BATON ROUGE – Off a successful week of road victories at Florida and Vanderbilt, the LSU Tigers now turn their attention to a Wednesday night 6 p.m. game with South Carolina at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers and Gamecocks game will be televised on the SEC Network and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU is 15-4 and 4-2 in the SEC and tied for second in the league.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media on Monday and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement …
“We are looking forward to another challenging week after this past week with two really good games at their venues. It is great to be back home with a chance against a very tough basketball team in South Carolina. They’ve had a tough nonconference schedule which they have fared well in beating Oklahoma State, Clemson and Iowa State by great scores there. Then, the games they have played in conference if they have not had success, they’ve been close in some very challenging games, including Kentucky. We know they will be physical. We know they will be tough. They will play with a sense of urgency, and they certainly have a core group of veterans on that team with some experience under their belt. We certainly have to be up to the challenge. We are hopeful from our past week that we have continued to grow as a team. We are hopeful that it will be beneficial for us when we are able take the floor here on Wednesday night.”
On the team’s three-point defense…
“It’s been good for us. The telltale sign was at Florida, I think we were able to hold them to five three pointers or less. I think they had about three or four in that game. The other night against a very good Vanderbilt shooting team in which two of their guys are leaders in the conference in terms of three-point field goal percentage shooting and holding them without a three-pointer in that game was good for our defense in terms of covering the line. I think it’s really improved vastly over the last few games. That was one of challenges we were looking forward to coming into the season.”
On LSU’s status in the conference standings…
“You have to take it one game at a time. We know how important that is and the challenges that it presents. Being 4-2 in this league and the venues we’ve had the opportunities to win in—at Florida, at Ole Miss. Georgia is a very good and talented team. We have to keep striving. This is a really important week for us as well. We have one home game then we go on the road against a much-improved Mississippi State team on Saturday. It’s a telltale sign how challenging and how tough the league is when you look at the scores of the opponents that we are playing this week and how close they’ve been. You look at the games they have been able to win as well. I think because our league is improved, our RPI and strength of schedule continues to improve as we play.”
On the biggest challenges throughout the SEC…
“There are big challenges in getting ready for teams in our conference. I think you can point to the success that the teams have had in our conference. That’s what we really rely on and how challenging and tough it’s going to be, be it their scores or the players they have. Certainly with South Carolina, it’s the nonconference wins that they have—a Clemson team we had a setback against. They beat Clemson pretty handedly. They beat Oklahoma State pretty handedly. They beat Iowa State, a top-20 team, pretty soundly. When you are able to point to those things, you know how capable a team is and how they competed against the number one team in the country. They will go on the road, and each team is looking for victory and how competitive it’s going to be. Our guys will be ready.”
On the team’s resiliency especially in overtime games…
“I think it speaks volumes to our guys and how they have continued to get better in their approach, their desire and their competitive spirit to win. We have been able to do that. I think what has helped as well is when we have gotten into overtime games, our guys haven’t panicked. They’ve been in it before. The approach they have been able to take served a great purpose for us at Vanderbilt the other day. Our guys didn’t panic. They knew when we had to get back out on the floor and how important it was for us to strike early. We were able to do that.”
On the player rotation and the amount of minutes being played…
“We play a lot of minutes. We are hopeful, and again, we are always looking for an opportunity to shorten some of those guys’ minutes. At the same time, we have to be conscious of our ability to use timeouts at the right time to get guys the most rest possible during those challenges. When you are playing a certain way, your chemistry is right and things are going well, sometimes, you have to shorten your rotation because you don’t want to get that thrown off because it’s so important at that time. That’s the kind of position we’ve been in the past couple of games.”
On the importance of playing well at home…
“When we walked out and saw the great crowd that we had at 11 a.m. on a Saturday (against Texas A&M), that was encouraging. We look forward to more of that this Wednesday and actually moving forward. It is important to our guys. Our guys take a great deal of pride in making sure that we do a great job for our fans and our fan base because we know how important it is to them. Wanting them to feel good is important to us. We will be certainly striving to do that in these next few games. We are hopeful that with this window of opportunity, it’s a chance to get a lot of wins for us in the process.”
On opposing teams being able to slow down the tempo of the game…
“Not necessarily because a lot of teams can play like you. You look at Arkansas, and they are one of the high scoring teams in our league. Kentucky has the ability and wants to get in the open floor. Some teams like to play the style that we like to play. It’s challenging. It’s just a matter of who is able to execute at the highest level, and who is defending the best. Those nights are going to give us some opportunities. There are certainly going to be teams who want to control the tempo. We have to do a good job of making sure that we are trying to controlling the tempo.”
On Tim Quarterman‘s development…
“I think Tim has done a tremendous job offensively getting better and creating opportunities for other guys on the team. He made some huge shots in the overtime for us. Defensively, I thought he was great because he was able to hold one of their top scorers (Riley LaChance) scoreless in the first half. I think he (LaChance) only had two baskets in the second half as well. When you are playing with that type of energy and expending that type of energy night-in and night-out, I think it’s a good thing. I think that’s what Tim has been able to bring to our team, a great deal of energy.”