BATON ROUGE – With the students now settling into the fall semester of classes at LSU, men’s basketball head coach Johnny Jones and some of the LSU basketball team members met with the media on Wednesday to review the team’s recent trip to Australia.
The Tigers were 3-2 on the trip in five games, three against teams in the National Basketball League, and two teams made up of professional area all-star teams. The Tigers traveled to the country, home of LSU junior Darcy Malone and freshman Ben Simmons, as part of the NCAA-allowed every four years foreign trip.
Coach Jones also talked about the 2015-16 season and the fall practice schedule plans when the team will get back to individual work.
Here are some of Coach Jones’ comments and then some of the player comments to the media:
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement…
“I have to say it has been an exciting time for us with the Australia trip and the practice leading up to it throughout the games and experiences we had there. I am really excited for our basketball players and the team. It was a great learning experience for them. At the same time, I thought they had the chance to do a great job in terms of improving, getting better and having the opportunity with the early practices and the five games that were played over there. The way that they played and the opportunity they had to bond as a team showed some good signs of early chemistry that gave us reason to be excited. At the same time, we were able to learn a lot about ourselves on both sides of the basketball –the positives and also the things we have to continue to improve and get better at. I thought it was a tremendous opportunity for our guys getting over there with the climate change of getting into winter, getting over there, and for people like us, they were driving on the wrong side of the road the whole time and also taking in (Aussie Rules) football games and the zoo and all of those things. It was a great trip for us and we are excited to be back home.”
On differences in the shot clock from last year to the tour to shorter this coming season.…
“It won’t be a challenge for us because what we like to think is we play at a really good pace in terms of playing. We don’t try to hold on to the basketball. We are an early opportunity basketball team — we like to fast-break. We like quick hitters early in our offense. Therefore, we don’t really worry too much about the shot clock violation. The good thing about over there was that you had to play with a 14-second clock. A lot of times after offensive rebounds, it didn’t reset to 24 (seconds), it only reset to 14, so you had to be cognizant of that and be ready to play fast. I thought our guys adjusted well because of the pace of play that we play at I didn’t think we were affected by it at all. I think our guys relished the opportunity of playing with the 24-second clock.”
On takeaways from the trip…
“I just think the learning experience. One, the 10 days of practice prior to leaving was beneficial for us. Then, getting over there and playing and competing at a certain level against some professional guys that really understood and knew how to play. You have to remember, we went into these games without any scouting report, not knowing anything about what they were trying to do offensively and defensively and had to really adjust on the fly. For our guys to be able to make adjustments and be able to play through some stretches. There were some tough games, and these games were close. We had a setback in one early, won one. Then, we were able to win a couple of other really tight basketball games. I’m really pleased with the way our guys really stuck together and continued to battle. I thought they played extremely hard throughout the trip.”
On the physical style of play in Australia…
“They don’t allow you to play that physical in college or in the NBA. It was a very physical game, I thought, and it’s different. They allow you to block cutting channels. They allow you to do a lot of hand-checking. It’s probably one of the most physical matchups that I’ve had an opportunity to witness. That’s how they play. Maybe the fourth game we played in was probably the closest called game that we were a part of in terms of the number of fouls against us. We had a lot of guys in foul trouble in that game, we had to utilize our bench a little more than we had in the earlier games, but it was extremely physical and tough. Now, I am hopeful that our guys gained an experience from the physicality of that game and understanding to play through tough stretches and not worry about the whistle and continue to play. I am hopeful we are able to benefit from that.”
On playing against the experienced players in Australia…
“Those guys knew how to play. They know how to get open shots and knock shots down. They know how to get in certain positions defensively to make you have to make shots. They’re able to rebound, so they made it a little bit tougher for you … When the game was on, especially the first game and it was one of the all-star teams they were able to put together, that made it a little bit tougher as the trip went on.”
On Aaron Epps and Brandon Sampson being bright spots of the tour…
“I thought Brandon (Sampson) and Aaron Epps were two of the really bright spots on the trip in terms of the productivity. Sampson was so balanced throughout the tournament in terms of the shots he took, and the shots he made, he was never really rushed. I thought he did a great job of playing well within himself. On the defensive end of the floor, I thought he was one of our better defenders. That was a bright spot for us as well. I thought Aaron Epps came in, made shots, played well midrange, got big rebounds for us in one of the games and has shown some signs of defending, as well. I think because of being healthy, which he wasn’t at any strong point last year, the early part of the season is going to give us an opportunity to see a lot of Aaron and being a big part of our rotation this coming season.”
