BATON ROUGE — Coming off a thrilling double-overtime win at Mississippi State (watch it), LSU head coach Trent Johnson along with forwards Tasmin Mitchell and Storm Warren, and guard Terry Martin addressed the media on Thursday.
Men’s Basketball Media Session
February 12, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
On last night’s game…
“It’s interesting. Somebody made a comment in the first overtime about how relaxed I looked, but it had a lot to do with how the guys were during the timeouts and during the course of the game. Mentally and physically, they looked like they were in a situation where we weren’t going to be beaten. They refused to lose. It had nothing to do with making shots. It had something to do with just competing. There were probably 13 or 15 possessions where Mississippi State or our guys were on the floor fighting for loose balls. It’s like I told these guys right before we went and watched video of Ole Miss ? our reward for winning in double overtime is that we get to play a basketball team that went in there and beat them in regulation. These guys, as I’ve said before, continue to impress with their consistency and their maturity in terms of trying to put things behind them, but it was a good basketball game, and again, it’s unfortunate that someone had to lose because you like to see kids play that hard.”
On if he is worried that his guys won’t regroup for Ole Miss after a hard-fought, tiring game…
“No, and again, I don’t worry about that because that is to be expected. That’s why you’re a college basketball player; that’s what you’re a college athlete for. Going into the game, I think I told you guys that I was going to play Chris Johnson, Quintin Thornton and Storm Warren at the five (position) and leave them by themselves and try to get out on their perimeter guys to limit the three ball. You have to pick your poison with a team like that on the road and with the way they were playing. Quite frankly, Tasmin Mitchell had a lot to do with that because he was good. He was really good. His 41 points and his shooting percentage was one thing but his five assists and no turnovers, as much as we threw the ball to him and as many double teams as he saw. I thought Terry Martin was really good. Defensively, he was really good; he made baskets. Bo Spencer played with a lot of courage.”
On Terry Martin since his suspension…
“Terry Martin said it best when he said that the coaches and himself have put that behind him. He wants to be a part of this basketball because we have a chance to be something special. I think Garrett Temple said it best and I agree, ?We need Terry.’ It’s obvious. I need to give Terry Martin a lot of credit for his approach to what’s going on as it relates to this team.”
On Ole Miss…
“Again, I said this to the guys ? that wasn’t Ole Miss (first meeting with LSU). It was just like when we went to Utah, that wasn’t one of those games. When you look at college basketball for the majority of the teams, there are going to be games like that where you are off and for whatever reason, you’re not right and the other team is playing well, and boom, it’s 20 or 30 (deficit). We had one. I don’t want to take anything away from Utah just like I don’t think Ole Miss will take anything away from us. I do know this. We just got through beating a team in double overtime. They beat them in regulation. They’ve been to some places and won that we got to go to. This is league play. (Coach) Andy Kennedy has done an exceptional job. I’ve always been impressed with their physical strength.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Forward Tasmin Mitchell
On the physicality of last night’s game…
“It was a tough game. I have to hand it to Mississippi State. It was a great fight and a great game. It was one of the best games I’ve ever played in. It was a very physical game. We went back and forth fouling each other. I believe they shot 52 free throws. It was a very tough game, but Coach Johnson gave us the day off. We stretched a little bit and just rested our bodies because a few of us played a lot of minutes. That’s how you recover from that.”
On if they’ll be tired going into the Ole Miss game…
“No, we haven’t played the game yet, and only the game can tell that. I don’t think we will be. I think we’ll be ready. It’s a boost to know that we played hard last night and came out with the victory. It gave us confidence, but we still have a long way to go.”
Forward Storm Warren
On battling back after some mistakes…
“This is my first year in college, and it was a great opportunity, especially with the great situation that Coach Johnson put me in and believing in me by putting me in the game and having faith in me to do what I was supposed to do. He told me to stay under control, stay focused, stay on the goal and keep my eyes on the prize, which is to win the game. It was a pretty big situation I stepped into, and I just tried to handle it the best I could.”
On the lane violation…
“One thing I know and one thing I will always try to do is, if I make a mistake, somewhere down the line, I’m going to try my best to make up for it.”
Guard Terry Martin
On helping with the ball-handling duties…
“I had to help with the ball-handling because it was crunch time, and it’s really difficult to play with three or four fouls in overtime and still play good defense, but I knew I was going to play sooner or later near the end of the game and handle the ball a little more. We all had to handle the ball a little more.”