BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s basketball programs held their annual media day on Thursday afternoon. The teams will kick off preparation for the 2001-02 season on Saturday. The Tigers will begin fall practice at 9 a.m., with the Lady Tigers to follow at noon on the main floor of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The following are quotes from Tiger head coach John Brady, entering his fifth season at the head of the LSU program, and Lady Tiger head coach Sue Gunter, entering her 20th season as the women’s head coach.
LSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH SUE GUNTER
“Another year. I think we always eagerly anticipate this day because we know two things. Number one, it’s a time our kids and our coaches as well can get away from conditioning and four-player workouts and get really into the meat of what we are doing. And it also means it is the beginning of what we hope is a very long six months. I am sure that Coach (John) Brady and I hope that it doesn’t end until sometime in the first week of April. That would be great.
“Let me start with the schedule. It is one of those things that is normally a challenge as you might expect. I think it is no different. Our conference schedule is always unbelievably tough. The non-conference schedule this year is also a very good schedule and a highly-competitive schedule. We have a lot of young players this year. We have a lot of young players this year and I think, the fact that who we are playing and 11 of our first 12 games are at home, that is a huge help for us. The quality of the teams coming in here are very, very good.
“Let me talk real quickly about the personnel. We have seven new players and five returning players. DeTrina White is our lone senior. She spent a great deal of last year injured. I would not be truthful if I said she was 100 percent right now, because she is not. She is better and we are hopeful that we’ll have her returning to full strength by the time we get into our regular-season play. But the back injury is a very difficult thing to deal with. She has worked very hard in doing what the doctors have asked her to do, but it is just a thing that is something you can’t pin down.
“KeKe (Tardy) had a great year for us last year and I thought picked up her game tremendously and had a great deal to do with our success. Kisha James, who came off the knee injury two years ago, had a good year last year. So, Kisha came in this year and worked very, very hard all summer, as all our kids did. The returning kids worked very hard and are in very good physical condition. I am very appreciative of how hard they have worked.
“The Hodges twins, Roneeka and Doneeka , look very good. Roneeka still has some problems. She had a problem with, I don’t know how to label it really, muscle cramps with her legs. And that is still a little bit of a bother, but hopefully we’ll work through that.
“The newcomers, let me touch base on them. Temeka Johnson, a point guard, will become eligible at the end of finals in December. We look forward to her. Temeka is a pure point guard. She is an outstanding young player and it ‘s been a long time since we have had a pure point guard. She is just a very, very exciting young player, a very bright player.
“Florence Williams will not play this year. She is a partial qualifier. She is out of Miami-Edision (High School). A very talented young player, we are very delighted she opted to come here and sit this year so we will have her the following year. She will practice with us, do everything but play.
“Patty Hanten is a junior college transfer out of Miami-Dade (Community College). She will be one of those kids who will be a role player for us. I think one of the things that we did not do as well nearly as we needed to last year is have the outside shot. I think we worked very hard and we’re better in that area this year.
“Aiysha Smith is a player you have heard a great deal about. (She is) 6-2, almost 6-3 out of Tyler Junior College. A JUCO All-American, the number one JUCO recruit (in the nation). We are delighted to have her with us. She will truly being another dimension to us. She is a big, strong player who runs the floor extremely well and can pop outside and hit the perimeter shot. She is a great post-up player, very strong. She will play the five for us.
“Sholanda Dorrell, another player out of Miami-Edison. She is a player that you are going to have fun watching. She is about 5-10 or 5-11 and very, very quick. It must be something in the water down at Miami-Edison, I am not real sure. But she is very, very skilled, she is very, very talented, she is very quick. I am not going to say she is as fast as (former Tiger) Marie Ferdinand or she jumps as high as Marie Ferdinand or she is as explosive as Marie Ferdinand, but she is close. This kid is going to be an outstanding player. She can get up and down the floor. She is a good shooter. She can shoot the three. We don’t ever have to worry about Sholanda putting it up either. She will put it up in a hurry. She is quick, runs the floor. Our transition game should be outstanding this year.
