BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones visited with fans of the program and the media on a busy Tuesday afternoon prior to the start of Southeastern Conference basketball Thursday night at Missouri.
The Tigers and Tigers meet at Mizzou Arena in the final game of the first playing date of the 2015 conference season at 6 p.m. in a game televised by ESPN2 and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Prior to the media session, Coach Jones and Radio Network analyst Ricky Blanton entertained a large crowd gathered at the L’Auberge Casino & Resort. Blanton talked about his time on the radio, about his playing days and this year’s team, while Jones talked to the fans about what lies ahead in the 18-game SEC marathon.
Later, Jones visited with the media in the media room at the practice facility and here are some of his comments:
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement …
“We finished up 11-2 in our non-conference play with an eight-game winning streak. I thought our guys have done a tremendous job of competing and certainly getting ready for game competition. I think they’ve continued to improve each week. We look forward to a very challenging conference schedule. The 18 games – it’s going to be very important for us. We understand that the level of play, the intensity level, how it will raise and how much more competitive it will be night-in and night-out. We get started on the road at Missouri. They are a team that if you look at their record, the way they have improved, they continue to get better. Players are eligible now. (Jakeenan) Gant, a fine freshman that they have, will certainly make an impact on their team. Those guys have played a lot of quality minutes, the young guys in getting ready. Then, we come back home against a very talented Georgia team with a lot of returning starters from last year. They’ve had some big wins against Seton Hall. We know right out of the gate we have two tough games that we have to get ready for this week. We are hopeful that the tough and rigorous schedule that we’ve played during the non-conference has really prepared us for what we are about to face over the next several weeks and months.”
On where he thought the team would be after the non-conference schedule…
“We never really had a barometer of what our record would be. I was hopeful that we would be able to continue to improve and get better each night. We knew that we had a tough schedule in front of us with the opponents that we were playing. To have fared the way that we have, especially with the consistency that we had over a period of time … The way we have played down the stretch in games with this young team, the inexperience that we’ve had with only two starters returning, it was going to be interesting. I am really pleased at the efforts our guys have given and where we sit right now, especially with the way we are playing.”
On the team’s preparation for Thursday’s game at Missouri…
“In conference play, I think one of the things that you can do is throw the records out. The home courts, there is certainly an advantage of being at home and playing. It is just a level of competition that you are playing against and the intensity level is raised. A lot of times in conference play, the teams are scouted heavily. You know each other’s tendencies. You know what areas that you will be trying to attack and whatever success you’ve had against those opponents before. All of those things really come into play. Missouri has a new basketball coach there, and Coach Anderson has done a tremendous job in the respective places that he has been. He’s always won, and this team will continue to grow and get better as the year goes on because of the fact that they have some quality players in the program. JWIII (Johnathan Williams) III is just a sophomore, but he has done a tremendous job in continuing to get better in leading this basketball team again. As well as a freshman who was ineligible (Jakeenan Gant) has just been ruled academically eligible now. He will certainly be an impactful player for the team as the season progresses.”
On Josh Gray being more assertive on the offensive end…
“Josh is still learning his way in terms of he has all the tools, but it is our job to make sure that we help him become the consummate point guard that we think he possibly could be. He has great ball-handling skills. He’s a really good passer and can defend the ball. In terms of distributing and making our team better and making the people around you better, he’s shown that he’s capable of doing that. He’s a great scorer, but he’s put himself in positions where we’ve been asked because we want to try to be dominant inside because of the size advantage that we’ve had the last couple of games. He’s turned down scoring opportunities to make sure that our post guys got touches and finish in there. That was great for us. Now, we are about to get into situations where we will be playing like-sized teams, and we may not be dominant inside. We may have to make sure that we are scoring from some other areas, as well, to loosen up some things. He has the ability to do that, along with Keith Hornsby. In those guys, it is just making sure that the balance is right and that the distribution of the basketball is there. It all really starts with him.”
On what the team needs to do to avoid slow starts…
“We need to make sure that we come out with that edge that we need with being on the road. It’s going to be important to get off to a great start. You really don’t want to be playing from a big deficit out there on the road and allowing teams to have a great deal of confidence. That is something we hope we are able to guard against. Hopefully, we will get off to a great start and be able to be competitive. Those first five minutes, a lot of the times, the tone of a game is set. Teams are sometimes able to gain confidence and understand exactly where they are. We are hopeful that we are a tone setter at that time at the beginning of the game. That will be important for this team in this early part of the season, especially conference play.”
On Aaron Epps and his play against Savannah State …
“I thought Aaron did a good job. Again, we played a team that had a lot of dribble-drive action. Their guards were more perimeter-oriented and were trying to get to the rim on us. We were trying to make sure we did some other things defensively as a team, but I think he would have graded out good because of his length and rebounding. With his play around the rim, he is a tough target to shoot over because of his length at 6’9”. He ran the floor extremely well, so we are pleased with what he is doing. I think you have to continue to keep putting him in certain situations, so he can continue to grow. I think Aaron is going to be a really solid and sound basketball player for us.”
On the role that Keith Hornsby has played on the team …
“I think Keith is one of those guys—I think Jarell (Martin) and Jordan (Mickey) a lot of times get a lot of credit for things that have happened and rightfully so. They’ve done a tremendous job over the last two years of improving and getting better. I think Hornsby being out on that floor gives us that balance that we need. When you are talking about teams not being able to play our post guys certain ways, it’s tough to double off of him or play off of him because he can knock down the long shot. He’s strong enough to finish around the rim. He’s got a great mid-range game. He gets the ball off of the glass from one end and can really push it to the other. He can score a number of ways. Because of his size and his strength, he can really defend bigger and stronger guards as well. He’s been everything we expected of him and even more because he’s just been a tremendous team player.”
On starting SEC play…
“We understand that the season is a journey for us. Each game is certainly a challenge. We talk about the season being chapters and where do we stand. That chapter of the non-conference portion of our schedule, it’s closed. This is the next chapter that we’ve got to really prepare for. It is conference play and how we will fare in it and what it will say about our basketball team at the end. That’s our approach, and we have to make sure that we take it one game at a time. We will know more about our preparedness and our readiness after these first two games – one will be on the road and the other will be here at home against a very tough opponent. It’s something we look forward to. We feel that we are prepared because of the non-conference schedule we’ve played, but we certainly understand that it is a journey. The next stop on that journey will be at Missouri, and we feel as if we are certainly prepared for that.”