BATON ROUGE – It wasn’t 10 minutes in the practice session when a loose ball rolled by LSU Coach Johnny Jones Saturday evening and in pursuit were four or five players in purple and gold practice jersey who all ended up diving on the floor trying to keep or get the basketball for their respective units.
In the group were first-year players and team veterans all showing the effort that the LSU team will need to be successful in the upcoming 2015-16 season. But first is an upcoming exhibition trip to Australia for five games against professional teams and All-Star teams from the National Basketball League.
The Tigers, by NCAA rule, are allowed to begin practice in preparation for the trip which begins on the night of Aug. 11 and Coach Jones and his coaching staff put the 13 players through a practice of approximately an hour and 40 minutes.
Besides the normal opening practice fundamentals, the Tigers worked on 5-on-5 defense, rebounding and shooting drills. The team also began some offensive 5-on-0 walkthroughs and then concluded with two competitive 5-minute 5-on-5 full court sessions.
“It was a good first practice for us,” said Coach Jones, who is entering his fourth year as head coach at LSU. “It was great to watch the energy, effort and excitement of our players as they went through the drills. They practiced extremely hard. We have a long way to go, but I loved the effort from our guys (Saturday).”
Very noticeable was the differences that LSU must prepare for that they will face in Australia. The NBL plays with the Molten tan and white paneled basketball and also the international 6.75 meter three-point line (22-1 compared to 20-9 for NCAA play). The team also practiced with the professional 24-second clock.
LSU has a set of the Molten brand basketballs and are using them in the practices.
“It can be a mental thing if you allow it to,” said Coach Jones. “But we are going to be practicing with those and getting used to it because that’s what we are going to have to play with when we get over there. It’s a little different, but it’s something I think our guys can get used to rather quickly.”
LSU will practice again late afternoon Sunday. Follow preparations for the trip at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and @LSUBasketball on Twitter.
A video posted by LSU Basketball (@lsubasketball) on Aug 2, 2015 at 2:49pm PDT