BATON ROUGE — Several hundred Tiger basketball fans turned out Tuesday night to get a first look at Trent Johnson‘s first LSU basketball team as the Purple Tigers defeated the Gold Tigers, 46-34, in a 25-minute scrimmage at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Purple team was made up primarily of veteran returnees Tasmin Mitchell, Marcus Thornton, Garrett Temple and Chris Johnson with sophomore Bo Spencer at the point guard position.
The game was tied three times in the first 2:20 of the contest before the Purple team took the lead for good on a layup by Mitchell.
But both teams, while shooting a decent percentage early on, had a little trouble handling the basketball, turning it over 22 times combined.
Mitchell, playing 24 minutes for the Purple team and another eight for the Gold team, combined to score 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting and 5-of-5 at the free throw line. Chris Johnson scored 14 points with three blocks and Marcus Thornton scored 13 for the Purple team. Marcus Thornton also had a scrimmage high four steals.
The teams combined to shoot 29-of-69 (42.0 percent), but 1-of-13 from the now one-foot longer (20-9) three-point arc. One of the traits of last year’s team, good free throw shooting, continued in the scrimmage as the LSU teams combined for 21-of-29 at the stripe.
The Purple team scored 20 of its points in the paint, got 15 points off turnovers and had nine second chance points.
“The scrimmage showed us the things we need to improve on,” said Temple. “But it also showed us what we were able to execute effectively. We have to get more consistent stops and show our athleticism.”
“I wish I could say I was surprised,” Coach Johnson said afterwards to the media. “Obviously we shot the ball pretty well. I thought they shared the ball pretty well and made each other better. In the other three facets, we have a ways to go. Defensively, our veteran group gave up 30 points against four or five freshman who haven’t played a lot and that is a concern. We have a ways to go. I thought we did a decent job of taking care of the ball early on in the first 15 or 16 minutes, especially with the veteran group.
“The thing is, this group cares. That is why they were so tight, but we have a ways to go. There has been a sense of rebounding with urgency and playing with a sense of urgency. Nobody is going to talk about this because no one wants to hear this, but when we get rid of the element of ?cool’ and learn how to compete regardless of who is in the stands we are going to go somewhere and they know that. Good thing is it is early.”
The Tigers will take part in the annual “Basketball Block Party” Wednesday on Tower Drive by the LSU Student Union and Free Speech Alley between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Both the men’s and women’s teams will be on hand along with the cheerleaders and Tiger Girls. There will be a basketball sport court for competition for students and four video game stations featuring games from EA Sports. There will be free food during the event.
LSU opens its season on Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. against Jackson State in the Maravich Center. Season tickets are on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and online at www.LSUSports.net. Tickets for men’s basketball start at $100 and Athletics Director Joe Alleva has committed to allow fans who purchase the tickets this year as part of LSU’s basketball centennial that they price for renewal will remain $100 for five seasons.
LSU Basketball Scrimmage
October 28, 2008
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement …
“I wish I could say I was surprised. Obviously we shot the ball pretty well. I thought they shared the ball pretty well and made each other better. In the other three facets, we have a ways to go. Defensively, our veteran group gave up 30 points against four or five freshman who haven’t played a lot and that is a concern. We have a ways to go. I thought we did a decent job of taking care of the ball early on in the first 15 or 16 minutes, especially with the veteran group. The thing is, this group cares. That is why they were so tight, but we have a ways to go. There has been a sense of rebounding with urgency and playing with a sense of urgency. Nobody is going to talk about this because no one wants to hear this, but when we get rid of the element of ?cool’ and learn how to compete regardless of who is in the stands we are going to go somewhere and they know that. Good thing is it is early. I haven’t had the chance to look at any videotapes yet and I have a tendency to keep my comments to myself as opposed to breaking down guys individually. Everything is based of the team. Moving forward, we will have tomorrow off and watch tape at 2 p.m. on Thursday. We will come back and start work at 3 p.m. on Thursday. I thought it was a good crowd coming out and supporting this group and our efforts. From an evaluation stage for me it is easy to sit and evaluate anything and everything that goes on from the manager to the scorekeeper. When we scrimmage Tulane on Sunday, they will get a real good feel of how it will be during the course of a game. We will start a rotation going and there will be none of the chatter that went on during the timeouts and the huddles. We haven’t worked on late game situations. We haven’t worked against pressure. We have to get some guys healthy. Alex [Farrer] is a guy that we have got to have. He has a high basketball IQ. Garrett Green I have my concerns about [his back injury], but he could really help us.”
On the status of Alex Farrer and Garret Green …
“Alex had a bruised knee and swelling. He thought he could go today, but hopefully he can practice on Thursday . I’d like to get him out there on Sunday [against Tulane.] He’s missed a lot of conditioning. Usually from my experience is when you have lost a week to 10 days of conditioning it is hard to get it back, especially at the rate we condition and compete. Garrett just hasn’t gotten better. One thing he really gives us is length and he shoots it. He works extremely hard. I was as impressed with him as anyone during preseason.”
On the defense getting back …
“We were focusing on getting back and transitioning back. I called it the exchange court. We scored and they scored. Their intensity was good, so to speak, but we are fumbling and chasing the ball a couple of times.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On his thoughts after the scrimmage …
“We have a lot of room for improvement. Defense is our main focus. We just need to play better and keep practicing, but other than that we will be just fine.”
On if the team is on schedule…
“We are on schedule. We are improving every day in practice, but we are not exactly where we want to be. We have a couple more weeks of practice and we will see then. It was only a practice. I think the team played fairly well though.”
On what he learned from the scrimmage…
“We have room for a lot of improvement, but we came out tonight and tried to execute what coach wanted us to do. We need to work on our running game a little bit and get more stops. In high school, I was more of a scorer. Coach has been teaching me that there is more to playing the point guard position than just scoring. That is something I am working on.”
On what he needs to do for the team…
“I need to set an example and be a leader on the court. I need to be more vocal this year, and show everyone that I can lead this team.
On if he is on track so far…
“Right now I do think so. The scrimmage showed us the things we need to improve on, but it also showed us what we were able to execute effectively. We have to get more consistent stops and show our athleticism.”
On what it was like to play in front of a crowd…
“The crowd was great. I did not expect to see that many people at a scrimmage. Again, it’s just a scrimmage. I am glad they came out to watch us. We do not have any exhibition games, so I guess people want to see what Coach Johnson’s team will play like this year.”