BATON ROUGE – The 19/23 ranked LSU men’s basketball team tries to start the season with three straight wins at home before heading to Brooklyn as the Tigers play host to South Alabama Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets are available at LSUsports.net and at the upper concourse ticket windows beginning at 6:30 p.m. Fans are asked to support the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank by bringing non-perishable food items to the Maravich Center and in return those fans participating can receive a $2 ticket for the game.
The game will be LSU’s first on the SEC Network this season with John Saunders and Jon Sunvold on the call.
The game will be live on the LSU Sports Radio Network and it will mark the return of “Voice of the Tigers” Jim Hawthorne to the microphone after a short medical absence and he will be joined as always by analyst Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford. Affiliates for the game include flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge and KSYL-AM in Alexandria, WBOX-FM in Bogalusa, KFNV-FM in Ferriday, KJIN-AM in Houma, KJNA-FM in Jena, KLWB-FM in Lafayette/Opelousas, KXZZ-AM in Lake Charles, KJAE-FM, Leesville, KMLB-AM, Monroe, KFRA-AM, Morgan City, WWL-AM in New Orleans, KRUS-AM in Ruston, KWKH-AM in Shreveport, KTJZ-FM Tallulah, WFCG-FM in Tylertown, Mississippi and KVPI-AM in Ville Platte.
LSU is 2-0 after an 81-70 win over McNeese on Friday and the first win in the Legends Classic on Monday against Kennesaw State, 91-69. Ben Simmons had 22 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists to lead LSU, while Josh Gray in his season debut had 16 points and Antonio Blakeney 14.
LSU won its 15th straight game when shooting over 50 percent from the floor and its 32nd straight when having 10-plus more assists than the opponents (21-10).
Blakeney is averaging 18.0 points after two games, while Simmons is at 16.5 points and Gray at 16.0. Brandon Sampson at 13.0 points a contest.
South Alabama is 1-1 after a win at home over Auburn-Montgomery (88-68) and an 88-70 loss at Legends Classic participant NC State.
Ken Williams leads the team at 14.5 points per game, while Taishaun Johnson is at 13.5 points per game.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media on Wednesday and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“It’s been a long week for us. Generally, we take off on Sundays, but with the game on Monday, we had to practice straight through. We haven’t had an opportunity to take off and won’t until after our competition on Thursday. We will certainly have a chance to take off on Friday. We feel like we are continuing to build and get better and get experience for us the other night in the game. Again, we thought we had a lot of positive things that happened on the floor as a team and individually. That was very, very positive for us in areas that we can continue to grow. We look forward to hopefully building on that tomorrow night against South Alabama, a team that will certainly present some challenges for us. They’ve played a good team in NC State and certainly have had some good moments in there. We look forward to that challenge. Hopefully, the guys that we have on the team that have continued to grow and have made some positive steps will continue along those lines. We were really excited about the crowd on Monday, and we are hopeful that we will have another great crowd out here Thursday night along with the tremendous student crowd and how they have been turning out the last couple of days. I was excited to take Ben (Simmons) and Keith (Hornsby) yesterday to hit the sorority and fraternity houses and encourage (the students) to keep coming out and seeing us. It was a great response from that group, as well.”
On filling the void until (Craig) Victor can play with the team in the post…
“Night-in and night-out, we want our post guys to be productive. We want to make sure that they do a great job of controlling the paint area on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. We think it’s really important that we become a better rebounding team. That’s one of the areas I think we have not been as sharp. We lost over 50 percent of our rebounding from last year in Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey. We are looking for those other guys to really step up, and that’s going to be important for us. One of the things that we have focused and concentrated on is making sure we defend well and rebound. I think it gives us an opportunity to have success. I think our defense has continued to pick up and get better in terms of our rotations, but our rebounding is still lacking. Ben (Simmons) wound up getting nine the other night. We had a couple of guys get seven or eight, but we still lost the battle of the boards. That’s an area we feel like we have to win.”
On Elbert Robinson III and his progression…
“What we did with Elbert last year when Jarell (Martin) and Jordan (Mickey) got off to such a great start, we really concentrated and focused on his conditioning and shut him down on his playing or putting him in the position where we were going to need to count on him for extended minutes. The strength and conditioning coach (Rick LeFebvre) really took him in and very aggressively worked with him last year during the season and throughout the summer. I think you can see the benefits of that now.”
On Ben Simmons handling the expectations and receiving honors…
“I think he’s done a tremendous job. It’s happened for him gradually…the attention that he’s started to get and the honors that have been bestowed on him. I think he’s really taking it in stride and has been able to handle it in a positive way. I think because of his quest to be the best, he welcomes it. Anything less than that is always a challenge for him, making sure that he continues to strive for excellence. It’s been a good thing for him. He’s handled it marvelously.”
On working on rebounding…
“I think it’s more attention to detail for us. It’s important that we continue to harp on it. We have to continue to work on it because it’s one of the more important parts of our game. One of the bright sides of it is that we are holding teams to 26-27 percent shooting in halves. There are a lot more opportunities for them to possibly get rebounds on the offensive end of the floor. We’ve shot a pretty good clip from the field and have been shooting 50 percent or better in games. I think that has allowed for fewer for us on the offensive glass. The opportunities do exist. If we can hold people on the defensive glass or on the perimeter shooting under 30 percent and we rebound the ball, that’s when we become a better basketball team because we are shooting at a high percentage, be it, fast-break opportunities or make it out of our sets. That’s a real important area that we have to clean up in rebounding. Teams we are about to play, it’s going to matter. You have guys who are bigger, stronger, quicker, and the team that’s coming in here on Thursday is a good rebounding team, and they certainly attack the offensive glass. We are going to have to do a much better job tomorrow night keeping them off of the glass.”
On Aaron Epps and Elbert Robinson III…
“Aaron is in more of a situation that he’s either playing with or backing up Ben (Simmons). We don’t utilize Aaron as much in the (post) spot where he’s a lot quicker on the floor. He can do some things fast-break-wise, or in our press when we have Aaron in the game, we can put him in the point of our press and put Ben in the back or we can put him in for Ben as well. When those guys are in the game, Ben and Aaron, at the same time, we are a very fast team. Aaron can really get out on the floor and can really run. He’s a good shot blocker. He can certainly shoot the ball from the perimeter. Elbert is one of those guys … he’s going to man the paint. We have to give him touches down there. He should be a force inside and make it a little more difficult for our opponents to shoot up over in the game. He should be able to alter shots down there at 7-foot-1, great wingspan, 290 pounds. We have to do a much better job of utilizing him when he’s in the game because he’s a threat. We have to work and makes sure that we manage that around the minutes he’s in the game and playing.”
On Josh Gray‘s improvement from last season…
“I think he has more of an idea of what we are looking for and are asking from him. He has the green light like our other players to take shots. We certainly don’t put him in the position where we have him uncomfortable. As a point guard you have to make sure that you are facilitating, passing, hitting open people and when that opportunity becomes available for you to score, take advantage of it. When you have that perfect balance, it makes you a better threat for us, and it allows our offense and our team to execute at a higher level. I think Josh Is finding that balance now.”