BATON ROUGE – LSU looks to get things back on the winning side of the ledger Saturday night when it opens a two-game homestand Saturday night at 7 p.m. against McNeese State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game are available at LSUtix.net and fans can take advantage of special ticket discounts for LSU home games during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday period at the ticket site by using the code “BlackFriday.” The ticket windows at the upper concourse level of the Maravich Center will open at 5:30 p.m. Saturday to sell tickets.
The game video will be steamed live by SECN+ on WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPNapp with Lyn Rollins and Collis Temple III on the call. The audio call will be available in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net and the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford courtside for the call.
The scheduled affiliates for the game and stations are: Baton Rouge (WDGL, 98.1 FM); Alexandria (KSYL, 970 AM); Bogalusa (WBOX, 92.9 FM); Ferriday (KFNV, 107.1 FM); Houma (KJIN, 1490 AM); Jena (KJNA, 102.7 FM); Lafayette/Opelousas (KLWB, 103.7 FM); Lake Charles (KXZZ, 1580 AM); Leesville (KJAE, 93.5 FM); Monroe (KMLB, 540 AM); Morgan City (KFRA, 1390 AM); Natchitoches (KWLV, 107.1 FM); New Orleans (WWL, 870 AM, 105.3 FM); Ruston (KRUS, 1490 AM); Shreveport (KWKH, 1130 AM); Tallulah (KTJZ, 97.5 FM); Tylertown, Mississippi (WFCG, 107.3 FM); Ville Platte (KVPI, 1050 AM).
LSU is 3-2 on the season after going 1-2 in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands while McNeese is 2-1 coming into the game.
Jordan Mickey, who had two double doubles in the Virgin Islands and a career night of 27 points in the win over Weber State, earned all-tournament honors for LSU in the event and comes into the McNeese State game averaging a double double with 17.8 points and 10.0 rebounds a game. He also has been successful from the field, hitting 40-of-72 field goal attempts (55.6 percent).
The tournament also saw the continued emergence of sophomore guard Tim Quarterman off the bench who is averaging almost 30 minutes a game through the first five games with an average of 9.0 points a game off a career-high 16 point effort in the loss to Clemson. Quarterman is shooting the ball much better this year, hitting 46.7 percent (14-of-30). Also, senior John Odo got the start in the last game and played 24 minutes and gave a strong effort equaling his career high of 7 points.
McNeese is coming off wins over Louisiana College and Jarvis Christian after a season opening loss at Baylor. In the win over LC, Desharick Guidry (16 pts-11 rebs) and Kevin Hardy (14 pts-12 rebs) had double doubles while Austin Lewis doubled with 10 points and a school record 11 blocks. In the Jarvis win, Lewis had 7 more blocks, while Guidry had 24 points and 11 rebounds.
The McNeese game starts a three-game run of games in six days to conclude the first segment of the 2014-15 season for LSU. LSU hosts UMass on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at the Maravich Center on the SEC Network. The game is a rematch of last year’s 92-90 UMass win in Amherst to open the 2013-14 season. LSU then travels to Morgantown for an SEC/Big 12 Challenge game against West Virginia on Thursday. The Tigers will be off then until Dec. 13 for semester final exams.
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Coach Johnny Jones met with the media on Wednesday and here are some of his comments about his team heading into the McNeese game:
LSU Men’s Basketball
November 26, 2014
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement …
“I thought our trip to the Virgin Islands — outside of maybe the number of victories that we went down there to come back with — I thought the trip served a good purpose. One, our team having the chance to bond, get closer and at the same time a lot of basketball was really played. We actually played against teams who had different styles, and our guys had to make sure that they had to make adjustments. I thought we played extremely hard in some battles, and unfortunately, we didn’t come back 3-0. With the 1-2 record coming back, I thought it was a valuable experience for us that our team has an opportunity to grow from. There are a lot of areas that we have to clean up. We obviously know that we have a lot of new guys with this team, a lot of new faces. We have to make sure we do a great job of executing both offensively and defensively. It’s going to take a little time for us to gel, get the chemistry exactly where we need it, but we are excited about the guys that we have an opportunity to go to war with every night. We saw a lot of good signs from this team. We are going to have to make sure that we have the opportunity to put it together for longer stretches for us to be successful at the rate that we would like to be throughout this season.”
