BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson and his coaching staff have studied the video tape and have decided that Baton Rouge native Zach Kinsley will join the basketball team as a walk-on for the 2008-09 season.
Kinsley was one of some 22 LSU students who went through walk-on tryouts in mid-September in the auxiliary gym of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Kinsley will enter as the program as a freshman.
Kinsley prepped at St. Michael The Archangel High School in Baton Rouge and last year attended St. Thomas More Prep School in Connecticut. At St. Michael’s, Kinsley played for Coach Elmo Fernandez, earning three letters. He broke the school season and career rebounding records while leading the team in scoring and rebounding all four years.
This past year he averaged 20 points and nine rebounds. He was a three-time selection for first team All-District and also earned All-State and All-Metro honors in his senior season.
Kinsley has two older brothers, one (Josh) having also attended LSU.
Johnson, who has had similar walk-on tryouts in his head coaching stints at Stanford and Nevada, has had good luck in past tryout programs. Chris Bobel, LSU’s director of basketball operations, was a walk-on at Stanford two years ago. Another walk-on, Kenny Brown, was named Stanford’s Chevrolet Player of the Game in a loss to Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Of course, two of LSU’s more famous walk-ons were Jack Warner and Brandon Landry who went from walk-ons to restaurant owners in Baton Rouge including two named “Walk-Ons.” A walk-on named David Bosley played a key role in LSU’s win over Arkansas, its first over Arkansas since the Razorbacks joined the league, in 1997 in Coach Dale Brown‘s final regular season home game at the Maravich Center.
Season Ticket Holders Invited To All-Century Vote Kickoff Event
LSU men’s basketball season ticket holders are invited to the Maravich Assembly Center Tuesday night at 6 p.m. for an event that will kickoff activities for the 100th anniversary of LSU basketball. Those on hand will have the chance to cast the first votes for the 15-member All-Century team that will be announced at the Centennial game on Jan. 31, 2009 against Arkansas. On-line voting for the all-century team will be available beginning at 10 p.m. on Tuesday and will run at least through the month of November.
Tuesday’s event will begin with a meet and greet with Coach Trent Johnson, the members of the LSU coaching staff, the 2008-09 Tigers and several former LSU players and Coach Dale Brown who are scheduled to attend. Beginning at approximately 7 p.m. the program will move to the floor of the Maravich Center for an hour program with the former players discussing some of the 70-plus names on the All-Century ballot. Athletic Director Joe Alleva and Coach Trent Johnson will also address the crowd.
The ballot includes 10 players from each decade from the 1940s through the 2000s (with a couple of ties in some decades for the final spot) and then an early years team from 1909 through 1939. While it is obvious the three players with retired jerseys hanging in the Maravich Center ? Bob Pettit, Pete Maravich and Shaquille O’Neal are going to be automatic locks for the team, how will the makeup of the other 12 turn out.
Will one of the greatest ball handlers in the game’s history, Sparky Wade from the 1935 National Championship team at LSU match up with players from the modern era in the eyes of the fans and/or the eyes of the committee? How will members of the 1953, 1981, 1986 and 2006 Final Four teams that made the all-decade squads be looked at as far as different eras and styles of play? There are lots of questions that will have to be answered by the fans of LSU basketball when they make their choices for the 15 greatest players in the 100 years of LSU basketball.
Season ticket holders are asked to RSVP to the LSU marketing department at 225-578-3917 or email at arowdon@lsu.edu.
Bench Change
LSU team officials have announced that in preparation for the building of the new practice facility that attaches to the North side of the Maravich Center that will include the new LSU men’s basketball dressing room facility, the team will change the bench they occupy beginning with this coming season.
LSU will now sit on the West end of the bench area or the same bench that the LSU women’s basketball team has occupied for many years now. The move will allow easier access to and from the present LSU basketball dressing area and for the future and allow the same court configuration for photographers and cheerleaders for both men’s and women’s basketball games.
The change will also obviously reverse the ends of the court that LSU will play towards during the first and second halves of play as teams play offense opposite their bench in the first half of all games.