The Tigers have set up shop in the Pavilion on the old LSU campus, the stage at Baton Rouge High School, the Huey Long Field House Gym Armory, the Catholic High School Gym, and the John M. Parker Agricultural Center, home to the Tigers for three and one-half decades. But when the LSU Tigers commenced play in the Assembly Center in the 1971-72 season, it marked the beginning of a new era in LSU roundball. That year the Tigers opened play on a tartan-surfaced arena floor in a building that had every modern convenience. During the summer of 1988, 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.
Spectators enter the building via four ramps winding their way to the upper concourse.
From there, patrons need to move only a few steps up or down to their seats. In addition to the normal basketball seating configuration, a proscenium stage can be lowered into place at the north end allowing some 4,500 seats for theatrical productions. An additional 1,000 seats can be placed on the floor for graduations, convocations, lectures, concerts or other special events. The Assembly Center has been the site of two men's NCAA Regional basketball tournaments-1976 and 1986. In 1976, Indiana advanced from Baton Rouge and went on to capture the national championship.