Squeaking shoes and the swoosh of the net will soon return to the Maravich Center. Familiar faces like Keith Hornsby and Tim Quarterman will take the floor next to some new, high profile Tigers in Ben Simmons, Antonio Blakeney and Craig Victor.
With the LSU men’s basketball season approaching, many questions loom about the new team dynamic. The squad lost two major components in Jordan Mickey and Jarell Martin to the NBA draft last season. The duo accounted for nearly half of the team’s scoring and rebounding in 2014-15.
This year’s team will feature Simmons, the consensus no. 1 recruit in the country, to compliment a veteran group. These Tigers have made working on their post play a top priority and seek to continue to develop some of the new talent down low.
“They have shown a new type of fire that I haven’t seen in them yet since I’ve been here,” Hornsby, a senior guard, said of the post players. “I feel like they are playing with a new edge and strength and just a different type of confidence.”
The Tigers feel development in the post will define their season due to depth at the guard position.
With a trip to Australia this summer to compete against some professional teams, LSU got a jump-start on its season. Not only was the team exposed to a high level of competition, but they were also given the opportunity to have ten extra days of practice before the trip.
“The games were very challenging for us, and getting back, we feel we’re a little bit ahead of schedule in terms of practice because of the trip over there,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said. “We think that should be somewhat of an advantage to have that type of competition early on.”
Practices have emphasized physicality in an up-tempo system thus far. The Tigers expect every loose ball to go to them this year with effort from the whole team.
“We talk about playing hard every second, every play and just how delicate or how important it is that guys make hustle plays,” Jones said. “We don’t have any designated divers. Everybody has got to go get it, and I think when you have that amongst your team and guys share in that, you have a chance to win, and that’s night in and night out.”
Along with a solid group of starters, this team has an added advantage of depth that it did not have last year. This year’s team hopes to utilize the press with the combination of guys that played lots of minutes last year alongside the talented new group. The goal is to use this time before the start of the season to develop the new bench players and get them in a steady rotation.
“We’ve got good players and athletes coming off the bench,” said Quarterman, a junior guard. “We can just go out there and play without having to worry about foul trouble. That’s going to be big for us this year, and that’s going to be key.”
LSU hopes to see more time for post player Elbert Robinson after he suffered an injury in the 2014-2015 season that limited his minutes. Robinson took last season to learn from former teammates Martin and Mickey and use their example to improve his personal game.
For Hornsby, his focus falls on keeping the team’s vision one game at a time in order to prevent underestimating opponents. He executed this principle flawlessly for the regular season finale last year. With no time remaining, Hornsby drained the game-winner at Arkansas, propelling the Tigers to the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers look forward to begin the 2015-2016 season with confidence and respect for the competition’s skill level. Coach Jones and his staff have continuously stressed the importance of playing a hard, fast game and hope to utilize old and new talent as the season progresses.
“This year we’re hopeful with the experience with the guys returning from last year that we can manage those minutes, and those guys are very capable of playing because they played in some important games last year,” Jones said. “With this freshmen group that’s coming in, they’re talented enough to be put in some difficult situations early on.”