BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team plays the first of four games in seven days as it hosts Texas Tech Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in the final game of the 2014 ESPN Tipoff Marathon.
Also on Monday, it was announced that LSU sophomore Jordan Mickey was named as one of seven Southeastern Conference players on the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50.
Mickey, who is a preseason All-SEC selection, opened with a solid game on Saturday against Gardner-Webb with 21 points and a career high six assists.
He will be trying to duplicate that effort when the Raiders come to town Tuesday in the back half of a home-and-home series that LSU won, 71-69, in Lubbock in December 2013.
The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 with Dave Neal and Mark Adams on the call, while the broadcast will be carried by the LSU Sports Radio Network with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford. The game will be carried in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net and on network affiliates (listed below).
Tickets start at $6 for the contest and $5 for ages 3-12. They are available at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday and then beginning at 7 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows at the Maravich Center. Tickets can also be purchased at LSUtix.net. LSU students are admitted free of charge with valid student ID and Tuesday night will be one of the student point nights.
Both teams are 1-0 coming into the contest with LSU a 93-82 winner over Gardner-Webb in the mainland game of the Paradise Jam. It was a game LSU’s defense took a while to get going as the Bulldogs took a 43-42 halftime lead before LSU scored 51 second half points.
Texas Tech was a 71-59 winner over Loyola Maryland in their opening contest. It was the start of Tubby Smith’s second year at LSU and this will be the 16th time he has coached against LSU in his long career that included stops at Georgia and Kentucky.
In LSU’s opener, Mickey was joined in double figures by Jarell Martin (2nd career double double with 21 points-11 rebounds), Keith Hornsby (18) and Josh Gray (17). LSU won for the 12th time in 13 games under Johnny Jones when shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
Following the late game on Tuesday night, LSU will board a 7:30 a.m. flight on Wednesday to the US Virgin Islands where they will take part in the Paradise Jam, playing three games in four days (Friday through Monday). LSU will open up with Old Dominion on Friday at 5:30 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network and the LSU Sports Radio Network.
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Coach Johnny Jones met with the media on Monday afternoon prior to the game with Texas Tech and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement …
“We are looking forward to a very busy week and are really looking forward to an early challenge in an SEC-caliber team out of the Big 12 in Texas Tech (Tuesday), a team we had the privilege of playing last year, and the return game this year will certainly present a great challenge for us. I think there are a lot of things that really go into it with Josh Gray obviously playing there for a season prior to transferring to Odessa. I’m sure it will be kind of an emotional, early game for him as well, but it’s a game that our guys look forward to. It’s certainly a challenging week for us … It’s going to be good for us to get practices in and then play against some really stiff competition. These next few days will give us an early indication of where we are and really put us in position to be on the fast track and working on some things in areas we will need to continue to improve on. We look forward to it and can’t wait to get started (Tuesday) night at 8:30 in front of a national audience, part of this (ESPN) 24-hour marathon, and we are excited that they chose us as one of the games to highlight during this special event.”
On games like this opening eyes about LSU Basketball to recruits…
“I think one of the reasons kids come is because of the type of exposure that they can get at a school of this magnitude, and we offer that here at LSU. When guys have the ability to play on national TV in front of a national audience, when you have an opportunity to send a message coast to coast, it means a great deal to them, and this is an early opportunity for us to do that in the second game of the season. We’re excited about it. We were fortunate enough to be in this role last year as well.”
On Texas Tech…
“The big thing they have is their guard players returning from last year. They had good, solid guard play. They are extremely tough, and I thought that’s where a lot of their strengths were last year. Johnny (O’Bryant III) unfortunately got into foul trouble down there early, and we didn’t have his services for quite some time. Their post guys kind of had their way with us a little bit, but we were able to fight back there in the second half and secure the victory. I think their guards are really good, and the guys are going to have to do a great job in containing and trying to make sure that we keep them out of the paint and not give them any easy looks at the basket and get going from outside.”
On their defense in Saturday’s victory over Gardner-Webb…
“I think one of the things that happened for us was, one, their team, Gardner-Webb, did a good job of executing this early part of the season. They made some really good plays and executed at a high level. I thought their point guard made some really good plays, and they had some really easy scoring opportunities at the basket. I thought our post defense wasn’t as good, and that was one of the areas I think I was most concerned with. They did not do a great job one-on-one in their defending in the post. Jordan Mickey, we are not asking for him to foul, but as much as they scored inside, we never got into a foul count. I don’t think they ever got into the one-on-one. I think we had eight fouls as a team, and that means that we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been, possibly trying to deter them from getting easy scoring opportunities at the basket. They only shot five free throws for the game, and when they are taking point blank shots like that at the basket, I think you’ve got to try to defend the post or the rim at a better rate than that.”
On Jordan Mickey‘s zero blocks…
“Blocking a shot is not mainly about not playing good defense. A lot of times, Jordan (Mickey) can block shots because he’s coming from the weak side. He may be blocking one of his other teammates’ guy’s shot because they come in, and he’s come from the blind side, from the weak side and made a good block. It’s not necessarily his man all of the time, but we don’t want him to get in foul trouble. We want to make sure he plays good, solid, sound defense without fouling. At the same time, those things are going to happen, but he had zero fouls in the game the other night. I thought there was a lot of other opportunities to be more aggressive in the post area … Johnny O’Bryant III went to the bench for us in the early part of games last year, defensively. I thought it hurt us, but at the same time, you can’t be passive in the post. You have to make sure you’re aggressively standing your ground and playing your position, and the officials have to make a judgment call and do what they have to do. I think if you present yourself that way, officials know how your team is going to play and the aggressiveness that you play with, and you have to set that tone early. If you’re not playing aggressive and then, you go in there with a touch foul a lot of times that’s what they are going to call on you—easy touch fouls in a game like that.”
Team looked more comfortable Saturday playing zone than last year …
“Well I can tell you with the length of this basketball team, I get excited when we have a variety of players we can but in and when you add a guy like Aaron Epps, into that rotation and playing him at the 3 or possibly at the 2 and having Tim Quarterman at the one and that is a huge lineup out there to put in the 2-3 zone, and its long and more Syracuse like with the length you would have in it. Those are some things we can explore as the year goes on and I think it could help us because now you are making people play over you with that length. We’ve got a great rebounding team; we also have big guys out there offensively, people will have to guard because Jarell can shoot it outside and guys like Aaron Epps can shoot the ball well outside and Jordan is a great mid-range player as well, so you have to honor those guys while they are out there on the floor.”
Jarrell Martin and His Leadership Role….
“I think Jarell’s actions in terms of being out there on the floor and the minutes he has to play, being put into one of the roles as the captain out there on the floor. I think it helps, I think you have to be identified that way because of the number of minutes he played last year and being one of the guys that is returning to the team would be considered a veteran player for us and he would have to serve in that capacity, so he is doing a good job of taking on trying to take on that responsibility.
The team’s balanced scoring in the opener …
“I think those four guys are very capable of putting up good numbers so it’s good to see that type of balance and it was spread out throughout the game … When you can get hit like that from any area of the floor, that is a big positive for us because the other guys have shown that they are capable of doing those things as well.”
When asked about the upcoming trip to the Virgin Islands …
“I think when you take teams on a trip like that and you are away, it is a special time for bonding, teaching and closeness especially in the early part of the season and that is something we look forward to. Our guys are a close net group, they are always around each other but this is going to be a great opportunity for us as a team to bond. We always feel like we are family oriented group and this is going to give us an added time for teaching as well.”
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