Former LSU Player Redden Is Dead at 24

Don Redden, a former Louisiana State University basketball player, died Tuesday at Baton Rouge General Hospital. He was 24.

Redden was taken to the hospital by ambulance from his girlfriend’s apartment after she found he wasn’t breathing Tuesday morning. He was dead on arrival, hospital officials said.

Deputy coroner Chuck Smith said that although an autopsy revealed no evidence of foul play, or reason to suspect drug involvement, the preliminary findings were inconclusive and the cause of death cannot be established until results of toxicology and tissue studies were known.

LSU Coach Dale Brown said his players, as a tribute to Redden, will wear black patches when they play Vanderbilt Friday in the Southeastern Conference tournament. The team made the same gesture when former LSU star Pete Maravich died of a heart problem Jan. 5.

Redden started at small forward on the 1985-86 LSU team that went to the NCAA Final Four and lost to Louisville.

Redden will be buried next to Maravich in a Baton Rouge cemetery.