BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — LSU senior guard Marcus Thornton was named Tuesday as the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and his first-year LSU Coach Trent Johnson was named the Coach of the Year as the league revealed the voting for the coaches’ SEC award winners.
LSU junior Tasmin Mitchell joined Thornton on the All-SEC first team, and Garrett Temple was a second-team pick. Temple and teammate Chris Johnson were also named to the league’s All-Defensive Team.
Coaches voted on eight member teams for First Team All-SEC, Second Team All-SEC and for the SEC All-Freshman Team. They voted on a five-player squad for the SEC All-Defensive Team. They were not permitted to vote for their own players and ties were not broken.
Thornton was one of five unanimous selections for First-Team All-SEC. The senior from Baton Rouge, who transferred from junior college to LSU prior to the 2007-08 season, was second in the league in scoring for the second straight year, averaging 20.9 points per game. It is the highest scoring average for an LSU player and the first to average 20 points in a season since Ronnie Henderson averaged 21.8 in 1996.
Thornton becomes the seventh LSU player to win Player of the Year in the league since 1968 and the 11th time an LSU player has captured the honor: Pete Maravich ? ’68, ’69, ’70; Chris Jackson ? ’89, ’90; Shaquille O’Neal ? ’91, ’92; Stromile Swift ? 2000; Brandon Bass ? ’05; Glen Davis ? ’06; and, Marcus Thornton, ’09.
Coach Johnson, in earning the Coach of the Year honor, has now won Coach honors in three different leagues (Western Athletic Conference, Pac-10 and SEC) and has done the unique accomplishment of winning the honor back-to-back in two different leagues. He led the Tigers to their 10th league championship with a 13-3 record, winning the league title on Feb. 28 and finishing three games ahead of three-other teams. The Tigers are 25-6 overall and the only SEC team ranked in the nation’s major Top 25 polls.
Mitchell, from Denham Springs, made a triumphant return to the LSU lineup in 2008-09 after being limited to just three games in the 2007-08 season. He was forced to take a medical redshirt after having surgery on a stress fracture in his left shin. But he returned as one of the difference makers for the LSU team, averaging 16.4 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game. Mitchell had 41 points in an important double-overtime win over Mississippi State that gave LSU control of the Western Division and then hit the game-winning three with 10 seconds left at Kentucky that gave LSU the outright SEC title.
Temple’s second-team selection makes him the second Temple to earn All-SEC honors, joining his father, Collis, Jr. who was a third-team selection in 1974. Temple in the final regular season game passed Howard Carter as the all-time leader in minutes played at LSU with 4,298 and that total will continue to rise as LSU plays out the post-season run. He is also in the top 10 all time in assists, steals and blocks and leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.
But where Temple and Johnson earned their reputation is defensively and this year was no exception. Temple again got the call against some of the best scorers on LSU’s schedules and held them in check. LSU’s senior center, Johnson made the team after finishing second in blocked shot average at 2.7 blocks per game and his career total of 166 ranks second only to all-time leader Shaquille O’Neal. He was the LSU team leader in rebounds and had double figure rebounds in six SEC games.
Ole Miss’ Terrico White took the SEC Freshman of the Year award and Alabama’s Justin Knox earned SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year and South Carolina’s Brandon Raley-Ross earned SEC Sixth Man of the Year honors.
Also Tuesday, the United States Basketball Writers Association announced its All-District selections and Thornton was named the Player of the Year for District 7 covering Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana and Trent Johnson was named the Coach of the Year. Thornton and Mitchell were also named to the All-District team.
The All-SEC players and Coach Johnson are expected to meet with the media late this afternoon after practice. The team will leave for Tampa early Wednesday afternoon.
Men’s Basketball Media Session
March 10, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
On being named SEC Coach of the Year…
“It is what it is. I inherited a good group of players who are good people, and I don’t have a good staff; I have an excellent staff. It is what it is, whether you’re embarrassed or you’re modest. That’s just the fact of the matter is.”
On his group of players going into the tournament…
“Everything is new. It’s going to benefit us just like it has all year long. For the NCAA tournament, you have to play and continue to do the things you’ve done all year long and not get caught up in playing in the SEC tournament or the NCAA tournament. It’s still a game. For us, it’s just about being consistent and doing the things we’ve done all year long.”
On if he feels he needed the six days away form competition to recharge…
“Their focus was not lacking, but were there some guys who were tired or banged up and all those kind of things, and would two days off benefit them? Two days off at this time of year would benefit any team in college basketball, but like I said earlier, I’ve been in situations going into the tournament where I’ve had a team win nine in a row and then win the tournament and continue to play at Nevada. Then, I’ve been in situations where you had a bunch of guys with a day off, and we came out and struggled. The bottom line is just concentrating on the next game, the next practice and letting it fly and being aggressive.”
On the challenge of playing potentially three games in three days…
“We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing all year long, trying to win the first game. I fully expect that there are going to be some guys like there have been all year long — Storm Warren’s contributions in Lexington, Ky., Quintin Thornton and what he’s done, Alex Farrer and what he did against a good Ole Miss team and Terry Martin. Our roles and everything are not going to change. We played 31 games. We’re 25-6. That’s behind us now, but to say we are going to do something different, no.