“Wendlyn Jones is a 6-1, almost 6-2, freshman out of Blythesville, Ark. She will play a four for us. She can step outside for us and play a three if she has to, but she will really play a four-five for us. (She is) really an inside player. It is kind of hard designate positions when you run a motion type offense, but she is really an inside type player. But the thing I like so much about her and about Aiysha Smith is that ability to step outside and knock down the three. And I mean knock it down. It really is going to make an awful lot of difference for us.
“The last new player is Tillie Willis, who is about a 6-2 freshman out of outside Atlanta Ga., Mableton, Ga. Tillie is a little bit behind where these other kids are, but she is extremely athletic and runs the floor well. She is one of those players who gets better every single day. When she is playing the type of competition she is going to be working against in practice and in games, she has a little further to go than these other players, but she will be a really fine player for us.
“The future really looks good. If I sound a little bit excited about it, I am. It’s just that when you lose a Marie Ferdinand, that is a huge loss. Marie brought so much to us, but that is behind us. You don’t really replace someone like that. You just start working on someone else who can be close to that when they are a senior.
On how the necessity of having players over six feet has influenced recruiting:
“I think the biggest thing is that you have got to have a good player and there are only so many of those 6-4 or 6-5 players out there. I think when you watch this year, you know that 5-11 team you were talking about (the 1999-2000 team, where all five starters were 5-11 or smaller), that teams is now 6-1. These kids that we have now are just a little bit bigger, a little bit faster, a little bit stronger. And then you have Aiysha coming in. I would say with Aiysha and DeTrina, they will play with your 6-3s and 6-4s without much of a problem. But it is tough when you are having to play a Tennessee, having to play a Georgia, having to play a Vanderbilt. You know, we are getting there. It is a priority in recruiting as we go. It has been a priority this year as well. And I feel like we certainly got more size, but we didn’t give up anything in our athleticism of who we have coming in. That pleases me as well. I think with the type of offense we run and the type of defense we play, if you give me those 6-2s and 6-3s that are athletic, we can get where we want to go. But we are still looking and we are going to get one or two of those big 6-4 or 6-5s down the road.”
On who will handle the scoring load other than DeTrina:
“I think Aiysha is going to be outstanding inside and then you are going to have your Kisha James and your Doneeka Hodges. Doneeka had an outstanding summer and fall as far as preseason work and shooting. The Hodges twins are going to score, there is no question about that. But I think inside, you are really going to look at Aiysha. She is a horse. She is going to be a go-to player inside. She may be more offensive minded than DeTrina. DeTrina is going to help you on the boards, she is going to help you defensively and running the floor. But Aiysha has a lot of weapons offensively.
“The perimeter game is going to be so much better all around. You have someone like Kisha, who is shooting the ball well. Dorrell is a good shooter. Both of the twins when they are out on the perimeter (shoot well). We should have a very balanced offense. The person I really like that is going to surprise a lot of people down the road is Wendlyn Jones. She is a big, strong kid that is tough. We like her a lot. She is another one that can step out on the perimeter and hurt you. But she is basically a four or five type player.”
2001 Lady Tiger Basketball Media Day Quotes
Kisha James– Junior, Guard
On this year’s team
“There is always room for improvement. Every year it seems like our athleticism gets better and better. We’re very young this year. We have six newcomers and they are very athletic. I think we are going to do very well this year.”
On getting to play Purdue at home this season
“I’m very excited about getting the opportunity to play Purdue at home this year. It’s hard to come off a big loss in the sweet sixteen and so it’s exciting to get to play a team that you lost to. It’s time for revenge. We want to get them back for beating us last year.”
On playing a tough schedule
“I think our schedule was tough last year as well. I think a tough schedule is what makes up better though. Playing against competitive teams in pre-conference games will make us better.”
Aiysha Smith– Junior, Center
On her role
“I just want to play hard and be a big girl. If I can play strong and do what the coaches tell me to do, we can get some more wins.”
