BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson met with the media on Monday prior to the team’s departure for their cross-country National Invitation Tournament game at Eugene, Ore., Tuesday night against the Oregon Ducks.
LSU is the sixth seed in the Washington region after finishing with an 18-14 record, splitting two games with Arkansas and Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. Third seed Oregon is 22-9, finishing tied for second in the Pac 12 with a 13-5 record.
The game is set to tip at 6:30 p.m. PDT at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene (8:30 p.m. CDT) and will be broadcast on ESPN. The game will also be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge).
The winner will play the winner of second seed Dayton and seventh-seed Iowa, also playing Tuesday in Iowa City. The time and date for the game has yet to be set.
The Tigers are making their sixth postseason NIT appearance (1970, 1982, 1983, 2002, 2004) with their best showing coming in the old NIT in 1970 that was all played at Madison Square Garden. The Tigers won two games before losing to Marquette in the semifinals. Overall, LSU is 3-6 in the post-season NIT.
While LSU and Oregon have never met on the basketball court, Coach Johnson is familiar with them from his four years at Stanford, where he put together a 6-2 record against the Ducks. He is 6-7 in post-season play combined at Nevada, Stanford and LSU.
| NIT First-Round Schedule | ||
| All Times Central | ||
| Tuesday, March 13 | ||
| 6 p.m. | 5 Massachusetts at 4 Mississippi St. | ESPN2 |
| 6:15 p.m. | 8 Stony Brook at 1 Seton Hall | ESPN3.com |
| 6:30 p.m. | 2 Dayton at 7 Iowa | ESPN |
| 7 p.m. | 8 Savannah St. at 1 Tennessee | ESPNU |
| 8 p.m. | 5 Akron at 4 Northwestern | ESPN2 |
| 8:15 p.m. | 5 Marshall at 4 Middle Tennessee | ESPN3.com |
| 8:30 p.m. | 6 LSU at 3 Oregon | ESPN |
| 9 p.m. | 8 Texas-Arlington at 1 Washington | ESPNU |
| 10 p.m. | 6 Cleveland St. at 3 Stanford | ESPN2 |
| Wednesday, March 14 | ||
| 6 p.m. | 6 Minnesota at 3 La Salle | ESPN2 |
| 6:15 p.m. | 6 UCF at 3 Drexel | ESPN3.com |
| 6:15 p.m. | 7 Northern Iowa at 2 St. Joseph’s | ESPN3.com |
| 6:30 p.m. | 7 Valparaiso at 2 Miami (Fla.) | ESPNU |
| 8 p.m. | 8 Bucknell at 1 Arizona | ESPN2 |
| 8:15 p.m. | 5 Nevada at 4 Oral Roberts | ESPN3.com |
| 8:30 p.m. | 7 Illinois St. at 2 Ole Miss | ESPNU |
This will be the 26th overall (20 NCAA, 6 NIT) post-season appearance for LSU as the Tigers return to post-season play for the first time since 2009.
Dana Altman is the coach at Oregon who is 43-27 in two years at Oregon who also was head coach at Creighton and Kansas State. The Oregon roster includes one Baton Rouge product, Jeremy Jacob, a senior who came to Oregon from Chipola Junior College. Devoe Joseph leads the Ducks in scoring with a 16.6 points per game average. E.J. Singler averaged 13.1 points per game with Garrett Sim posting a 12.2 average.
Oregon averages 72.2 points per game, compared to 67.0 for opponents.
Follow updates on the game throughout Tuesday night on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson.
Here are some of the comments from Coach Johnson’s media session Monday:
LSU Basketball Media Session
March 12, 2012
HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening Statement…
“Obviously, we are excited about the opportunity to continue to play. It is a quick turn around. We (the coaching staff) are very familiar with the Pac-12 so to speak and (the city of) Eugene (Oregon). Dana Altman is an exceptional coach. You look at his résumé over the years in regards to where he has been, and he has done a really good job. This is no different with this (Oregon) team. I think in the short two-year span there, they have won 40 some odd games, so it is going to be a tough match-up for us. The guys obviously had a lot of bounce in their step last night. When we found out, we immediately went to the practice floor at 8:30 p.m. and went up-and-down for about an hour and a half. With midterms and things of that nature, they (the players) have a lot going on, but they are really excited about the opportunity to play. The bus leaves about 2:15 p.m. and hopefully we will get there around 5:30 p.m. west coast time. Then, we will have a short workout from probably 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. or so if things all go as planned.”
