BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team put 23 students through a near two-hour session of drills and five-on-five play Monday in hopes of finding a possible addition to their basketball team for the 2011-12 season.
No decision was made Monday, but the coaching staff will examine the video tape of the session and make a decision regarding any of the players joining the team.
Assistant Coach Nick Robinson put the try-out group through their paces while Coach Trent Johnson and two of LSU’s most famous walk-ons, local restaurateurs Brandon Landry and Jack Warner watched. Landry spoke to the group prior to the start of the session.
“We have a bunch of guys out here who are very energetic and obviously looking forward to having an opportunity to hopefully represent the LSU basketball program,” said Coach Johnson about mid-way through the session. “This is always for me, when kids get out here and get after it and play the game, always nice to see. We are obviously looking for speed and quickness. With this team moving forward, we have a lot of size. Again probably the most important thing we are looking for is someone that is very, very competitive, understands his role on this basketball team and, be a good student.”
One of LSU’s most recent walk-ons, Daron Populist, who came out of tryouts to play the last two years for Coach Johnson, has received a scholarship to play this coming season at Southeastern Louisiana.
Coach Johnson said that last year’s other walk-on, Andrew Del Piero, continues to work with the 2011-12 Tigers in individual drills and team sessions as allowed in the fall as he tries to earn another year as a member of the team.
If the coaching staff decides to add a player, that decision should come within the next several days.