BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball Coach Trent Johnson talked about his team’s impending trip to Florida when he met with the media on Thursday in the practice facility media room.
The Tigers (12-6, 2-2) meet the Florida Gators (14-4, 2-1) Saturday at 5 p.m. CST at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville. The game will be televised regionally by Fox Sports Net and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge).
The game is the start of a back-to-back road trip for the second time in the first six games for LSU as LSU will also go to Starkville to play Mississippi State next Saturday.
Here are some of Coach Johnson’s comments from the media session:
LSU Men’s Basketball Media Session
January 19, 2012
Head Coach Trent Johnson
Opening Statement …
“Well Florida, in the goodness of guard play, is exceptional, but probably when you take a look at their basketball team, they are balanced now. I think (Erik) Murphy’s improvement from last year to this year is pretty impressive. Obviously, Patric Young is strong and as athletic you get. He can really score in the post. He causes a lot of problems when he turns his left shoulder. He hits a nice 15-foot jump shot right now so the bottom line for us is we are going to have to play really really well. We are really going to have to do a good job, first and foremost, of getting back [defensively] and limiting transition baskets. It is one thing if you attack off the bounce in transition, but they attack off the bounce and now you shoot the three in transition, so they cause you a lot of problems. In the half court [defense], we are going to have to push them off the three and not panic or lose our poise when we push them off the three because they can just get to the rim and finish. I can go down the line and talk about we are playing (Erving) Walker, (Kenny) Boynton, (Bradley) Beal and (Mike) Rosario. All those guys are capable. Again, Billy’s (Donovan) got a nice basketball team … Again it is going to be a, like most league games, it is going to be a big challenge. Hopefully, we will get some positive news here in terms of Johnny’s (O’Bryant III) situation and knowing when he will be available. Everybody else is pretty much healthy.”
Defending Florida …
“Conventionally, it is a hard adjustment because conventionally when you send your one, two, and three [positions] back like we do, you get back and protect your rim, protect your basket. With their range, and we are not talking about collegiate threes, we are talking about guys that shoot the NBA three. So, now you have got to make sure you cover the whole, but also you have to make sure you sprint out. Now you are sprinting out with solid, sound close outs and it is not like you are sprinting out to a guy who is a catch and shoot guy. They all put it on the floor and break you down at the point of attack. It is hard, it is extremely hard and a big challenge. Their quickness is what really causes problems for you because they shoot it, put it on the floor, but also they have a quickness advantage at times. So, understanding your angles, understanding personnel, like if a guy is a strong right driver, and he shoots a three you have to take that right hand away. All of those things are going to be huge.”
Playing offense …
“It is really important, it is going to be important for us to be efficient offensively and keep this thing in the half court game, which will help our defense. If we take quick shots, if we take bad shots, if we have unforced turnovers, we are going to have problems. For our basketball team, that is pretty much been the case all year long, regardless of who we play. There were a couple of teams maybe, I should not say a couple, maybe three or four teams in non-conference that we could play faster than normal. For the most part, we are going to have to make sure on the half court [offense] we are very efficient and make open shots and play better, bottom line on offense, get more contribution, have more guys score.”
On Andre Stringer …
“In all seriousness, he has improved, he has improved his defense. I think it helps him being at the wing because yes he is small, but he has some quickness so he can get up under guys. When I say get up under guys, it takes a great player when you are on the perimeter and you see a lot of kids who play the wing are 6’5 and 6’2 and they struggle when guys are under them. Under them meaning you have to bring the ball down to go by a guy. Usually, guys shoot the ball on the perimeter from here to there so from that stand point him [Stringer] being short is helping him. Quite frankly, knock on wood, nobody has run whoever he is guarding through the post. He has done a good job, he has gotten better. Defensively has not been where our problems have been at as of late. We just have to become more efficient on offense and start making some shots.”
On making shots …
“Not consistently enough. Efficiently at times, but not consistently enough. Again, I said this before, I do not want to take anything away from the competition, but a lot of teams when they come with multiple types of pressure or half court, three-quarter court, it gets you out of rhythm. Still when you are open, that is when you got to have a term we use and a term a lot of basketball people use is rhythm up and shoot it with confidence. So I thought for example, versus Auburn at times in the first half, we were in a good rhythm, and they changed defenses. We spent a lot of time here as of late, I say as of late, the last month, changing defenses, making nice reads. At times guys shot the ball aggressively, but at other times guys got real tentative and wanted to look to pass. On the road versus Florida, I do not anticipate them changing. They played a lot faster pace at home than they do on the road. I think we are going to see probably two, maybe three, different defenses. I would anticipate them getting up, getting after us and wanting to put this thing up tempo in a heartbeat.”
Entering the toughest part of the schedule …
“Well, I will go back to what I said the other day. No disrespect to Grambling, but after we got through with Grambling, we were about to play Virginia. It was like 17 rounds of a heavyweight fight, I think this is round six. That is pretty much it, and I think they understand that. There is too much basketball to be played. Again, I know you guys get tired of hearing it. I wish I could si up here and have all of these great quotes, but I mean who would have thought Florida State was going to beat North Carolina like they did? You can go on and on and on, so it speaks volumes to just focusing in on the next game and just focusing in on the moment. Probably more importantly, with this group and I said this earlier in the year, to just enjoy playing. Just enjoy playing the game, that is what you are in college for.”