BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball Coach Trent Johnson met with the media Thursday in preparation for Saturday’s 3 p.m. game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against SEC Western Division rival Mississippi State.
The Tigers are 10-12 on the season and 2-5 in the SEC, while Mississippi State is 11-10 and 3-4 after losing 75-61 at Alabama. LSU rallied to within four points from 13 down late in the second half Wednesday against South Carolina before falling, 64-56.
Among the promotions and events in conjunction with the game will be a special return halftime performance by Peter Rabbit, the Bucket Drummer, star of the Tony-Award winning “Bringin Da Noise, Bringin Da Funk.” Also, starting with this game, one member of the Maravich Maniacs student support group will win a free ticket to the LSU-Oregon football game in September in Dallas at Cowboys Stadium.
Also in conjunction with the game LSU faculty and staff will be able to buy a ticket for the game with their faculty/staff ID for just $1.
With the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and the campus closed on Friday, tickets for the LSU-Mississippi State game may be purchased online at LSUtix.net and tickets will go on sale on game day at the upper concourse ticket windows beginning at 1:30 p.m.
For more information and to follow LSU Basketball on Facebook go to www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson.
Here are some of Coach Johnson’s comments Thursday to the media:
Opening Statement …
“Going back a little bit on last night, with this team it’s really interesting because we are putting ourselves in the same situation over and over again. The best way for me to articulate to you in basketball terms is prior to the half we talk about the adjustment we want to make on one particular player. We talk about it at halftime and then we come out and have a breakdown immediately the first possession and they get a three. Then there are some things that go on during the course of timeouts where we are repeating the same things over and over again and the guys aren’t able to carry it out. I think a lot of that has to do with, I don’t want to say the inexperience or anything like that, but it has to do with their ability to concentrate in the heat of battle and heat of a contest. We have a lot of that going on and that is where the word frustration lies for me and the word accountability lies for them. Until we can play through those things, you are going to see all those inconsistencies that you’ve seen. I just wanted to clear that up because obviously you guys have all heard me. I’m not going to single out any one individual because this is not an individual sport, but guys have got to take some leadership and some responsibility to not make the same mistake over and over again.
“Mississippi State is very talented. Ravern Johnson, Dee Bost, and (Kodi) Augustus are special and physical athletes. The skill level of Bost, I have always had the utmost respect for him. I was very impressed with him as a freshman my first year and how he was able to keep them in games, and the way he beat us in the tournament by single handedly running the team, being a leader and being a good defender. He’s a winner. Then Renardo Sidney is as special and as physical as it gets. I’ve got to believe they will be ready to play. They cause some problems for us at the point and at the three and five.
“From an injury standpoint I don’t have a feel. I haven’t talked to the training staff yet. I don’t know anything about Matt (Derenbecker’s left) ankle. Hopefully Storm (Warren) will be better. The key (Thursday) is to put him in some five-on-five and some four-on-four. I mentioned this last night I just didn’t feel good playing him. I just can’t put a kid out there without practice and expect him to go up and down and be effective, let alone re-injure that Achilles.”
On the nine-point run they had last night (second half cutting a 13-point deficit to four)…
“Is that a glimpse of how we can and how this team should have been? Probably, but let’s deal with the facts. Ralston (Turner) not being in the fold, Storm (Warren) not being in the fold, and teams are doing a good job defending Andre (Stringer) and taking things away from him. Is that an indication of how we can be if we’re healthy moving down the stretch? No question. We need to have everybody out operating on all cylinders.”
On how important it is to get Storm Warren back against a player like Renardo Sidney …
“It’s imperative and it’s important we have everyone healthy. With Storm that gives us another body who can bang against a guy who is seven feet and arguably 280 pounds. Everybody is going to have an opportunity whether it is Storm, Malcolm (White) or Garrett (Green). Obviously we’re going to try to look at some zone but the thing that scares you about the zone is they shoot it so well from the perimeter. Without Sidney Mississippi State has always been one of the best perimeter shooters in this conference since I have been here.”
On how the team can put the tough loss behind them and move on to the next game …
“You would think because we have certainly had our shares of opportunities to deal with those kinds of things. Obviously there was a little bit more pain that there has been in the past. Again this is college athletics and college basketball, and you get a chance to come back out Saturday and do something about it. That’s the most important thing, you get a chance to get out there to do something about it. You’ve got 10 games left in the SEC to do something about it.”
On the parity in the SEC and how the team has a chance to get back into the race with a couple of wins …
“Well I don’t dwell on that. Even if we were 7-0 I just dwell on the next game and getting better, I always have and I always will. When you speak about parity, there is some parity with the exception of probably three or four teams. There are about 10 teams in this league that are playing pretty good basketball and are pretty talented. For me I’ve never worried about that, I’m more worried about us playing good basketball and trying to develop some consistency.”
On Andre Stringer‘s 19 points against South Carolina and if he can continue it …
“Let’s don’t put the carrot before the horse. First of all, (Bruce) Ellington is very good. He’s a very good player. Andre is not going to carry this thing single handedly. The thing I thought he did last night was knock down the open shots that he has been getting and not been making. Mississippi State is an experienced, veteran team, so I think the offensive challenge for him is going to pick his spots, and when he shoots it to shoot it with confidence. It was good that he got in and got some extra shots in, and good that he shot the ball well. This is a different type of team that we are playing against, and again people get too caught up in an individual having a good offensive performance. This is a team where we have to have everyone playing together and everyone shooting the ball well for us to be effective against good teams. Andre shot the ball well but Matt (Derenbecker) and Ralston (Turner) didn’t shoot the ball well, so we ended up getting beat. I just think his confidence is where it needs to be now. He is keeping his composure and not worrying about things. Hopefully there will be some consistency there now.”
On what he needs to do to get the team to be able to focus and play smart the whole game …
“Well you just go back and you repeat the same drill and put them in the same environment over and over again. You watch video tape and you put them through it. Talent aside, there’s a reason certain guys are able to become more effective and better players. In general teams beat better teams, regardless of your talent level because of the ability to concentrate and be mentally tough. Garrett Green is probably as long and as athletic as anyone we play against. You look at a guy like Matt Flynn who is in the NFL. You take his shirt off and he probably doesn’t look the part, but he is a special competitor. For me it’s always going to be the same, we are not going to move on until we get this right because otherwise you just end up doing nothing really well. Hopefully we get to the point where we can do something decent.”