AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU men’s basketball team tries to get back on the winning track Saturday against one of the hottest teams in the Southeastern Conference here Saturday as LSU and Auburn meet at 3 p.m. in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
The game will be televised regionally by Raycom Sports (Watch Live Online) and the radio broadcast will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net.
LSU has already captured the Southeastern Conference regular season title with 13 consecutive wins in the league before a 75-67 loss to Vanderbilt in the final home game in Baton Rouge on Wednesday. LSU is 25-5 overall, 13-2 in the league and ranked 11th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 12th in the AP media poll.
Auburn has surged as of late with seven wins in the last eight games, with their only loss a 79-72 decision to LSU in Baton Rouge just two weeks ago. In that game, Auburn had a four-point second half lead in the last 10 minutes before the Tigers stormed back to get the win. The Tigers of Auburn are 20-10 and 9-6 in the league and have moved into second place and looking for an NCAA post-season bid with a win Saturday and a couple of SEC Tournament victories.
Coach Trent Johnson is hopeful his team can again find the defensive attitude it showed during its early part of the SEC run.
“We’ve got to get back to basics on defense,” he said. “When the ball goes down, it hides what’s going on at the other end of the floor.”
Unfortunately the ball wasn’t going down against Vanderbilt as LSU shot just 36 percent from the floor.
“Teams that have had success against us did the same thing as Vanderbilt did,” Johnson said. “They attacked us in the post and they beat us off the dribble in the perimeter. Our rotations on defense were not good. We had a lack of urgency on the defensive end. It was not our effort. It you look at five of our last six games, we haven’t been that good on defense. Auburn really put us back on our heels (in the first meeting).
“We just need to ratchet it up a notch defensively,” Johnson said. “We have to keep grinding. Auburn has some very underrated perimeter players. This time of you, you play good people and then even better people. You have to step it up if you can.”
The Auburn Tigers are led by forward Korvotney Barber, one of four seniors who will be honored prior to the game, who is the only player in the Southeastern Conference averaging almost a double-double (12.7 points, 9.6 rebounds). DeWayne Reed is averaging 13.2 points and 3.8 assists as one of four guards Auburn starts and Tay Waller is averaging 12.5 points.
Marcus Thornton is averaging 31.5 points in his last two games against Auburn and leads the Tigers at 20.9 points a game, while Tasmin Mitchell is posting 16.8 a game and Bo Spencer 11.9 a game.
The Tigers will next play at the SEC Tournament in Tampa on Friday, March 13, against the winner of the first-round matchup between the West No. 5 team and the East No. 4 squad at 1 p.m. (EST), Noon (CST).
LSU Men’s Basketball Media Session
March 6, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
On if the field-goal percentage was the biggest difference in the Vanderbilt game…
“Offensively, we had open shots. We had opportunities. Tasmin (Mitchell), Marcus (Thornton) and Bo (Spencer) all had shots that they usually make, and they didn’t go down. Defensively, obviously the teams that have had success versus us have been the ones that have attacked us in the post and beat us off the dribble on the perimeter. Again — I said this going into this game — Vanderbilt was playing very well, and against South Carolina, I was very impressed with how physical they were and how they handled themselves. They are a good basketball team. Let’s not take anything away from them, but we had some shots that didn’t go down for us, and it happens.”
On the recent stretch…
“You look at five out of six or maybe six out of seven games, and it goes back to Auburn, who I thought really put us back on our heels off the dribble, that our rotations defensively and our sense of urgency was lacking on certain possessions. It wasn’t effort. There’s a fine line, and where we’ve been able to survive and win games is offensively when we had some guys step up and make some big plays. I think they have to understand like I tell them that our margin of error is extremely slim. This is the time of year that because we are playing good teams and will continue to play better teams, we are really going to have to step it up another level if we can.”
On if Mitchell did the best job defending Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy…
“To say that Tasmin did the best job on their center, I don’t want to say that. Tasmin did an adequate job. I’m not going to sit here and dissect Chris Johnson‘s or Quintin Thornton‘s or Storm Warren‘s performance in a game like that. A.J. Ogilvy has something our post players don’t have, and the bottom line, as opposed to singling out perimeter defense and post defense, it’s team defense. There were times when we covered down and doubled him, and Ogilvy made a nice play back out front, so when you want to start being critical on any one player’s performance or lack of, I evaluate the effort and what I did or what I didn’t do to help this team.”
On if he’s specifically addressed other teams attacking them off the dribble…
“Well, this is the time of year where we’ve been in a situation where we’ve been playing, and then, we have an off day, and then, we have practice, and you’ve got to get ready to play. You’ve got to get back to the basics. Because of injuries and everyone is banged up at this time of year, we’re off, and then, tomorrow we have to go hard. We have to go hard tomorrow with a good two-hour practice and get back to basics with fundamentals, rotating defensively, talking and all those sorts of things, but also we need to get into our scouting reports. We’re playing Auburn, and they are really skilled and good. I think they’re one of the top teams in this league. Their perimeter players don’t get enough credit because I think they are very underrated, not by me. In our preparation, we are going to take a little bit back off the offensive end, so we can concentrate on the defensive end tomorrow. We’ll lay it on the line Saturday and come back and get a good two days off and get ready to go with three hard days of practice.”