On if the team got to work on game planning at all last night…
“No. Obviously with a short period like that, the main thing was ourselves in terms that they had been off for two days just to get up-and-down, dry run our offense and things of that nature. We will have extensive video sessions this evening when we get there, and we will put in our game plan. Obviously our matchups, defense and how we will try to guard them.”
On what was learned from the two SEC Tournament games …
“Again, one of the things that I talked about and for the most part I shared with them was the understanding of how hard you have to play every day and how competitive you have to be. But again, I think (Kentucky coach) John (Calipari) said something that I think was really right on, ‘Kids are not machines’. So you ask what did I learn? I think it has just been a process, it’s just been a natural progression for us. Nobody expected this group, with the exception of those guys in the locker room and the guys that I work with, to be in this situation like they were in two weeks ago. Nobody did. So for them to get there and then not play well regardless of what it was, then turn around and bounce back in the SEC tournament and compete at a high level and beat a good Arkansas team and have the opportunities versus a special team in Kentucky. I think as long as they don’t forget how hard they had to work to get to that point. As long as they don’t ever get caught up in moral victories, we will continue to progress and have some success if we get back in that situation again.”
On the benefits of playing in a post season tournament for a young team and the program…
“I think how it benefits our program is to still have the opportunity to play and get better. The benefits are immeasurable. It is good for this group, just because they had a really, really bitter taste in their mouth. They understand because what was it, three weeks ago, we were in the position where we could have played our way into the NCAA tournament, and we didn’t. The game is fair. I think it is real good for any team that they continue to play.”
On the seniors reaction to last night…
“They actually didn’t have time (to react). We were scheduled to meet at 8:30 p.m., and we were going to do one of two things. We were going to vote on team awards and make announcements when we were going to have our banquet and bring closure to it, that kind of thing. Or we were going to get back out there on the practice floor. When I walked in there, basically I had known for a long time, but when I walked in there, Justin (Hamilton) and Malcolm (White) were in the locker room, Andrew (Del Piero) was on the floor. I told them ‘hey we need to get dressed’. We started calling those guys as soon as we could because a lot of them were going to get there right at 8:30 p.m. We just shared a few things, brought closer to the Kentucky game. We talked about a couple things I just shared with you about competing at a high level and those kinds of things and moved forward. Business as usual.”
On the difficulties of playing at Oregon …
“It has to do with the team. It has to do with the players, and they have good players. It is the same old thing for us, and the same old thing for me. We need to be ready to play. Yeah, there is difficulty if you don’t play well, you don’t compete well. But a lot of that has to deal with yourself and who you are playing as opposed to the arena. I know one thing, they have a rabid fan base. Regardless of what it is, the NCAA tournament or the NIT, it will be a packed house.”
On how they match up to Oregon…
“Well, (Devoe) Joseph is special. He is a transfer from Minnesota. I think our match-ups are good. Garrett Sim is a kid that I am very familiar with. When I was at Stanford, we were recruiting him. He is a senior and is special. Also (E.J.) Singler is a kid when we were at Stanford, we were recruiting him too … They have seven-footers that are long. (Jeremy) Jacob is from Baton Rouge. He is real similar to Storm (Warren). In terms of the match-ups physically, they are favorable for both teams. But in terms of what they do, how they play at home and all those kinds of things, I am not going to get into all that. I just think for us it is the same deal. We need to make sure we keep the ball out of the middle of the floor when on half court. We need to make sure we limit their transition opportunities just because they do shoot it quick in transition. We need to make sure that this thing is played from the inside-out on the half court.”