 1 Duke and No. 2 Michigan State.

LSU won the 2019 Southeastern Conference Championship this season, its first regular season title since 2009. 

Despite having second-year head coach Will Wade indefinitely suspended a day before the regular season finale against Vanderbilt due to multiple media reports of an FBI wiretap conversation between Wade and low-level agent/recruiting middle man Christian Dawkins, the Tigers still managed to lock up the top seed in the SEC Tournament. Tony Benford is serving as interim coach.

LSU was upset by Florida in the quarterfinals and that likely dropped them from a No. 2 seed to a No. 3 seed.

This year’s berth into the NCAA Tournament is the Tigers’ first since 2015, and 22nd overall. 

LSU has an overall record of 24-24 in the tournament and has advanced to the Final Four four previous times (1953, 1981, 1986 and 2006).