BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson on Thursday met with the media to review Wednesday’s loss at Alabama and then previewed Saturday’s contest with Arkansas.
The Tigers (11-5, 1-1) plays Arkansas (12-4, 1-1) at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville at 8 p.m. Saturday night in a game regionally televised on FSN. The LSU Sports Network will broadcast the game on its affiliates including New Country 100.7 FM in Baton Rouge)
Here are some of Coach Johnson’s comments from today’s session:
Opening statement …
“Obviously, after last night after reviewing the video tape extensively, my immediate reaction was of disappointment and a level of frustration and it remains that. Just in terms of for whatever reason, we were very, very sluggish. We had too many unforced turnovers. We had 11 in the half and a lot of them were of the nature of “wingage” to where a perimeter player with an Alabama player three feet from him threw the ball in the post on the first possession, drops it, (Trevor) Releford picks it up and goes the other way. We have three guys back [on defense], one in position to take charge, one in position to level the ball and we don’t get it done. I don’t want to take anything away from Alabama. When you have 11 turnovers at the half and six of them of that kind of [unforced] nature it tells me that we weren’t ready to go. I did make this comment yesterday. I felt that it is my responsibility and it caught me off guard, because we had two good days of practice. Obviously, we hadn’t shown those tendencies in terms of not being ready to compete. The good thing about it is that it is behind us. We don’t have much time to get ready for a team in Arkansas, that quite frankly, their full court pressure and half court pressure in how they want to speed you up is a lot different. It’s going to be a lot more challenging than what we just faced. See, I thought Alabama, they caused problems for us in the half court with us not being able to guard them. They’re taking their time running good set stuff and that gets us in an isolation whether with (Tony) Mitchell or (Trevor) Releford or (JaMychal) Green.”
On Whether Alabama Prepares Team for Arkansas …
“Well no, because just like I said, it wasn’t their [Alabama’s] pressure that really killed us. It was our own inability to have unforced turnovers and get behind a good team on the road. This [Arkansas] team we’re playing will turn you over. They’ll turn you over and speed you up constantly. Do they have three all-league players? I don’t know that, but they have a talented group. Mike Anderson’s got his system in place. Obviously, they beat a pretty good team in Mississippi State at home. It’s a different team and a different type of pressure.”
On Ronald Martin …
“He’s been cleared to practice, he’s been cleared to go. Nick Robinson, my assistant coach, spoke with his [football] position coach. Ronald’s going through the necessary procedure, so he’s definitely going to be with us today and when we travel tomorrow.
On Ronald Martin‘s Expectations …
“Just to learn the system defensively and offensively as soon as possible. I have not seen him work out or run or anything like that. I just know from high school that he’s strong, he shoots it and he has a skill set. Obviously, the level of conditioning [from football to basketball] is completely different. You would like to have had him a week or two before a game. But believe me if he can help us, he’s going to be out there. The sooner the better. You don’t anticipate a guy being able to play football at our level and then come over and play basketball, just because of the wear and tear and the rigors. It takes a special athlete, takes a special kid. He’s the one who approached us. I’m all about letting guys have an opportunity to play. Like I said, he’s strong. Obviously he likes contact, which I like. He has decent skills coming out of high school. He’s been around a lot of competitive guys that win and that always helps.”
On Arkansas compared to last year …
“They play a lot faster, they play a lot faster. The term ‘the forty minutes of hell,’ it’s pretty much what it is. I have a lot of respect for Mike, I know Mike a little bit. Our paths have crossed. The Nevada team that I had that went to the Sweet 16, he was at UAB [Nevada and UAB were in the 2004 NCAA Midwest Regional in St. Louis, Mo,] … I think he does an exceptional job. He’s one of those guys that’s very humble, just goes about his work and has paid his dues over the long haul. There’s never been a question that he’s going to get it done [at Arkansas], and there never was a question to me that they were going to be playing at this level this fast. Again, this will probably be without a question in my mind, the toughest type of pressure and fastest-pace that we’ll play. I anticipate the house being full. We’re going to have to take care of the ball, and we’re going to have to make good decisions and get back to winning the battle on the glass, because they’re going to shoot it quick, and they’re going to shoot it deep. Last night, we got handled on the glass.”