BATON ROUGE – Off a performance against No. 19 Memphis that had many positives except a final score that went their way, the LSU men’s basketball team returns to the Maravich Center looking to continue to move forward Wednesday night when the Centenary Gents come to town.
Game time is 7 p.m. There is no TV broadcast for the game, but the game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (WTGE New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and (along with scoreboard video) at LSUsportsnet.com/live.
Tickets are available for $10 and $5 for youth (ages 3-12) and are available online at LSUtix.net and beginning at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center.
The Tigers are 2-2 on the season after a 70-61 loss to Memphis in Tupelo, Miss., on Sunday. Andre Stringer led LSU in scoring for the fourth straight game with 13 points, while Aaron Dotson had 12 and Ralston Turner had 11. The Tigers had a one-point advantage at halftime and after falling down by nine in the second half rallied in the final five minutes to get a lead. But LSU’s 25 percent shooting in the second half hurt them as Memphis was able to make the plays down the stretch to get the win.
“Going into this game, I am not paying any attention to records,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “I am more worried about us. We are going to have to do a better job defensively and improve in some of the areas that we improved on in the previous game. Obviously there is a size advantage for us, so we are going to have to develop an inside-out attack. We are going to have to compete. I know nobody likes to hear it, but the bottom line is that this is competition. The good teams that I have been affiliated with don’t worry about who they are playing, where they are playing and when they are playing. They just worry about competing and trying to get better and treating every possession as the most important possession.”
Centenary is in its final year as a Division I school and a member of The Summit League before transitioning to Division III and the American Southwest Conference. This will be the 10th time the teams have met with LSU leading 8-1.
The Gents, under first year head coach Adam Walsh, are 0-5, but are coming off their best game of the year Monday night in Shreveport when they lost to Northwestern State, 83-70.
The Gents shot 60 percent in the first half of the game and had a 38-30 advantage, but the Demons posted 52 second-half points to wipe out a 55 percent shooting effort for Centenary. The Demons took advantage of 26 Gent turnovers to come up with 32 points.
“We need to improve our assist-to-turnover ratio and improve defensively at the point of attack,” said Johnson of the game goals. “From what I have seen of Centenary on tape, they may be undersized but they run lots of good stuff very similar to what Nicholls State did. Defensively, if we come out with our heads not where they need to be, then we are always going to struggle. There are five guys on that team that will put their uniforms on the same way as the five guys on our team.”
It is expected that Stringer, Turner and Dotson will be in the starting lineup again for LSU along with junior forwards Storm Warren and Malcolm White. Both Warren and White fouled out in the Memphis game and had limited minutes because of foul trouble.
LSU travels to Mobile, Ala., this Sunday for the Coors Classic game presented by the local GoDaddy.com Bowl. The Tigers will face home team South Alabama in the Mitchell Center in a 3 p.m. game televised by CSS. LSU returns home for the final game before school dead week and final exams on Tuesday, Nov. 30, against the University of Houston.
LSU basketball can be followed on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson.
LSU Basketball Media Session
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010
Coach Trent Johnson
Opening Statement …
“We just came up a little short against Memphis. After reviewing the video tape, we were in a great position throughout the game, quite frankly. We had some crucial breakdowns defensively throughout the second half that hurt us. Those had to do with youth and inexperience in certain situations. Offensively, I thought we executed. We got very good shots, which were sometimes too wide open. So, we need to put that behind us and make sure we continue to improve. One of the things that I felt good about after looking at the tape and coming out of the game was our ball handling, which going in we had not been taking care of the ball very well. In a road environment, having 11 assists and seven turnovers at the half and finishing the game with 13 assists and 13 turnovers, with our post guys in foul trouble for the majority of the time, I felt like our guys did a good job of hanging in there. Going into the game we felt confident that if we did certain things right, we would have a chance to win the game. So, our approach now is to watch some video tape, correct some things defensively and continue to try to improve and get ready for Centenary.”
On whether the team can build off their performance against Memphis …
“It depends on their approach to practice and their approach to continue to correct the mistakes that they made, which they did a good job of. I mentioned this to the coaching staff on the bus – it was a down group. So, as much as I say that we are not into moral victories – which everyone around here knows – these guys are not either. It is not like they went into that game, regardless of whether they are a freshman or sophomore and with all of the negativity surrounding them after last year, thinking they could not win if they didn’t do certain things. Confidence for me is something I base off your consistency in terms of getting better day in and day out. We will find out (Wednesday). If things go well (Wednesday) in terms of possession by possession, defending and rebounding and taking care of the ball, then we move onto the next game. I would like to think that they learned their lesson coming off three games in which we did not take care of the ball very well and only had one good rebounding effort. Now they say ‘ok, if we can do things at this level of intensity and this high rate, we should have a chance to be successful against some people.’ “
On playing Memphis in a hostile environment …
“I think kids in general – as much as I talk about staying on an even keel in competition – when there are more people in the stands regardless of if you are at home or on the road, it gets your juices going a little more. The bottom line is I thought they did a very good job of coming out emotionally ready to go, and then they got to a point where they were on an even keel and concentrated. So, I think it helps. Andre Stringer I thought was rushing a little bit. I thought Ralston Turner – with it being his first time in an environment like that – was very even keeled. Matt Derenbecker was 0-3, but he shot them very well. The sooner the better that we get into situations like that where we know what we are getting into, the better off we will be. Overall, I thought it was ok with the exception of the final score.”
On the upcoming game against Centenary …
“Going into this game, I am not paying any attention to records. I am more worried about us. We are going to have to do a better job defensively and improve in some of the areas that we improved on in the previous game. Obviously there is a size advantage for us, so we are going to have to develop an inside-out attack. We are going to have to compete. I know nobody likes to hear it, but the bottom line is that this is competition. The good teams that I have been affiliated with don’t worry about who they are playing, where they are playing and when they are playing. They just worry about competing and trying to get better and treating every possession as the most important possession. We need to improve our assist-to-turnover ratio and improve defensively at the point of attack. From what I have seen of Centenary on tape, they may be undersized but they run lots of good stuff very similar to what Nicholls State did. Defensively, if we come out with our heads not where they need to be, then we are always going to struggle. There are five guys on that team that will put their uniforms on the same way as the five guys on our team.”