BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers look to keep its home league unbeaten run going and take advantage of a second road win as LSU hosts Georgia in another Super Tuesday ESPN contest at 8 p.m. CT in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tuesday night crew of Brad Nessler, Sean Farnham and Shannon Spake will have the call on TV while the LSU Sports Radio Network crew will have the call with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford.
Tickets are available at LSUtix.net and during the day at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office. LSU students are admitted free of charge with valid ID and this will be a student point game.
The Tigers are 5-2 in the league and 12-7 overall after a 72-70 rallying win over Alabama Saturday in Tuscaloosa, while Georgia went to overtime Saturday to defeat Arkansas, 76-73, in Athens. Georgia is 11-6 over 4-3 in the SEC with a road win over Missouri in the league.
Tim Quarterman used a put back layup to give LSU the winning points with 33 seconds left and then Quarterman and Hornsby led the defensive effort to keep Alabama from scoring to preserve the win. It was LSU’s second road win in four contests in the SEC away from the Maravich Center.
LSU has wins over Kentucky, Ole Miss and Arkansas at home this year.
Ben Simmons led LSU with 23 points and five assists in the game and is averaging 19.6 points per game and 12.6 rebounds with 5.1 assists. Hornsby averages 13.5 points per game, with Craig Victor II at 13.0 and Quarterman 11.0 points.
Georgia is led by sophomore Vante Maten who averages 16.2 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. J. J. Frazier averages 15.7 points and 4.9 rebounds a contest and Kenny Gaines is at 13.9 points and 2.8 rebounds.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media on Monday afternoon prior to the game and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“Coming off of a good win on Saturday in front of a really tough and hostile crowd, I thought our guys did a great job of finishing. That was a great sign of taking some positive steps and strides from a game earlier in that week. With that, I think we are certainly looking forward to getting back home, getting back against another tough opponent in conference in Georgia who returns a lot of veteran guys in Frazier, Gaines and Mann. They will certainly present a challenge for us here. The game came down to the wire last year. They’ve certainly had some really bright moments this season. We know it will be another really great challenge for us tomorrow. We are looking forward to later in the week on Saturday, playing against the No. 1 team in the country (Oklahoma). With that, we will be in tennis shoes this week for “Coaches vs. Cancer,” showing our support as a staff as we continue to fight against a really tough disease that we are hopeful that at some point they will find a cure. We will certainly be representing them tomorrow and maybe on Saturday as well against Oklahoma.”
On keeping Craig Victor II out of foul trouble…
“Any time you play in that zone and in that area, things happen. You have to try to adjust to how the game is being called. You don’t know until the game is on and how it’s played. You want to make sure that he remains focused, paying attention to detail in an aggressive manner because that’s when he’s at his best. He’s fared well in more games than not in the way that he’s played. He’s been very productive, and we don’t want him to change how he’s playing. We are hopeful that he’s able to make some adjustments as the game goes on and understand that he may not be able to do certain things early in games. We picked up a couple of tough ones Saturday that could have possibly been prevented.”
On the expectations for substitutions…
“I expect the guys who come into the game, regardless of foul trouble or resting someone, it’s an opportunity to play. Just come in and give us some positive plays, making sure we don’t slip up. They don’t have to come in and become Superman all of a sudden. We want them to be fundamentally sound defending the right way, taking care of the ball when getting the ball from Point A to Point B, our offense is able to be executed. They don’t have to score outside of anything they do every day in practice. We just want them to be solid contributors on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. When we get that, it’s great for us because it gives us an opportunity to get and utilize the depth in our bench. Unfortunately Saturday, we didn’t have the leisure of doing that because we didn’t feel as though they played up that standard, but they have in other games.”
On Saturday’s win and the SEC…
“Our approach is one game at a time. It’s a long journey. Each game carries its own significance of importance. That’s just our approach. Like you said, each game becomes big. There’s obviously some separation one way or another, especially when you’re doing well. Each conference night when all of the teams play, you’re going to have winners and losers. You want to make sure that you stay on that positive side. It was really good for us. It’s always exciting to sometimes to play early and knowing that in the afternoon or evenings other teams are going to play. There’s going to be some separation. We were conscious that afterward we were the only road team that wound up having success on Saturday, which lets you know how tough and difficult this league is.”
On focusing on Oklahoma after Georgia…
“Every team that we play is going to bring on its own challenges. We know how tough this conference is night-in and night-out. Georgia will present that for us. Our attention will not turn to Oklahoma until late Tuesday evening. Our guys understand that, and that’s going to be really important that we approach it that way. If not, it can sting you, and we understand that.”
On Tim Quarterman‘s play at Alabama…
“The other night I thought he played extremely well. At Alabama, he brought a presence to the floor with some leadership. He played with a sense of urgency and toughness on the defensive end of the floor. He gave our offense a lot of spark as well when he came in making plays. He was able to do more of the same when he started the second half. He got off to a really good start. He played throughout the second half and played really well. We were pleased with him. Defensively, he was really good down the stretch when we needed to get stops and shutouts.”
On why Tim Quarterman was moved to come off of the bench…
“Josh Gray had done some things and was able to rise to the occasion. We want to make sure that we give guys opportunities when they perform at a certain level. Josh was able to do that. Last year, Josh was our starter and midway through the season, Tim rose to the occasion and was able to do that. It’s really good for us because it shows the competitiveness of our team and forces us to practice and play at a certain level. When you’re able to do that, when you perform in practice at a certain level, you have a tendency of playing there. Good practice habits develop into some good game habits.”
On the Georgia guards…
“They have experience, guys who are all-conference-caliber guys and have played a certain level and have been a part of the success there at Georgia. All three of those guys have been able to provide that for them. They are the veteran leaders on that team. They are big time threats to play against.”
On awarding Henry Shortess a scholarship…
“I’ve known Henry for a long time from watching him play in high school. I was on campus one day during camp time and ran into him. I thought he was off to another institution, maybe playing somewhere. When I found out he was here, I offered him an opportunity to come and walk on and be a part of our program. He’s worked extremely hard, he along with our other walk-on, Brandon Eddlestone. Both of those guys have done a tremendous job in serving in that capacity. Henry is going to graduate in May, possibly, and the opportunity presented itself. We had a scholarship available. We wanted to reward him for his hard work and in what he’s been able to do and what he’s been able to provide to this team in a positive way. I was happy to be able to do that … I knew it was going to be emotional and exciting for him, but to watch his teammates celebrate and the excitement and joy they had afterward and the emotions and everything surrounding it clarified what we already knew about him and what the team and the staff really thought about him. It wasn’t something I’d really shared with anybody else. That’s why it came as such a surprise because several of the guys thought Henry knew already and we were just letting them know, but that wasn’t the case.”
On the importance of having walk-ons like Brandon Eddlestone and Henry Shortess…
“They impact the team in certain ways. It’s so important to have players and people around your program like those guys that care so much, and it means so much to them. They’re in it for the right reasons. They’re passionate about LSU. You just know that those guys are going to be successful in whatever endeavor they choose and direction they go in after their playing days are over. They are going to have a positive impact on the community in which they live. They’ve had a positive impact on our program and team during their time here. They are just as important, as we talk about all of the time, as any guy that’s on this team, and they understand that.”
On what he is hopeful the team learned from a win on the road at Alabama…
“Growth. Anytime you play in an environment like that with over 15,000 people, it’s such a hostile environment–it was something similar to what we faced Tuesday at Texas A&M in front of that type of environment. We probably didn’t handle it as well. We thought we did a much better job closing the game out at Alabama. Those were positive steps for a really young team that hadn’t been in that position a whole lot this year.”