BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson and players Marcus Thornton and Tasmin Mitchell were recognized by various groups Thursday for their efforts in the 2008-09 basketball season.
Johnson, who coached the Tigers to the SEC regular season championship and a 25-5 record (13-2) in his first year at LSU, was recognized by Yahoo Sports writer Jason King as part of his “All-Coaches Team” naming Johnson to the first team along with Bill Self of Kansas, Craig Robinson of Oregon State, Mike Anderson of Missouri and Leonard Hamilton of Florida State.
Of Johnson, King wrote: “More than a few people were surprised during the offseason when the Tigers hired Johnson, the former Stanford and Nevada coach. Less than a year later, LSU has won 13 straight SEC games and has already claimed the outright conference title. Johnson was fortunate to inherit an athletic team with a couple of outstanding players in Tasmin Mitchell and Marcus Thornton, but under Johnson, their game has reached a new level.”
Thornton and Mitchell were both named to All-District teams by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Thornton was named first team All-District 21 along with Nick Calathes of Florida, Jodie Meeks of Kentucky, Devan Downey of South Carolina and Tyler Smith of Tennessee. Mitchell was part of the second team along with Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State, Patrick Patterson of Kentucky David Huertas of Ole Miss and Michael Washington of Arkansas.
Thornton and Mitchell on the teams as part of 240 student-athletes, from 24 districts, are now eligible for the State Farm Coaches’ Division I All-America teams to be announced at the NCAA Final Four in Detroit.