On team goals
“We want to keep winning and get to the tournament again. Hopefully we can make it to the Final Four and maybe win a championship.”
On the tough schedule
“We’re going to know what to expect. We’re not going to be overlooking anyone and we’re going to look at everyone as a hard game. We’re going to play as hard as we can and hopefully win.
DeTrina White– Senior, Forward
On the team
“We’re looking good so far. This freshman class is ahead of any freshman class since I’ve been here. I think we’re going to have a pretty good season this year.”
On the schedule
“The schedule is tough every year but this year it’s going to be a bigger challenge because we have younger players. It’s just a matter of them coming in, relaxing, and stepping up. They’re going to have games where they are off, but then the next game they will be good.”
Ke-Ke Tardy– Junior, Forward
On team’s expectations
“Well I expect to make it to the Final Four every year and this year we have the horses to do it. We have a lot of talent and a lot of height. Because we don’t have so many returning people, everyone has to step up to their role this year.”
On improving her own game
“On a personal level, I just plan to improve my all around game. I need to be effective on defense and offense. I plan to do whatever it takes to help my team win.”
On team’s ability to score
“Everyone is able to score and there are no holes in our offense. We don’t have to rely on one person to score most of our points as Marie Ferdinand did last year. This will be a very fun offense to watch.”
JOHN BRADY QUOTES FROM LSU?S ANNUAL BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY
“When I first came here as the basketball coach, I said three things. I said that our team would be tough, hard and that they would compete, and I think that they have done that. Now, all of that is relative to the talent level that your team has in respect to how they meet that criteria.”
“Now, who judges those sort of things? You do. I do, and our administration does. Our administration must think that there is something positive going on here, because I just signed a five-year contract that rolled over in July.”
“Two years ago, I don’t think that there was any question that our team was tough, hard and competitive. They won an SEC Championship, had the second-best record in LSU history, went to the Sweet 16 and finished ninth in the country.”
“In my opinion as the coach, I believe that last year’s team met that criteria also. Last year’s team was tough, it was hard and it was competitive to the talent level that it had to establish that with.”
“I was quite proud with the way that our team played last year, the way it held up, the way it came to practice every day, the way it approached every game and the way it kept its spirit up at the end of the year. Down the stretch, in the last few games we really learned how to play with five players. I think that during the last five or six games we played some quality basketball.”
“The things that I was not pleased with last year was in our critical defensive stats. We went from first in every defensive category two years ago to toward the bottom in all of the critical defensive stats last year. Two years ago, we led the league in field goal percentage, we led the league in three point field goal percentage, we led the league in rebounding, we led the league in rebound margin and we led the league in points allowed.”
“Plus, on the other side, we had the best field goal percentage in the league. We did some things that separated scores. Last year’s team wasn’t that good. Granted we didn’t have the personnel, but certainly in terms of the critical defensive stats, the field goal defense, three point percentage defense and rebound margin, we need to get this better in order to be successful.”
“I think that this team is going to be pretty good offensively. We have a nice collection of players that are skilled and that can pass and catch the ball. They can also shoot the ball and if we can get our percentage a little better in any of those areas, then I think our team can be successful.”
“My philosophy has always been to get your team to think defensively, because players by nature think offensively. If a player comes up to a coach and says that he has been working on his game, I’ll bet you that he means that he has been shooting jump shots in the gym. He didn’t go in the gym and break down his defensive stats or do closeouts or those kinds of things that will help his game defensively.”
“Players think offensively by nature and it is the job of the coach and the coaching staff to get them thinking defensively, and that’s what we need to do with this team in order to have some considerable success.”
“We do have a base of quality players returning. I sat up here last year and said that Ronald Dupree would be All-SEC before he leaves this school. Well, he was second team and third team, and I think that he should have been first team. He led the league in scoring, he was second in the league in rebounding, and if you look back at the last ten years when someone led the league in scoring and was second in rebounding, they were always first-team SEC.”
