BATON ROUGE — Prior to traveling to Starkville to face Mississippi State, Lady Tigers head coach Sue Gunter previewed the Top 25 matchup with the Lady Bulldogs.
LSU HEAD COACH SUE GUNTER QUOTES
“There really is no break in the conference schedule and we looked at what we have been doing over the last two weeks and we have constantly been playing ranked teams and every time we play it is a high-ranked team and now we are winding up this road trip at Mississippi State. I think they are ranked 11th (actually 12th) right now in one of the polls and they are just an outstanding team with two great players and a nice complement of players. Tan White and LaToya Thomas are about as good as it gets. What we have to do now is just settle in and stay focused on what we have to do and I think there is going to be a huge crowd there because they are having a “Pack the Hump” I think is what they are calling it. We need to go up and try to execute and do a good job and hope that the two of them do not have career nights and see what happens. It is a huge game for us.”
On the duo of White and Thomas
“I can’t think of anyone. We look at a lot of different teams and all the teams in our conference certainly have several of the great inside-outside type threat but I think probably Tan and LaToya, it just doesn’t get much better than them because Tan has great ability to penetrate and has great quickness and can go to the boards and shoot the three. She is just a very dynamic player. LaToya is just solid, there is not one part of her game that is not solid. She can put it on the floor, shoot the three, post you up and turn around and face the basket. She is certainly very polished now and is one of the top three players in the country. She, Beard, and Tauarsi are about as good as it gets. Specifically to answer your question I cannot think of an inside-outside threat that is any better than them.”
On the recent play of Seimone Augustus
“I think she has been rising to the occasion lately and I think one of the things she has been doing is I think she is hitting a comfort zone. I think all of a sudden there is no newness in what we are doing ans he is beginning to see the competition. I think she feels more confident in her game and her confidence is building in not only the scoring part of her game but she is defending and rebounding well too. She is a big-game player, she really is. It is very difficult to do anything with her when she is focused on what she does and she just plays very much within herself, and kinda lets the game come to her and not do too much. She has really played well over the last two weeks.”
On the improvement in rebounding lately
“I think it is a matter of two things. One is that we have really worked on it in practice but we always work hard on it and talk about it. I think is a matter of a mind set for the kids. I mean if you look at it and say ‘If you do not out-rebound the other team then you are going to lose, it is that simple.’ If you let them continually get second-chance points we will lose and I think the kinds have finally bought into it. In SEC games the one time we did not out-rebound our opponent we lost and you can not bring it home much more specifically than that.”