BATON ROUGE – The days will begin to count down with a certain quickness for LSU men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones and his Tigers with the start of an opening three days of practice beginning Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the practice facility at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The count is on for the start of the regular season that is set for Nov. 15 at noon against Gardner-Webb on SECN+. The pace picks up from there with a Nov. 18 ESPN2 game to conclude the ESPN Tipoff Marathon against Texas Tech before the team departs for the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Coach Jones, entering his third year after the most wins for any LSU Head Coach in their first two years (39), met with the media on Tuesday and here are some of his comments:
Opening statement …
“We’re looking forward to our first full-scale practice, starting (Wednesday). It won’t be long before we get started with our season. We have an exhibition game November 7th and the conference season starts November 15th against Gardner Webb. On (November) 18th, we play the Texas Tech team here at home as well before we go on the road and get into the Paradise Jam tournament. We are looking forward to it. I’ve got five new faces out there on the floor, two returning starters. We look forward to the new guys coming in, and the impact they will have the opportunity to make on this team. The experience of the guys that will be returning from last year’s team notably Jarell (Martin) and Jordan (Mickey) – two of the key guys that both certainly had a lot of accolades from last year. They had success last year, and their ability that they continue to have to grow as players this year. We are excited. The opportunities for us to work with guys for two hours a week leading up to this (the first practice) has been really good for us in trying to find where players were with their development especially working with the new guys and their individual skill work. We’ve been really pleased with them as well.”
On Josh Gray and what he brings to the offense …
“He has a lot of power, he’s a lot thicker and he’s a little taller than the guys that we lost from the program last year. He has tremendous ball handling skills. He’s an excellent passer and can really finish around the rim. He’s one of the guys that looks forward to getting to the basket to create opportunities for other people but has a midrange game as well to hit the outside shot. He’s really quick and fun to really watch. I think our guys have to try and get used to being ready and aware of passes because he throws a lot of no look passes. He creates opportunities on the ball. The ball will get there, and it will get there quick. Our guys have had an opportunity playing with him, getting a little bit in the summer, to get used to him and try to figure out exactly his style of play. He’s been good.”
On if this month of workouts is different from his first two seasons …
“It’s probably more so like the first year because of coming in and having to really implement your philosophy of what we do offensively and defensively. When you’ve got five new faces like that, there’s a lot of teaching. You’ve only got two starters returning. We are trying to make sure those guys can get acclimated to what we are doing on both ends of the floor. I don’t think it’s going to take long. I’m glad we’ve had those opportunities to have hands on with those guys, the little time we’ve had since school has started. Now that we are transitioning into full-scale practice tomorrow, those guys will be a little bit ahead of where we were the first year. We are excited about that. I think it’ll lend more to our first year than it did last year. Last year, we had a lot of experienced guys back. We were able to flow into practice really easily because guys knew what we were doing offensively and defensively – the schemes and what we were doing in the foundation of our practices as well.”
On decision Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey made to come back to LSU …
“We’re excited. There were several players in our league that probably had those opportunities and decided not to go. I think our league is going to be very good because of (that). I think it’s going to help our team with the experience of the two guys, Jarell (Martin) and Jordan (Mickey), who are returning for their sophomore years. It will certainly help us because of the nucleus of the guys that we feel that we have around them. The other guys that are returning on the team – Tim Quarterman, Darcy Malone and John Odo. Those guys, I think, will have an opportunity to be a force as well with the impact of the five new faces that we have.”
On how important it was to have Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey come back to LSU …
“It’s huge for us. Recruiting is big, and we’ve been very fortunate to be in the Top 15 of recruiting classes the last couple of years. Your biggest recruiting happens on campus just as Johnny O’Bryant III came back after his sophomore year and played with us that junior year. That was huge and the impact that he made on the team. There’s no difference than outside of having those two guys (Martin and Mickey) return, I can’t image having to fill that void of having to replace those two guys including Johnny from last year’s team. Having those two guys here certainly helps us.”
