BATON ROUGE — Prior to departing for Athens, Ga., LSU head coach Trent Johnson along with forward Tasmin Mitchell and center Chris Johnson spoke to the media on Monday afternoon.
Men’s Basketball Media Session
February 2, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement…
“One of our concerns is Georgia from the standpoint of their strength and physicality. Looking at them on videotape and watching the Alabama game, they are really strong in the post and on the perimeter. Obviously everybody is aware of the situation with coach (Pete) Herrmann taking over, and usually in those situations you would think they are weak, but with a game under their belts, those kids have had the opportunity to settle down, and coach Herrmann has been a head coach before. For us, it’s the same old story. We need to concentrate on the things we have been doing. I think our guys and our staff are a little disappointed in our inability to take care of the ball in the second half at crucial times. After reviewing the tape, it had a lot to do with us being careless and not being strong with the ball, but at this point in time, there is nothing that we are going to see defensively or offensively that we shouldn’t be prepared for. We’ve got to get some guys healthy, get some guys through some injuries, get ready to go to Athens and compete at a high level.”
On keeping the team focused on this game after several big ones…
“It’s nothing I’ve said recently as opposed to what I said at the start on the first day of practice and my approach to everything we do is competition regardless of who we play, where we play, or when we play. You better be ready to play, and if you don’t, you have a lack of respect for competition. It’s college basketball. More than anything, it’s your consistent habits in terms of how you practice, how you play and as a staff and me as a head coach and those guys that you are seeing everyday.”
On if the team should be ranked…
“I don’t worry about that. That’s not my call. Now, it’s like I tell them. If we compete at a high level and do the three things that we are capable of doing, we can compete with a lot of people in the country. I just want to see where we are at the end of the year and when we know it’s over, that we maximized our ability and our potential, and that’s all that really matters, not a number on the side of a team.”
On if he likes coaching experienced players…
“I like coaching guys who can play. One of the greatest players ever and probably the greatest winner of all-time was Bill Russell. I was around him when I was coming out of high school, and he came to speak to us. He told us that experience doesn’t mean a thing if you can play. I believe in that especially now because so many of these kids coming out of high school play so many games during the summer. I was with a very inexperienced group two years ago. We had five freshmen, and we started two of them and three sophomores. We were supposed to finish eighth in the Pac-10, and we ended up finishing fifth and going to the NCAA Tournament. Well, two of those guys are pros. I just think that the bottom line is maturity. You can be an 18-year-old freshman but have the maturity of a 20-year-old. You can be a 21-year-old senior and have the maturity of a 15-year-old, so it all depends on the quality of the kid and the person and the team.”
Forward Tasmin Mitchell
On the difference between where they were at this time last year and where they are now…
“This is a new year. With coach Brady, we had our breakdowns and our good times but more breakdowns. Right now, it’s just a whole new system and a different game. It’s still LSU basketball but with a different demeanor. We just want to come out with the same intensity no matter what, whether we win, lose or draw. After we lost a game last year, we didn’t come out with the sense of urgency that we do now. After we lost to Xavier, we went to Tennessee and beat them at their home. It’s just a whole new thing and new dimension of LSU basketball. We have a lot of commitment and intensity in every single game. We couldn’t do that a year ago.”
On if opponents are starting to throw more at them as they keep winning…
“We are going to see a lot of different things throughout the year. We are going to throw a lot of different wrinkles at other teams. What we want to do is stay consistent in what we run. Other teams are going to throw wrinkles at us, but we have so many threats on our team. They feel that if they take this particular person that they don’t particularly feel is going to go off but may mess up our lineup, it will jumble us up, but it’s not going to do that. Every game someone else on this team steps up, whether it’s someone off the bench or someone already on the floor. We are going to see a bunch of different wrinkles. Other teams are going to do what they can do, but it just hasn’t worked.”
Center Chris Johnson
On what has changed for him in his individual play the last two games…
“I’m just taking good shots and making good decisions. My main focus is just playing team defense and helping us win in any way that I can. My shots were falling last game. Sometimes they don’t, but each night defensively, I give great effort, and I’m going to continue to do that.”
On the difference between where they were at this time last year and where they are now…
“I see us as a team and guys excited about being the best team we can be. You see it at practice with how hard we go at each other. Coach Johnson brings a certain level of intensity to each practice, and he pushes us. He sees great things in us and lets us know what we need to do to become better players. It’s working for us, and we’re buying into it.”