BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team returned to practice on Thursday after Tuesday night’s road loss against No. 10 Texas A&M in preparation for a road trip to Alabama.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide will play at a sold-out Coleman Coliseum Saturday at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. The game will also be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 981. FM).
LSU is 11-7 and 4-2 in the Southeastern Conference while Alabama is 10-7 and 1-4 in the league after falling at Auburn on Tuesday. The Tide, under first-year coach Avery Johnson, got its lone conference win against South Carolina at home earlier in the month at a time when the Gamecocks were undefeated on the season.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media prior to the contest and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“The other night playing against one of the top-10 teams in the country we got off to a good start. It was a decent first half. We had a couple of breakdowns in the first half defensively. We allowed a couple of easy scoring opportunities on fast breaks. The second half got off to a really good start, and unfortunately, foul trouble plagued us in the post area. Then, we just did not execute at the level we needed to, be it the offensive end of the floor. Defensively, we did not get into some rotations where we needed to be to make them play up over the top of us. With that said, we just didn’t do enough to get it done against a really good basketball team. We look forward to trying to correct those mistakes and get better as we are … playing a team in Alabama who has played some close games and had a big win over South Carolina when they were undefeated. We know we will have some challenges set forth for us there. We look forward to it as we continue to grow as a team.”
On the second half at Texas A&M…
“We did not execute at the level we needed to, making sure any time we run our fast break there are options we can get to. We did not have the post presence that we needed. A lot of times when Craig Victor II is in there, there’s a read, whether he’s diving, getting to the block or staying high and setting screens. We didn’t have the flow we needed. We took some early shot opportunities. We had some looks, and they just didn’t go down. We had some high-low passes that didn’t connect. That contributed to some of the turnovers that we had, but we had some opportunities to make plays. We didn’t knock enough shots down to keep it close enough to allow for any pressure to exist against them … The score went from a three-point game to seven (points) quickly after two plays, and we never really recovered from them. You have to credit Texas A&M for what they were able to do defensively, crowding the lane and making sure we played up over the top of them and not giving us a whole lot of second chance opportunities.”
On half-court offense…
“You execute your offense based on what’s available. We have guys who are good shooters. If they get good looks, squared up and we are shooting the ball well, that’s what we do. If we have post guys with guys on their back or we have side-post action if we can get it inside with clean looks, we will do that. We are a team that is up-tempo. We’re not sitting there trying to hold on to it. We look for early scoring opportunities, but if we need to get into the clock, we are capable of doing that. Not a lot of teams have been able to force us to get into the clock because of the way that we play.”
On Texas A&M’s adjustments…
“You can go back and look at the tape where we wound up missing shots that were available to us. Some of them were in the early offense for us. Others were around the basket. We missed some layup opportunities where we probably weren’t as physical or strong enough in the post area in playing to finish there. You have to credit them with their defense. Offensively, when their shots are going and you’re playing on the road, those things have to happen for you to be good. We did not execute in making shots at the high rate that we normally do. We got stuff off of our fast break, some early scoring opportunities with that as well. Defensively, they are a good defensive basketball team. We took shots, did not live at the three-point line because we didn’t take a whole bunch of threes. A lot of stuff that we did was on the inside. We just did not get shots down.”
On playing on the road against Alabama; no wins since 2004 …
“Winning on the road in general has always been tough. I’m not sure if there’s a place on the road that is easy. Pretty much anywhere you go there have been setbacks. I can’t tell you the percentages of arenas or places to play. Kentucky has always been a tough place on the road to go and play. Alabama has always had a good team. They’ve won some championships. They have a good tradition in basketball. It’s always been a challenge playing there. Because of the tradition of their team, their program, just like anywhere else, it’s always been tough.”
On the parity in the Southeastern Conference…
“You can talk about any league in the country. If you look at Michigan State in their league and what has transpired with as great of a team that they are, ranked No. 1 early, and the setbacks. You can look in the ACC and look at the teams and the way that things have played out there. I don’t think our league is any different than those. It’s very competitive. You get coaches and teams that are familiar with each other and systems and styles of play. Anytime you play home or on the road, it’s always a challenge. Our league serves to that as well. From Auburn knocking off Kentucky a few nights ago and Alabama knocking off an unbeaten South Carolina team, it’s good for college basketball because it talks about how competitive you have to be night-in and night-out. We were sitting there at Texas A&M playing for first place in the league Tuesday night. It’s a very competitive league. Night-in and night-out you have to be ready. Any team on any given night can have success in this league.”
On Avery Johnson and what makes his Alabama team click…
“He’s got a team that has been very competitive and has played extremely hard. They’ve had some success. When you talk about knocking off a team that’s undefeated and ranked in our league—they were one of the few teams in our league and maybe the country that was undefeated at that time—to play the way that they did on that evening says a lot about his team and how competitive they’ve been. They’ve been really close in a lot of games this year. It speaks to his passion and the way that he coaches. You know he does a great job. He’s been Coach of the Year in the NBA. I’m sure he’s excited about what he’s doing with this college team as well.
“They have good guard play … They have forwards in (Shannon) Hale who was there last year. (Retin) Obasohan is a kid who can play, really play out on the perimeter and is strong and physical. He had a really big game the other night in their setback against Auburn. He played really well. They have a lot of pieces. You have (Jimmie) Taylor there in the post. With (Justin) Coleman, there’s just a number of guys that they have on their team that are playing their roles. They are playing extremely hard and executing at a certain level that gives them a chance to be successful.”