On different types of players on the interior to plug in …
“The good thing about this team is that I think we have a little bit more flexibility. When we are talking about Aaron (Epps) who can play inside or out, or (Brian) Bridgewater – both of those guys are very capable of playing either in the post area or sharing some time on the perimeter as well. It’s something we look forward to because it gives us a little bit more versatility as a basketball team in terms of our approach. That’s why we are so excited about getting started tomorrow in terms of just trying to see what rolls those guys will be able to play and just how quickly we will be able to get the chemistry of this team going.”
On Keith Hornsby and how he has fit in with the team…
“He hasn’t changed. If anything, he has gotten better. I think he has a great knack for leading and leads by example. He works extremely hard. He does everything he is supposed to do on and off the floor. He will be a great addition to our team, and we will be glad to have the opportunity to have him on game nights, not just in practice. He has a tremendous mid-range game – an excellent athlete that can finish at the basket, and he can shoot the deep ball. He is very well-rounded, and he works so hard during the offseason to improve in areas where he thinks he had some weaknesses. I think we’ll have an opportunity to see a lot of things from Keith, and he can score in a lot of ways. ”
On last year’s missed opportunities and how he addressed it to the team during the offseason…
“I don’t share or bother kids with (the missed opportunities last year). I think it’s a part of maturation and maturity. In terms of playing, you wind up missing out on some great opportunities sometimes because of the fact that you could have done some things a little differently. More mature teams have a better chance of getting some things done. We did win. We were fortunate to win some of those games last year, but we had a couple – two or three – that we would have loved to have back as well. I think Keith (Hornsby) and the experience that we have, hopefully these two freshmen (Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey) that are going to be sophomores now are able to close those games out in better fashion. They had a little experience last year and got a taste of doing it, but I think that good teams that go from good to great are the ones that are capable to do that night in and night out.”
On the importance of Elbert Robinson III losing weight during the offseason …
“It’s great for Elbert, but I’m not sure he’s going to part of pushing the ball. If he is out in front of those guys, we’ll be in trouble (laugher). But I think Elbert is going to have an opportunity to rebound the ball well. He is kind of a space-eater. A big guy, we are very lucky that he worked as hard as he did during the offseason. Our big guys are certainly are going to play a big role in what we do because they can trail. We have a couple of guys that can trail when you talk about Darcy (Malone) who can shoot the three. It just kind of depends who is in at that time. Obviously, if John (Odo) and Elbert are in, we would like for them to try and rim run and get toward to the basket more some than those other guys. We want to make sure we get up the floor quick and score. We will. If we have to wait on those other guys because of the fact that we didn’t have in early offense, they are very capable of getting down there and putting pressure on the defense as well.”
On building off of the NIT appearance last season…
“We were very excited last year about having the opportunity to be a part of post season play. And I think our guys gained even more of an experience than some others because we didn’t go to a neutral site. We had to go play on someone’s home floor in that type of atmosphere and that type of environment was really good for us. I think it was a good experience for our guys, especially the ones returning, to getting a glimpse of that. I think that helped. Our team unfortunately we had a setback to wind up playing in the championship game in of the NIT and the other team that we lost to late in the season and then wind up in the championship team of the NCAA tournament. That’s a team we also had some success against as well. With that, we really like our team. We like the guys that are returning, and we think they gained valuable experiences from the opportunity that they had last year.”
On Ronald Dupree (student assistant) and what he brings to the team…
“I tell you what I liked about him that jumped out to me is that he worked our summer basketball camps. And when I watched him get engaged with those young kids and putting in that time, energy, and focus … how readily he was to work with them, doing their little drills and the intensity he had. This was several weeks. I was excited to find out that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back overseas. He also mentioned how he wanted to stay and finish his degree, which he is fifteen hours away from completing his electrical engineering degree. After we talked, he said that this is something that he would like to do. We’ve really been thrilled with him. Through our individual skill work and the energy that he brings to practice is great. And if he chooses to go into coaching, he is going to be great because he has that make up about him.”