BATON ROUGE — Before travelling to Starkville to face Mississippi State on Wednesday night, LSU head coach Trent Johnson along with forward Tasmin Mitchell and center Chris Johnson spoke to the media.
Men’s Basketball Media Session
February 9, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement…
“Mississippi State has played eight league games. They are 188 out of 433 from the field and 82 out of 200 from behind the three-point line. We better guard them getting off the bus. Here’s the interesting thing; they’ve got five guys scoring in double figures. The one statistic that I haven’t been able to chart is how many guys have shot threes that would be NBA threes, and I’m trying to watch as much film as possible to see that. There’s no sarcasm in this, believe me. They are the two-time defending SEC Western Division champs, and nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about the job coach Stansbury has done over the years. I do believe his tenure in this league is second only to Billy Donovan’s. Knowing him and competing against his teams in the past when they were big and strong and physical, to change the way they play and play at this level that they are playing at in terms of going to a four-guard lineup during the course of the year has been impressive.
“We’re obviously pretty confident right now, the majority of this team. We had some breakdowns. We had our share of breakdowns defensively against Alabama and in transition as we looked at the tape, so we are going to have to make sure we get that corrected. We are going to have a two-hour practice when we get to Starkville (Miss.) tomorrow. We’ll leave around 3 p.m. and practice from 7-9 p.m.”
On extending the defense against a three-point shooting team…
“It makes it really hard to cover down on the post against a very effective player in Jarvis Varnado. He’s probably one of, if not the best post player in the league, so it makes it really tough. What we’ve been doing recently is helping recover, and when a post player puts the ball on the floor, we cover down and make him kick it back out. Well, that’s a long way to close back out, and it puts you in a really tough situation because you are closing out on a guy who can really shoot it but also put it on the floor. He can bounce it going left; he can bounce it going right.
“There’s not much you can take from our game here other than the fact that I thought we really got up and got after them, but that game was in the balance a little bit, and Marcus (Thornton) went on one his little shooting spurts, and we got some separation. But, they are also playing a lot better. I think we are better, but they’re playing a lot better right now, and they’re really confident shooting it deep.”
On the difference in playing a team the second time around…
“It’s always hard to win the first time, let alone the second time. I think you can’t get away from what you’ve been doing all year long that makes you successful, so obviously, there are going to be some adjustments. I think the way Tasmin and Marcus are playing on the offensive end will lead people to try to do some things differently. Yes, there are some things that we’ve tried to work on to be proactive and be prepared going into a game, but for us defensively, our principles and the way we play are always going to be the same. If we need to, we will have the opportunity, if they are hurting us, to play some type of zone or some type of trap or some type of pressure. For me, it’s always been the same. You have to do something really well, and the only way to do that is to have a solid system and a commitment to do that every night out. I see no reason to change our approach and what we’re doing, either offensively or defensively, but we are prepared for certain adjustments.”
Forward Tasmin Mitchell
On how much of his game he doesn’t get to show off because of playing the four position…
“Since I got here, I’ve been playing the small forward position, and that requires me to shoot a lot of perimeter shots and a lot of threes. By me playing the four, it’s kind of limited that, but I still have it in my repertoire. I just try to get a high percentage shot since I’m down at the four, but I will shoot it. Coach Johnson doesn’t mind me shooting; he has confidence in me. He knows my capabilities. Playing the four position has limited what I can do on the perimeter, but that’s not a problem because I can give difficult matchups to most four men.”
On being just outside the top-25 rankings…
“Being ranked really doesn’t matter to me. It’s all about who is standing at the end. Right now, it’s all about our consistency in league play. That’s what we want to keep up. Whether we are ranked or not, we are still going to come out and play hard and compete at the top level, but it’s good that we are getting respect. I don’t mind being the underdog. Being ranked or not doesn’t matter to me.”
Center Chris Johnson
On being just outside the top-25 rankings…
“Ranked or not, we are going to come out and give it a good effort every night. Our main focus is being consistent. We are doing that right now, and that’s the most important thing.”
On when players start looking at the conference standings…
“Coach Johnson lets us know where we stand, and we have it posted in the locker room, but I know personally that I don’t like to look at them because you lose focus a little bit. The main focus is just going out on a consistent basis and being able to compete for 40 minutes on every possession. That’s been working for us, and we’re going to continue to do that.”