On Ben Simmons…
“I was really impressed with him from game one to game five. One, he’s just excellent on the floor. He has good height, basketball IQ, but more so just on the floor dealing with all of the attention and everything that was given to him in a short period of time over there. Every stop that we were on there was a lot of demand on him for his time, and then he was able to adjust, get on the floor and be productive and produce for his team. He was never affected or bothered by any of it. Toward the end of the deal in the last game, he may have gotten a little worn down with just minutes played and all of the things that were going on around him. Overall, he performed extremely well for us, and I was really proud of him.”
On their fall team schedule…
“… We are giving them time to really get acclimated in school this week and take advantage of that … This is going to allow their bodies to heal and give them an opportunity. If there is anything that needs to be treated, they can get those things taken care of. Either the latter part of next week or the early part of the next week, we will get back started early with them in individual skill work where we will have four guys that we are able to work with at a time. Approaching October, we will start doing more team stuff.”
(NOTE: The full-team practice schedule window starts 42 days out from the first game and teams may have 30 practices in that time.)
On the 2015-2016 season schedule…
“I’m excited about our schedule. I think it’s a very challenging schedule, possibly tougher than the one we faced last season. The good part of this trip that we took was that I was hopeful that it was going to give us an opportunity to help the young guys, the guys who haven’t played much get some quality minutes and play through, but the games were so tough it made it difficult with our competitive spirit. You’re sitting there trying to make sure you put your best foot forward to win those games. Our schedule, the way that it was last year, prevented that. We didn’t have any down time really to allow growth for our bench from the young guys to get the experience out there playing. This schedule is going to be very difficult as well, but we are hopeful that this trip and the time that we were allotted will help us to build our team the way it needs to be built for the long haul. When you look at Oklahoma, one of the top three teams in the Big 12, I think it says a lot about where they think we are. We are paired against those guys early on in the SEC-Big 12 challenge. Then, we have the Legends Classic where we have Marquette, and then we will play either NC State or Arizona State the following game. Even North Florida or you can go down the list of other teams who have fared well or played in the NCAA Tournament last year. For the young team we will be putting out on the floor, we are going to have some challenges in front of us and have to really be prepared early on.”
On Josh Gray‘s one-game suspension as announced by Coach Jones earlier in week on radio …
“That came from the NCAA—the compliance and information that we were able to provide them with. The NCAA came back and said that because of what transpired, he would only have to miss one game. He didn’t finish the game that he started, actually, that he was playing in there. His other punishment will be regulated through us within the program and the team. He will have to work his way back into good graces with this team and everything else. We think that he’s prepared and willing to do that.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
SENIOR KEITH HORNSBY
On style of play they faced …
“I can’t compare them to any SEC opponents. So many cuts and very many hard, physical screens. Some of these screens that these post players would set were some of the hardest screens I had to fight through. They just knew how to set them, you could tell. They were older, in their 30s. They’ve been setting screens for 20 years so they’ve mastered the arts.”
On what they learned …
“When we are firing on all cylinders we are a tremendous force to be reckoned with but also we have a lot of work defensively with communicating and trusting each other on defense. It’s hard to expect us to be that great with only ten days of practice, no scouting reports or anything. We basically rolled the ball over there and played.”
FRESHMAN BEN SIMMONS
On what to work on …
“We’ve got to work at everything. If we want to be the best team in the country we’ve got to work at everything.”
JUNIOR TIM QUARTERMAN
On the upcoming season …
“I think it was a good experience. It was a long plane ride over there but it was a good experience to be over there together as a team. Just being in different scenery with each other. We didn’t know anybody over there except Ben (Simmons) and his family so just getting out and meeting fans, it was a good experience.”
On the difference in play …
“We had to take a lot of quick shots. We wanted to move the ball around more but we didn’t have a lot of time on the shot clock. Their rules are very different but we got used to them and we just adjusted.”