BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team went back to work on Thursday afternoon after Wednesday night’s 90-81 victory at the Maravich Center over Ole Miss with the focus now on Saturday night’s home game with Arkansas.
The contest is the SEC Network Primetime game at 7:30 p.m. CT and the broadcast will also be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network. Tickets are available at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office all day on Friday and online at LSUtix.net.
It will also be alumni night and former basketball players are invited to gather for a pre-game reception and will be recognized on floor at halftime. Specifically, it is the 10-year anniversary of the 2006 Final Four team, the 30-years since the 1986 team went to the Final Four and 35 years since the Tigers went to the 1981 Final Four.
LSU and Arkansas are two of the three teams that enter the weekend tied for second in the league at 3-1 (with Kentucky), one game behind undefeated 4-0 Texas A&M. Kentucky will be at Auburn in an afternoon contest while Texas A&M will play at Georgia. LSU is 10-6 overall while Arkansas is 9-7. LSU is 9-1 in the Maravich Center this year, while Arkansas is 1-3 on the road.
Wednesday night, LSU rallied from eight points down in the first half and three down at halftime to score 50 second half points en route to the victory. It marked the second time this year LSU had shot better than 70 percent during the second half of the game. Five LSU players were in double figures with Craig Victor II posting 18 points, Ben Simmons and Antonio Blakeney 15 each, Tim Quarterman 14 and Keith Hornsby 10.
Coach Jones met with the media prior to Thursday’s practice and here were some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“Our guys did a great job last night. We are coming off of a nice victory, but we have to quickly turn our attention to a very tough game Saturday. The Arkansas Razorbacks did a great job in their game against Missouri earlier in the week (a 94-61 win at Missouri on Tuesday). They’ve played really well. Their team is starting to jell. You can see the chemistry there. After losing some guys from last year’s team, Coach (Mike) Anderson has done a tremendous job of getting these guys to focus. They are playing really well right now in the way that they play, the up-tempo-type team. They are very aggressive on the defensive end of the floor and try to create turnovers. We will certainly have to be sharp on Saturday, taking care of the basketball and really being ready to defend a very fast team, that is very capable of putting up a lot of points.”
On the lineup change (Gray and Patterson for Quarterman and Blakeney) …
“I think they perform and guys win opportunities in practice. Sometimes we will shift lineups on what’s best for us and be scouting report-oriented because of our opponent that we are playing. It was good (Wednesday) night that we had guys who may not have started the game and wound up finishing the game and played a lot of balanced minutes. I hope that’s a lesson learned that we have a team of guys who are looking forward to taking advantage of chance opportunities. Guys did that last night. Other guys came in and played some quality minutes for us that didn’t start. The mindsets were right, and we are excited that our guys took that approach.”
On the guys responding to the lineup changes…
“Guys understand. They’ve been playing long enough. A lot of guys take pride and put a lot of emphasis on whether they are starting or not. We want to make sure that we put a great deal of emphasis on wins and setbacks and making sure our wins outweigh the number of setbacks we have, how we are playing, getting engaged, taking ownership of the team, being part of it and pulling for each other. When you do that, everything else has a tendency to take care of itself. We played 10 guys last night. I’m hopeful that when other guys weren’t in that they were just as involved in the game, pulling for their teammates because we wanted the score to be different. We had guys in who made a really sudden impact. I thought Brandon Sampson came in and got two big rebounds in the first half and took a charge … He impacted the game, as well. Each guy who came in (Wednesday) night gave us some positive things. That’s what we need. When guys are locked in and ready to play and sitting over there waiting for the opportunity and those things to happen, the more it happens, the better off we will be as a team. “
On the balanced scoring attack…
“I love when our guys have a balanced scoring attack. I also enjoy watching if a guy gets a hot hand, for instance like (Stefan) Moody did last night. Your teammates recognize that. If that’s where you can go, you go to that particular person or play until the other team stops it and forces you to do something else. That means you have an unselfish team as well. When they are scoring and you have balance across the board, that’s also a sign of unselfishness. The number of assists we have for the most part is a good sign. Our guys are doing a great job of sharing the ball. There are a lot of ways to attack teams. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that your team is executing as a team and not as an individual, and they were able to do that last night.”
On Craig Victor II‘s mid-range game…
“It’s great, especially when you look at teams trying to double down on our post guys if Ben Simmons is playing in the post and they decide they are going to send two people after him. You have to pick and choose what are you going away from. If you’re trying to go away from Keith Hornsby, one of the leaders in three-point field goal percentage or Jalyn Patterson, you name it, those guys are very capable out there. You can’t leave the high post guy because Craig went 7-for-10 last night and made four or five of those mid-range jumpers. It was good for us. Anytime you have the opportunity to stretch the defense like that and guys shoot from 16-17-feet, it’s always a good thing. He’s shown that he’s capable. That’s part of some teams’ scouting reports, and they just have to figure out what it is they want to do and may leave a person like Ben in the post one-on-one and force the defenders to have to deal with him.”
On LSU’s tempo style…
“For us, we are an up-tempo team. That’s the style we like to play. We aren’t going to tempo it down because of another team. We just have to make sure that we defend the other team that way. That’s our style of play. We feel like we have a good enough bench to do that. Our players thrive in that type of system. We look forward to it, but we aren’t going to tempo it down because another team likes to do what we do. It’s the team that does it the best who is probably going to win the game if you both play it that way. We have to make sure that we execute at a high level, playing the way that we play. They are a team that creates opportunities, so they can run. We will be doing the same.”
On Arkansas’ press…
“They still play a lot of the same way. They’re a pressure-oriented team. They’re going to get after you. They’re going to press you full-court and half-court. They’re going to scramble, make sure that they try to take you out of your offense. You have to be precise…the way that they will take you out of your offense, maybe you have to not just (run) plays but understand how to play. Guys have to understand how to get to the open area when guys are being trapped and making plays because they’re fast and strong. They’re going to force you to do some things you don’t normally do. If you are worried so much about structure, you’re going to get hurt. Guys are going to have to make basketball plays against that type of pressure and the way that they play.”