BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team enters tournament season this week as the Southeastern Conference tournament is upon the 14 league teams this week at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Thanks to LSU’s 81-78 win at No. 18 Arkansas and things that happened the rest of the day, the LSU Tigers have the double bye as the fourth seed in the tournament and will not play until the second game of the SEC Quarterfinal Friday session at approximately 2:30 p.m. against the winner of fifth seed Texas A&M and the winner of the Mississippi State-Auburn game.
The game will be televised by the SEC Network and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU is 22-9 after the conclusion of the regular season with six league road wins part of an 11-7 record that saw LSU finish in a four-way tie for third with Georgia, Texas A&M and Ole Miss.
On Monday afternoon, LSU Coach Johnny Jones met with the media at the LSU practice facility to look back at the final game of the season and look ahead to the SEC Tournament.
Opening Statement …
“After a good weekend there in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which was a really exciting basketball game for us, we quickly have to channel and turn our energy toward the conference tournament. For us, it will start on Friday. We were very fortunate to get the double bye. I think it will serve us well. One, it will give us a chance to get some rest and heal some injuries. It also will allow us to be there in time to really prepare for teams that will have already played in the field. It’s going to be an exciting tournament. You look at how tough the league is. You have eight teams right now that are inside the top 50 (RPI). I think any time you have that type of competition that you are playing against all year, it’s great. You know how competitive the tournament will be. Five of the teams in the SEC also have winning records and are above .500 on the road. Not many other conferences can lay claim to that. We are really excited about it. We’re excited about where our conference is, the strength of it and how attractive it is right now. We look forward to a great tournament.”
On the pros and cons of playing a team that LSU has lost to during the regular season…
“The good thing is after the regular season is over and you get into the conference tournament, I think you turn your energy and everything is different. You know that the tournament is one-and-done. You put yourself in the position and are hopeful to win three games and win the championship. Other teams have to win at least four or five games. Whatever position you are sitting in, I think that has to be your motivation, in terms of what you have to go through. The good thing is that you have played all of the teams in the field. Whether you’ve had a setback against them or you’ve been victorious, at least you know enough about them. You are familiar with the scouting report depending on what part of the season you played them in. You know how much they’ve improved and what’s different about their team. Those are the things that are certainly going to garner your interests and are certainly the things you have to prepare for.”
On Jordan Mickey‘s status for the SEC Tournament…
“I think he should be available for us this weekend, especially by Friday. That’s the good thing about having the double bye. It should be able to give him some additional days to get treatment and get rest and continue to heal his shoulder and get ready.”
On the events of the final day of the SEC regular season going in favor of LSU…
“We went in knowing (Jordan) Mickey wasn’t going to be available for us. We knew it was going to be a tough game with Mickey. Then, without him, playing against the No. 18 team in the country and playing in that type of environment—a team that is 17-1 at home this year on Senior Night and a game with a lot of emotions for them. We knew we had our work cut out for us. We did on the front end what we needed to. Then, everything just kind of worked out from there. Those things happen, I guess the stars were aligned for us Saturday. We are excited about how everything worked out.”
On Josh Gray and the final play against Arkansas…
“It was a similar play that we ran in West Virginia where he kept the ball, got to the rim and scored. That was because people stayed at home on the shooters. In this game when they started to penetrate, they came off of the shooters, and he made the right choice as well. In those two particular games that we were able to win, he was actually the trigger guy and certainly made the right call. Unfortunately, in other games where we had setbacks, maybe we have struggled to finish a couple of those plays. I’m glad that those two (West Virginia and Arkansas) really worked out for us. With Josh being a primary scorer, a lot of times people think they are going to try and get that shot off, regardless of what’s going on. He did have the conscious in mind of getting the read and getting whatever was available to him to make the next play.”
On shortening practice during this time of year…
“We start off in the beginning of the year with two and a half to three hour practices prior to our first game. After our first game, we cut it back to between two and two and half hours. Once conference play starts, we go from an hour to an hour and a half max out there on the floor. Whether we have 13 guys, 15 guys or six guys, we have to be conscious of what we are doing out there. We just want to make sure that the time we spend on the floor that we are going extremely hard. That’s the most important thing is the effort that you are getting at practice. When we are doing that and you have a mature basketball team, they understand it and take that type of approach.”
On Jarell Martin‘s block inside the final minute of the Arkansas game …
“If you watched that game, Jarell played all 40 minutes. The energy level that he played with, maybe 37 minutes into the game after baskets, you notice how he sprints back and gets back defensively. Coming out of the timeout, to be in tune and to understand the player who had the ball at the time, we didn’t know who they would try to go for a last second shot. The guy who had it, Jarell wasn’t actually guarding him, but he knew the scouting report on him. To play to the scout and to know that he was possibly going to reverse and when he came out of the reverse, to meet him and to block his shot, that was huge for us. That lets you know how locked in and how in tune he was into the game and how he played effectively for us all afternoon on Saturday.”
On the formula for winning basketball during tournament play …
“There is a sense of urgency for teams, and a lot of teams have a lot on the line. There are teams playing for winning records. People are trying to improve their seeding hopefully NCAA wise. They are teams trying to get to .500 and to be eligible for postseason. There is a lot going on, and you are going to get people’s best shot because there is some type of motivation out there for every team. Kentucky is out there at 31-0. Their motivation has to be to be playing well together at the right time going into the NCAA Tournament. They want to finish strong and remain undefeated. There are teams out there that are undefeated and have won and secured the championship outright. Each team has a certain motivation. The last team in understands that the only way of possibly advancing is winning the tournament. They are going to play as hard as they possibly can because that is it for them. They have seniors on those teams that realize that this could be their last game so you are going to get their best effort. The tournament brings a lot for every team for a lot of different reasons.”
On Josh Gray‘s transition throughout the season …
“It’s different for different people. I think Josh is the type of scorer with the background that he has – his ability to get to the free throw line and get inside the defense and score is huge for us. I think that was beneficial for us the way that he got to the rim inside the lane against Arkansas on Saturday was the difference in the game. He puts so much pressure on their defense and trying to stop him. When he got to the rim, he was either scoring or dumping it off for the other guys to have easy scoring opportunities. That’s putting a lot of pressure on people, and that’s just point guards understanding what they need to do. He was able to read it like a quarterback on the football field. When the opportunity of having a lot of plays and options and when you get in certain situations, you have to know what’s available to you. We hope that your guys are capable of delivering.”
On how happy he was to see Keith Hornsby hit the final shot…
“You’ve heard me say it before, and I’ll say it again. Keith is the hardest worker I’ve ever been around in over 30 years. The time and the energy he puts into his game before and after practice and to see someone like that have success, he has had a super year for us. To see him be able to knock down a shot like that and just prior to, he missed two free throws after a hard foul. He turned the ball over. I can tell you that when he turned the ball over and it was going the other way, he was out of bounds. He outran everybody on the floor and went and knocked the ball out of bounds. When it was that late in the game, it tells you the energy and the effort that he puts into every second and every play. It tells you how passionate he is about the game.”