On Marcus Thornton winning SEC Player of the Year…
“It’s gratifying because of the magnitude and caliber of players in this league that were mentioned for that award, and it speaks volumes to what the coaches in this league think of him as a player and how he’s developed and the emphasis on what he would tell you and all of them would tell you on winning. I’m very proud of him. I don’t know if he shared this, but that was one of his individual goals that he mentioned to me way back in the Field House after I had been here only a month. He mentioned that after we had talked and after he had talked about being in a situation where he could be playing in meaningful games. It’s interesting for me. The one guy who didn’t even get an award or didn’t get mentioned in any of it who has made my job and my staff’s job a lot easier is Bo Spencer. He’s made everybody on this team’s role easier, and as Garrett Temple said earlier in the year when Bo Spencer had 20 points, he relieved a lot of pressure off of him. When you start talking about awards and all of that, there is a guy right there where we wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for him in terms of his responsibilities, running this team and how far he’s come as a basketball player. Unfortunately, there is not a most improved player in this league, but I know who is the most improved player on this team and probably the most improved in this league, and that’s Bo Spencer.
Guard Marcus Thornton
On being named SEC Player of the Year…
“It’s a great accomplishment. I was thinking about it whenever I found out. Last year, I had put up similar numbers, but we didn’t win as much. This year I put up the same numbers, and we won, so I give credit to my teammates. Without winning the games, I probably wouldn’t be in the conservation for Player of the Year, so I’m just happy I had these guys to fall back on to help me through the games.”
Guard Garrett Temple
On this week’s preparation…
“This week is very important for us. We’ve been practicing hard. We don’t play until Friday, so we are going to have two or three really tough practices before we head to Tampa Bay. We’ve got to scout two teams because we don’t know who we are going to play yet and just be ready for either one of them because both are capable of playing really good basketball although they haven’t been playing really well lately. They’ve got good scorers, so we just have to focus and get back to LSU basketball. We haven’t been playing that lately.”
Forward Tasmin Mitchell
On if he feels the break is important…
“It’s really big. In the last two games, we didn’t play LSU ball. We can make excuses like we weren’t ready or tired or breaking down, but they were just better than us those nights. The rest period is a great thing to have.”
Guard Bo Spencer
On not wanting to go into the NCAA tournament with a three-game losing streak…
“It’s really important. We don’t want to go into the NCAA tournament with a three-game losing streak. The media and ESPN will think that LSU basketball is a fluke, and we don’t want to go in with a losing streak. We want to go in on top, so we can get a good seed and have good games in the tournament.”
2009 SEC Coaches Postseason Awards
SEC Coach of the Year: Trent Johnson, LSU
SEC Player of the Year: Marcus Thornton, LSU
SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Justin Knox, Alabama
SEC Freshman of the Year: Terrico White, Ole Miss
SEC Sixth-Man of the Year: Brandis Raley-Ross, South Carolina
SEC Defensive Player of the Year: Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State
First Team All-SEC
* Nick Calathes, Florida ? G, 6-6, 194, So., Casselberry, Fla.
* Devan Downey, South Carolina ? G, 5-9, 175, Jr., Chester, S.C.
* Jodie Meeks, Kentucky ? 6-4, 208, Jr., Norcross, Ga.
* Tyler Smith, Tennessee ? F, 6-7, 215, Jr., Pulaski, Tenn.
* Marcus Thornton, LSU ? G, 6-4, 205, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
Tasmin Mitchell, LSU ? F, 6-7, 240, Jr., Denham Springs, La.
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky ? 6-9, 235, So., Huntington, W.Va.
Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State ? F/C, 6-9, 210, Jr., Brownsville, Tenn.
Second Team All-SEC
Korvotney Barber, Auburn ? F, 6-7, 225, Sr., Manchester, Ga.
Wayne Chism, Tennessee ? F, 609, 242, Jr., Jackson, Tenn.
Alonzo Gee, Alabama ? G, 6-6, 219, Sr., Riviera Beach, Fla.
David Huertas, Ole Miss ? G, 6-5, 200, Jr., Humacao, Puerto Rico
A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt ? C, 6-11, 250, So., Sydney, Australia
Michael Washington, Arkansas ? F, 6-9, 239, Jr., McGehee, Ark.
Terrico White, Ole Miss ? G, 6-5, 211, Fr,. Memphis, Tenn.
^ Dominique Archie, South Carolina ? F, 6-7, 200, Jr., Augusta, Ga.
^ Garrett Temple, LSU ? G, 6-6, 190, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
^ Zam Fredrick, South Carolina ? G, 6-0, 203, Sr., St. Matthews, S.C.
SEC All-Freshman Team
* Dee Bost, Mississippi State ? G, 6-2, 170, Fr., Concord, N.C.
* JaMychal Green, Alabama ? F, 6-9, 220, Fr., Montgomery, Ala.
* Terrico White, Ole Miss ? G, 6-5, 211, Fr,. Memphis, Tenn.
Courtney Fortson, Arkansas ? G, 5-11, 180, Fr., Montgomery, Ala.
Scotty Hopson, Tennessee ? G, 6-7, 185, Fr., Hopkinsville, Ky.
Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt ? G/F, 6-7, 210, Fr., Norrkoping, Sweden
Trey Thompkins, Georgia ? F, 6-8, 245, Fr., Lithonia, Ga.
Erving Walker, Florida ? 5-8, 161, Fr., New York, N.Y.
SEC All-Defensive Team
* Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State ? F/C, 6-9, 210, Jr., Brownsville, Tenn.
Devan Downey, South Carolina ? G, 5-9, 175, Jr., Chester, S.C.
Chris Johnson, LSU ? C, 6-11, 210, Sr., Montross, Va.
Garrett Temple, LSU ? G, 6-6, 190, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
^ Dominique Archie, South Carolina ? F, 6-7, 200, Jr., Augusta, Ga.
^ Quantez Robertson, Auburn ? G, 6-3, 200, Sr., Cincinnati, Ohio
* – Unanimous selection
^ – Ties are not broken