On outside shooting and finishing games…
“Outside shooting, I think, reared its head. We didn’t hit enough shots. I think Keith (Hornsby) had a game of 2-12 from the field, had some good looks, no forced shots. We know the capable shooter that he is, and we feel as the season progresses that those shots will balance out and will certainly go down. On some other shots, we have to do a better job of picking our time to shoot inside, outside. On some, we took some early shot opportunities that we possibly should have waited, and that’s just a matter of getting to know and as the season progresses, getting better at those things. We didn’t do a great job of recognizing that. Clock management is really important, and we have to do a better job of that. I thought we were up by four or five points at one point, and we may have taken a couple of ill-advised shots … They are taken by capable shooters, but at the same time, it probably wasn’t the best time to maybe take some of those shots. We have guys who can shoot the basketball. We’ve got a lot weapons, and we’ve shown that. We just have to make sure that we are hitting on the same page, and we are patient enough to get to that throughout the game in each possession. The biggest thing I think we have to stress is evaluating each possession when you are playing in those games like that.”
On the fifth starting spot…
“I think (who starts) is going to be dictated by our opponents a lot of time and then, practice and who’s playing well. We thought maybe coming in that would be the case. I thought the way John Odo played the other night warrants for us to make sure that we continue to give him some looks as well because he’s grown, progressed and gotten better as a fifth-year guy. I think that’s a good sign for us. We are hopeful that his growth will continue and that those other guys will continue making progress as well.”
On Tim Quarterman…
“I think with his energy level, the way that he’s really come in and played off of the bench has really kind of changed the game, the tempo and everything else. We have to make sure that our guys do a great job of feeding off of him and picking up defensively as aggressive as Tim (Quarterman) is out there on the floor. As a team, we have to do a better job, but Tim has done an amazing job both offensively and defensively because when he comes in, our offense has had a better flow to it as well.”
On John Odo‘s ability…
“I think it kind of started in practice because we didn’t do a great job of really defending in the post, and we got really aggressive in practice; we wanted to make sure that he was able to transition his practice mentality into the game. You don’t want to put yourself into the position to where you are fouling and you’re not playing fundamentally sound, but you can do that and be extremely strong and aggressive at the same time. He was able to do that. (Clemson) had a real aggressive post man; strong; and I thought Odo came in and did an excellent job of establishing himself early, holding the guy well below his average and really competed with him extremely well in that game.”
On choosing shots to take in late stretches…
“… I explained to the team that winning is hard, and you have to make hard plays. You can’t settle. You have to make sure that you are not afraid to do the tough things late in basketball games, be it driving it into the basket instead of settling for a shot. Settling for a shot is the easy thing to do. Driving it to the basket is a tough play, and you have to be able to make tough plays down the stretch to win big games.”
On positive takeaways from the trip…
“One, Odo. I think once, our bench had three guys out in the game. Jarell (Martin), Jordan (Mickey) and Elbert (Robinson III) were all saddled with two fouls in the game (ODU game). Our bench came off and, I thought, played extremely well, did a good job out there. Again, there are a lot of bright spots in that area. We know that we have an opportunity to grow and really get better in watching those guys challenge and compete like they did. Defensively, some of the things that we were hurt on early in the season, our defense has grown to where we have taken some of those things away—easy scoring opportunities because of the rotation of our guys, we’ve been able to pick some things up. Things that we’ve worked on, you’re able to see them happening out there on the floor. With this team, it is going to take some games to really continue to see the progress, but I really like it. They were able to take some of their practices into the games and take away easy scoring opportunities. I thought people were getting at the basket because of the lack of rotation that we were doing. We did a better job. Then offensively, when we stuck with our offense through our break, we had some easy scoring opportunities, even in our last game. Those are some things we can really grow on. We executed at a high rate in that as well.”