BATON ROUGE — LSU head coach Trent Johnson and three of his players addressed the media after the Tigers’ big win over Tennessee and prior to Saturday’s 4 p.m. contest against Arkansas. Saturday’s game marks the 100th Anniversary of LSU Basketball.
Men’s Basketball Media Session
January 29, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement…
“It’s a big week obviously with what’s going on from the 100-year celebration and the game that we have to play. It’s a good time for us to continue to try and play well. Arkansas, my goodness, everybody talks about the SEC being down a lot. For Arkansas to beat Oklahoma when they were ranked in the top-10 and also to beat a Texas team, who I am very familiar with and their level of quickness and explosiveness. With the exception of D.J. Augustin and another player, the remainder of their team is back.
“This is a team (Arkansas) like any other team in our league that is extremely talented. I take defense having been through five league games when people say that this league is down on a national level. This league is young. A team like Arkansas you may say has had its ups and downs, but they’ve been able to beat two nationally-ranked teams and then struggled against teams who supposedly aren’t that good. We need to continue to get better. A big concern for me right now is that we have some guys who are banged up. Obviously, some of the veterans who have been logging a lot of minutes are happy, not because they won, but because they have a day off. We have some guys who need to start playing better, and I have to find ways to get them in the game. I’m talking about the freshmen in terms of Delwan Graham, Storm Warren and Chris Bass, and we have to get Alex Farrer back up to where he needs to be in terms of his ability to help us.”
On Chris Johnson competing against much bigger opponents…
“Chris Johnson is what he is. He’s 6’11 and very long, and he struggled for about four or five games against guys that are blessed with something he’s not. I tend to dwell on what he does have ? shot-blocking ability, very coachable kid. Sometimes he loses his focus, but if you look at what he’s done in the league, it’s pretty impressive. He’s playing pretty well. I tend to dwell on what he’s capable of doing and the positives, not the negatives. He’s playing better. I’ll tell you what’s interesting. After the game, he and Marcus Thornton were up on the podium, and Marcus said that Chris had sent a mass text to his teammates about how he had let them down against Xavier. That speaks volumes as to the kind of kid Chris is. Chris is playing better, but it’s not an individual thing with this group. It’s a team thing. We just need to continue to play team defense and help each other out, but it spoke volumes with Chris stepping up, knowing that Quintin Thornton was not going to play.”
On the road victory at Tennessee…
“Coming off a game against a high-caliber team at home (Xavier) that we felt we were close and now, we play a Tennessee team that is a very talented, well-coached team with their backs against the wall. Their coach made a comment that they needed to win that game, and for us to be undermanned in terms of our post play and they’re really strong there with Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith. What it means is that we are capable of competing at a high level and winning games on the road and at home now. That’s all it means, no more or no less. I think they know that regardless of who we play, when we play like that, we have an opportunity, but if we don’t, regardless of who we play, we don’t have opportunities to win.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Guard Garrett Temple
On answering Tennessee’s run Wednesday night…
“When Xavier made that run, I don’t think we had a cushion like we did against Tennessee. We played well at the beginning of the second half as well as the first half, and we didn’t knock down some shots, and they went on a 13-0 run on us, but we stayed poised. The best part about that game is that we stayed poised. They took the lead, and we just stayed with it. Marcus Thornton hit some tough shots. Chris Johnson had a lot of big rebounds and defensive plays, and everyone contributed. We stayed together and got the win. It was a really big victory for us.”
On the older LSU players returning this weekend…
“It’s great to see those guys come back ? guys like Geert Hammink and Ethan Martin. I’m just hoping my brother doesn’t shoot the ball every time he gets it in the Alumni Game like he did when he played. It’s great to see both my dad and brother playing and that I have a couple of ties in the 100-year anniversary. It’s great for LSU. We just have to stay grounded, not let all the emotion get to us and come out and do what everybody wants us to do, which is come out and win at 4 p.m. on Saturday.”
Guard Marcus Thornton
On beating Tennessee after losing to them at home in the previous season…
“All of the players that played in that game last year had it in the back of their minds that we lost on our home court. At that time, they were ranked No. 4 in the country, so that was a big game for us. Obviously, we didn’t pull it out, so going into last night, we had it in our minds that we needed to get that victory for us and for everybody else too. We stayed together as a team, and at the end, we came out with the victory.”
On the older LSU players returning this weekend…
“It’s a good thing to see the older guys that played here are still in tune with LSU and still helping LSU in whatever way they can. I saw some of them play when they played. They were some great players, so it will be great to be around them and hear how it was back when they played compared to how it is now.”
Center Chris Johnson
On the older LSU players returning this weekend…
“It’s just an honor because you always have respect for the guys that come before you. Knowing that they are coming back, we get a chance to talk to some of the guys and see how they handle certain experiences like we do now. That might help us as well.”