by Jake Terry
LSU Sports Information
Everyone remembers the Duke game. The No. 1 ranked team with the national player of the year. The NCAA Sweet 16 in front of a sellout crowd in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. LSU 62 Duke 54.
The game was a defensive struggle with both teams shooting less than 40 percent from the field, and defense was a major subject line after the game. LSU’s SEC Freshman of the Year Tyrus Thomas posted five of the Tiger’s nine blocks in helping hold Duke to a season-low 54 points. However, it was the defensive play of redshirt freshman Garrett Temple that led the Tigers to victory over the Blue Devils.
Temple, now a sophomore, finished the game with three points on a 3-pointer midway through the first half. Temple also had three assists, two steals, two rebounds and one blocked shot while playing all 40 minutes of the game, but the biggest stat was 11, as in only 11 points for J.J. Redick, Duke’s All-American sharpshooting guard whom Temple guarded most of the night. Redick shot 3-of-18 for the game, a measly 16.7 percent from the floor, largely due to Temple’s suffocating defense that did not allow Redick to find any space around screens to shoot 3-pointers.
“I was just thinking to myself, ?Just do what I know I can do: Run around with him, put my track shoes on because he runs around a lot,’ ” Temple said. “He talked about how he’s the best endurance player in the nation, so I was just having to get ready to play the best defensive game of my life to put myself and my team in a position to win the game. And I think I did that.”
To many basketball analysts in the national media Temple made a name for himself after his performance against Redick and Duke. Temple had guarded other fantastic shooting guards during the season, like Tennessee’s Chris Lofton, whom Temple held to two points and Connecticut’s Rashad Anderson, who had 10 points on only 3-of-16 shooting. Despite Temple’s defensive lockdowns on other phenomenal athletes, nothing could garner national attention like shutting down the national player of the year in the Sweet 16, and it took playing those other scorers earlier in the season to prepare Temple for Redick.
“I talked to my brother (former Tiger player Collis III) after the (Texas) A&M game. I said, ?I get a chance to guard J.J.’ because all throughout the season I see him scoring 28 points (a game), and I was learning how to guard people off screens. (Associate Head Coach) Butch Pierre and the coaching staff were trusting me to guard the best shooters,” Temple said.
That trust and confidence in Temple’s abilities grew after the game against Duke, not only with the coaching staff but also with the players and especially in Temple himself.
“It was a lot of confidence because even though I knew I could do it, after doing it I had confidence, and my teammates had even more confidence in my defensive skills,” Temple said.
Even though Temple’s confidence grew, he did not lose the drive and determination to get better during the summer, especially because the Tigers lost two of its leading scorers, including Darrel Mitchell who was last season’s best 3-point shooter.
“You can’t just work in the summer and get to where Darrel is, but I tried to get to a point where my team can rely on me to shoot one or two threes a game consistently,” Temple said. “So I tried to work on my offensive game, but especially my outside shooting because guys are going to key in on Glen Davis, and me, Tasmin (Mitchell), Dameon (Mason), and the other guards Ben (Voogd), Terry (Martin) and Tack (Minor) need to hit the open shots to give Glen a little space so he can do his thing.”
The summer was not only a time to improve on the court, but it was also a time for Temple and the team to grow closer together because camaraderie was such an important thing for the team last season, Temple said. He wants this year to be no different.
“Camaraderie ? you build that off the court going out to eat together, going out to lunch, going out to the movies with your friends, just hanging out. I think we’re having that with this team. People will go out to eat after practice sometimes, just go out to eat together, and none of this stuff is planned. It’s just how we are, so we’re going to try to get that same camaraderie that we had last year,” Temple said.
Though camaraderie builds friendships off the court, chemistry is what glues everybody together on the court, Temple said. For chemistry to grow, players have to understand their different roles. Some will start; some will come off the bench. Some will be counted on to score; some will be the floor leader. For Temple, who played point guard in high school, his role has increased from last season. Although he played point guard at times last year, the Baton Rouge native will be relied on to start at the point this season.
“My role has changed a little from last year. My role this year is to be a floor leader, whether I’m at the point guard or the two-guard position because I played a good bit of minutes last year, and I was in the heat a lot last year,” Temple said.
As the floor leader at point guard, Temple understands what he is expected to do for this team to be successful.
“When I’m at the point guard I need to be a floor leader – distribute the ball, to get the people the ball in open spots where they can score,” Temple said. “We have the SEC Player of the Year in Glen Davis, so we need to get him a lot of touches and work off him.”
When Voogd or Minor comes into the game at point guard, Temple can move to the two guard where he started most of last season. Now, the more experienced and confident Temple knows his role even better.
“At the two-guard position (I will) just control the floor like at the point guard, but I’ll hit some open shots and get the ball to the right people to score.”
As the players settle into their roles Temple knows the team will continue to improve and move toward the ultimate goal ? a national championship. Last season’s Final Four run only made the team hungrier for a return trip to be held this season in Atlanta, which would be a familiar scene for the Tigers. Until then, Temple and his teammates will stay focused on getting there.
“I don’t think there’s anybody on this team that doesn’t expect to get to a Final Four and expect to have a chance to win a national championship. The days of just hoping to get to the NCAA tournament or hoping to get to the Sweet 16, those are over. The only thing we might hope to do is get to the national championship game, but I think everybody has the mindset of getting to the national championship and winning it all this year,” Temple said.
Despite the lofty expectations, Temple and his teammates do not let the pressure to be perfect get to them because they know they have to take it one game at a time.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure. This isn’t like football. It’s not like if we lose one game we’re out of the national championship race,” Temple said. “We just know that we have a lot of expectations on us, and we welcome that.”
Always up for a challenge, Temple has goals he wants to reach in every game.
“I’m going to try to get my team some opportunities for some fast breaks with a couple of steals this year, try to guard whomever coach puts me on, whether it be the best perimeter scorer or best ball-handler,” Temple said.
Temple has also set a personal goal for the end of the season:
“If I can, I’m going to try to be defensive player of the year.”
Everyone remembers the Duke game, but no one remembers it more than Temple who displayed his defensive prowess on the national scene for the first time but certainly not the last.