“I think that Ronald Dupree will show this year that he has a shot to be MVP of the league. I think he can do that if our team will progress as it should and win some more games, because a lot of those accolades at the end of the season our based on winning. Stromile (Swift) averaged less points than Ronald Dupree, less rebounds per game than Ronald and he was MVP of the league.”
“I think that on the other hand, our team won 28 games and won the league title, therefore Stromile was worthy of those type of awards. I think that Ronald has a legitimate goal of being the MVP of the league, I’m not saying he will be the MVP, but I think that he has established himself as one of the top-five players in the league coming back.”
“Collis Temple, without question has improved tremendously. He averaged 14.1 points last year as a sophomore and none of you in this room thought than when we signed him that he would average 14.1 points in the SEC. I didn’t. I would have never known that by his second year he would be our second-leading scorer at 14.1 a game.”
“I think that it is a testament to him in how he has accepted the coaching and the teaching, and how much he has learned and has been able to improve due to the work that he put in.”
“Torris Bright, I predict will have his best year as a junior. He is in the best condition that he has ever been in, his attitude is right and he looks like a nice young man. He cut his hair, he shaved and I’m excited about his approach that he has shown during the summer workouts and in the fall.”
“Jermaine Williams averaged 7.5 points a game a year ago and in the last 10 or 12 games he was better than that. He improved a lot along with Charlie Thompson and Jason Wilson. They will both be better players because of the experience they gained last season. Just by going through it, they are better.”
“Our team is stronger, our team is athletic, but we just don’t have the size that we would normally have to be able to win significantly, as our team did two years ago.”
Quotes from LSU Men’s basketball players
Junior Guard Torris Bright
“Well the biggest thing from last year to this year for me is that I lost 15 pounds, well 12, and I am trying to lose three more to get to 15. The mindset of this team and the chemistry means we need to be focused. They picked us last in the SEC for three years straight, and the first year we ended up first in the SEC, and last year we were last. According to this team we will see if they are right or not. I think we will catch a lot of people sleeping this year, and we should be ready for the SEC.”
“I think the depth is there, and the chemistry is really there too. We play like we have known each other for years. The biggest thing I have to do is control the team, and keep everybody focused. I need to make everybody work hard and push them and myself as well. I think this team’s chemistry is just like what we had on the team my first year. A lot of guys just joke around with each other, we don’t just come to practice together, we go out and go to church or the movies together too. It is a nice team and I like it.”
“It really doesn’t matter what I play, like some off-guard or point-guard or whatever. I am just looking forward to the season starting. I can play two or three positions, but the main thing is just controlling the team and getting the crowd into it and winning games.”
Junior Forward Brad Bridgewater
“Not being able to play last year gave me a better understanding and outlook of what I need to work on for this season. I saw everybody’s strong points and weaknesses, so that helped me learn. I now know what I need to do to get better and make my team better. It was tough sitting out, but I think it was a blessing in disguise. I needed a redshirt year when I first got here and I didn’t have a chance to get it because of numbers. I think it was a blessing and it is going to work out. In my time off I had a little bit more time to work on offense, like shooting mid-range jumpers. My post game has gotten a lot stronger. I went to a couple of camps this summer and I got stronger and I got moves that I know will be effective for me. I think I will really be able to contribute on offense this year.”
Senior Guard Jermaine Williams
“Well, things are a lot better than last year. We are deeper and are very confident this year. We don’t have a true 6-10 guy but we have a lot of guys that can jump like they are seven feet tall. It is going to be fun for us this year. We have like eight or nine guards and a few post players. We have some nice size and we are fast. We will try to cause some trouble for the other team. The added depth on this year’s team will help us out a lot. I don’t mind playing a lot of minutes as long as we are winning and that I am contributing a lot. It is going to help a lot in the SEC Tournament and a tournament at Thanksgiving. We are going to try to win both of those, and go deep in the SEC Tournament. It is my goal as a senior to get another ring.”