SAN MATEO, Calif. — One day after arriving in the Pacific time zone for the second time in a week, the top-seeded LSU women’s basketball team practiced on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., for more than an hour on Friday. View the Photo Gallery from day 1 in California.
The center of attention was obvious: junior point guard Temeka Johnson’s right eye.
Johnson, the on-the-court spearhead of the nation’s third-ranked Lady Tigers’ team, took an errant elbow in eye from Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Chandra Johnson with 12:45 remaining in the second-round contest.
Her attempt to return from this possible concussion later in the 80-69 win lasted only one possession. She was later diagnosed with hairline fractures of two bones in her face, one below her right eye on one on the side of her nose.
After taking off for Wednesday’s practice in Baton Rouge, the 5-3 sparkplug participated in non-contact drills during Friday’s workout at Stanford’s Ford Center for Sports and Recreation, a stone’s throw from the site of Sunday’s Sweet 16 match-up with No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech (31-2).
She will wear a special pair of white-framed Oakley Slash M Frame glasses with clear lenses to avoid direct contact to her eye socket.
Tip-off for the regional semifinal at Maples Pavilion is 6 p.m. CST (4 p.m. local time) on ESPN2.
On Tuesday at 6:30 a.m., the Lady Tigers arrived in Baton Rouge after chartering back from a pair of wins in Eugene, Ore., (86-50 over No. 16 Southwest Texas; 80-69 over UW-Green Bay) in the NCAA’s first and second rounds. The team went to classes on Tuesday, but did not practice. Johnson went straight from the plane to the doctor for a checkup and a CAT scan.
LSU practiced on Wednesday and departed from Baton Rouge Metro Airport just after 5 p.m. on Thursday. The charter flight aboard Casino Express Airline included a refueling stop in Amarillo, Texas, and took nearly six hours. LSU arrived in San Jose, Calif., at about 10 p.m. PST, and bused more than 20 miles to San Mateo’s Marriott Hotel.
NOTES:
- Former LSU Tigers pitcher Kurt Ainsworth pitched in the San Francisco Giants’ Spring Training tune-up against the Texas Rangers on Friday evening at Pacific Bell Ballpark. Ainsworth, a product of Baton Rouge’s Catholic High School, earned a full-time spot in the Giants’ starting rotation this season for the first time in his career. He entered in the sixth inning and pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out three and walking one in the 10-5 loss.
- The Lady Tigers are in the same hotel as fellow Sweet 16 team Minnesota. The Gophers take on Texas on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. CST.
- LSU is the 26th women’s basketball team to receive a No. 1 seed. Texas Tech (’93) and Notre Dame (’01) have gone on to win national championships in their first and one appearances as a No. 1 seed. The Lady Tigers are the fifth No. 1 seed from the SEC, joining Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Auburn.
- Take special notice of the resilience of the court at Stanford’s Maples’ Pavilion. The wooden floor is suspended and literally bounces up and down when jumped upon. According to Stanford officials, it’s great for the nationally ranked Stanford volleyball teams, but the vote is still out for the basketball teams.
- According to Stanford’s athletics website, “The subsurface is one of the best in the country. It was designed to decrease the chance of injury. Eighteen inches of pea gravel and three feet of surface below the floor are covered by two inches of sand. It provides a smooth surface for a membrane of black visqueen. A six-inch concrete slab sits on top of 30-pound felt paper. (The Court Surface consists of) a nine-inch layer of crosshatched wood and air that provides a coil-spring effect. There is one inch of maple throughout the floor.”