BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson met with the local media Monday for a final media session before leaving on Tuesday for the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville. The team will depart Tuesday after practice and meet with the media at the tournament site, Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m., followed by practice in the arena at 1 p.m.
The Tigers, the sixth seed in the West, meet East three seed, Tennessee, in the second game of the afternoon session on Thursday at approximately 2:15 p.m. The game will be televised over the SEC Network and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Here are some of Coach Johnson’s comments from today’s media session:
Trent Johnson Meets with the Media
March 8, 2010
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“The situation with Dennis Harris, I’m sure everyone wants answers on that. Of all the information we’ve accumulated it’s a situation where he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We will deal with it internally, and it will be dealt with four or five days a week through the spring and summer. The thing that’s disappointing to me is that Dennis and Garrett Green were out at 1:45 a.m., and Garrett didn’t play because of his back injury. Dennis has been limited in terms of his back too. It’s common sense that you shouldn’t be out that late at night.
“Moving forward, Tennessee is probably playing as good as anyone in our league right now. They are a hard matchup regardless of the fact we played them hard here. I say that based off their level of intensity and how they are playing and how their younger players have developed. Our win against Georgia is a good win from the standpoint that wins have been hard for our team to come by. It was nice to see Tasmin be Tasmin as always. He gets more enjoyment out of winning than anything else. It wasn’t an ESPN Classic. Georgia was not the same basketball team in terms of their last five or six games and their perimeter players. It was still good for us to get a win on senior night. We are off (Monday) with the exception of six guys. Alex Farrer, Aaron Dotson, Zach Kinsley, Chris Bass, Daron Populist and Chris Beattie are going to get extensive work on the perimeter. Malcolm White, Garrett Green and Taylor Jacobsen are going to work in the post. Tasmin, Bo and Storm are going through treatment and stretching, and Eddie and Dennis will lift. We will head to Nashville, Tennessee, tomorrow around five or six after we practice.”
On being able to play his way into the NCAA Tournament …
“It is an opportunity for us to spoil someone’s season along the way if we are fortunate enough to be successful the first night. It is a very stiff challenge for us because we aren’t very deep or strong. Our skill level and our deficiencies to score lead you to think you can’t win two games in two nights let alone three or four. I’ve never got caught up in that. I’ve just focused on trying to compete in the first game and be close in 3-4 minute mark. Then, if things go your way then line up the next night and see what happens. Georgia, I wasn’t in the league at the time, but I remember watching that team and they were strong physically with great guard play. There are a lot of things that led to that being a situation favorable for them. This is the time of year where anything can happen. It is a new season. I will address it with these guys as I always have; it’s another game, another opportunity.”
On if he feels the team is ready for the offseason …
“No. That isn’t the case at all. One of the things that you look at with this team is as many times as we’ve been drilled or under-manned, there has been a resiliency to them to step back up and get after it. I know it’s hard because the wins and losses have added up, but going back to Vanderbilt, we’ve improved. We’ve played good basketball at times. It’s just unfortunate that with this team this year, the uglier the game is the more it gives us a chance to win. There has been no quitting. A lot of them have probably said this in their own way, but I won’t let them quit. That is part of coaching. No one in this locker room is laying down on me, this school or each other. Are we as good or talented as other people? You can’t say, for as much as you have seen us play, that anyone has quit out there. That speaks volumes for the kids. There has been no quitting.”
On what they have learned from this season …
“I see positives as it relates to our improvement this year. The evaluation of next year won’t come until the end of spring or summer. Whenever we get eliminated, I can tell you about next year two days after. For me, whenever that happens, everyone tells me to relax. The mission for next year will start sooner than you’d think. Right now, we’ve improved. We’ve won two out of four games. I go back to the Vandy game which I thought was a good game. We battled. You look at us on the road at Auburn and Ole Miss. Ole Miss really had a chance to put it on us, and we battled. Auburn had a chance to put it on us. We battled. Arkansas beat us by 33 points. We came back home, and we find a way to win. We found a way to win on senior night. That’s a positive in terms of what’s been going on from earlier in the year in the league.”
On how he wants his players to represent the program …
“They need to be held accountable socially, academically and athletically. For me, it’s always the case that, I’m around them a lot so I have an idea of what kind of kids they are. Knowing who you can trust and who you can’t. I will never push the button on a kid and overreact until I hear all the sides to the story. No question about it. As coaches, we are educators and leaders. We aren’t perfect in any shape or form. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force them to drink. These guys will tell you there is a certain way I live my life and carry myself. That is how I expect them to do it. I don’t drink. I never have. Coach doesn’t act a fool. Coach never has. Going back to college there is a bunch of former players they can reference. The teams that I am fortunate enough to coach and players I’m around, that is how they are going to conduct themselves. When there is a slip-up, it will be dealt with the proper way. I’ve never been one to make a mountain out of a mole hill. We all have a tendency when we are dealing with young student-athletes to overreact. I’m not one of them. It’s not three strikes and you are out. It’s how big and bad those strikes are.”