They oozed of optimism after their last victory, the one kid for whom everything seems to come remarkably easy, and the other, who has pretty much seen it all at this point.
LSU beat American last Tuesday night, 79-51, for their third consecutive win in a season in which, albeit early, the Tigers have dealt with injuries and changing lineups and, they’d be lying if they said otherwise, trying to find their way as a team.
In a nutshell, here is the deal for the LSU basketball team: Wake Forest of the ACC comes to town Tuesday, the biggest name team to enter the Pete Maravich Assembly Center this pre-conference season. Then three really tough Southeastern Conference games loom at the start of league play.
“Wake Forest is comparable to a lot of the teams in our league and we have to take that approach,” fourth-year LSU head coach Johnny Jones said. He admitted the “level of competition will be raised right off the bat.”
Yes, the Wake Forest game starts at 6 p.m. and, yes, the LSU football team kicks off against Texas Tech two hours later. But if you want to see what really should be a good college basketball game, get your tickets and then hustle home.
Football aside, just four days later, it’s on. The SEC season begins at Vanderbilt, followed by a home game against Kentucky and a trip to Florida. By the way, Wake is 8-3 and lost to Vandy by 18.
With that one game left before SEC play, LSU is 7-4 with losses to Marquette, NC State (in overtime), Charleston and Houston (outscored 21-14 in OT). The conference season is 18 games, so LSU has 20 left (including a non-conference game Jan. 30 with Oklahoma). With seven victories, and with plenty of time to move up but with an NCAA RPI of 163, well, like the late Al Davis used to say to his Oakland Raiders, “Just Win Baby.”
The Tigers know that.
“Wake Forest is going to be like a conference game,” said the seasoned veteran, guard Keith Hornsby (the only other senior is Josh Gray). “They’re really a talented team. But I don’t like to think of it that simply, that it’s that cut and dry. We take it one game at time. We know our schedule but we don’t want to look too far ahead so right now we’re focused on Wake Forest.”
Hornsby, who started at UNC Asheville, sat out a year at LSU and then led the Tigers in minutes played and was third in scoring last season, knows the drill.
“One of the main reasons we get along so well off the court that it just naturally translates to game time and I can say that I feel like — and this is my third year here — this team has the best overall chemistry and it definitely helps. But it also improves with experience and all these games before Christmas are great.”
Freshman phenom Ben Simmons, a Baryshnikov on the hardwood, the Australian who at 6-10 looks as comfortable as a point guard as he does a center, is ready to take on the world.
“I’m ready to play,” said Simmons, averaging team highs of 19.1 points, 13.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists, and also leads the Tigers in steals (25) and blocks (15).
“I want to play the best no matter who it is. Whether it’s Wake Forest or Vanderbilt or Kentucky. I’m ready to play.
“I get excited about that, hearing about guys going off for 30 or whatever it is, teams crushing other teams, I’m ready to play them.”
You can bet they’re excited to play him. Just consider this remarkable line he had
against American: 23 points, five rebounds, six assists, a block and a steal and just one turnover in 29 minutes.
And Craig Victor II added 14 points and five rebounds.
But against American, LSU trailed by four with 6:30 left in the first half but outscored the visitors 43-20 in the second half.
“We’re at an improved state but we still have a ways to go obviously to fulfill the potential that we think we have,” Hornsby said. “But we’re making strides. The second half tonight was a good example of the adjustments we made defensively. The first half was a little bit of the old team at the beginning but it’s all about the effort and everybody buys into what we think we do to be as good as we can that will help us through the tough games coming up.”
LSU played its first eight games without Victor, the big guy who sat out a year after transferring from Arizona, and looks noticeably more forceful inside with him on the floor.
“The defense is coming along,” Victor said. “That’s making us a better team, no doubt about it. We know we can score, everybody knows we can score, but it’s the other things, doing the smart things, boxing out, playing defense, and staying disciplined on the other end.
That plus getting Victor and the return of Hornsby, who missed the first four games after preseason surgery, has taken some of the load off Simmons.
“Every day we’re improving and stepping up for the teams we have to play no matter who it is,” Simmons said. “No one came here to play the teams that aren’t that good. Everyone wants to play the best and my team wants to do that. So we’re ready.”
They’ll have to be, of course, because that schedule looms large.
“We’re making positive strides in a good way,” fourth-year head coach Johnny Jones said. “I think when you look at the play of Craig Victor and Keith Hornsby since they’ve been back on the team I think it’s rubbed off. Defensively, the sense of urgency, the toughness, whatever that needs to be there …
“We certainly have to continue to improve. We’ve got a long ways to go. But I like the effort and mentality of our guys right now. Winning’s important to them.”
As the post-American news conference wound down, Victor made sure to say this:
“To elaborate on something Keith said earlier, our team chemistry off the court helps our success on the court. I would say I’ve never been a part of a team that is so close off the court and that makes things easier when you can trust your guy that’s playing behind you. You know you can trust him and that makes defense a hell of a lot easier for us.”
That’s a good mindset for a team that faces what LSU does in the next two weeks and beyond.