COLUMBIA, S.C. — The LSU Tigers look to keep the momentum rolling on the positive side of the ledger as they travel here for a Wednesday night game at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Tigers, 15-8 and 8-2 in the SEC, meet the Gamecocks (20-3, 7-3) at 6 p.m. CT in a game televised by ESPN2 with announcers Joe Tessitore and Sean Farnham. Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and studio host Kevin Ford will have the broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge).
LSU has won its last two road games at Alabama (72-70) and at Auburn (80-68) and is one of two teams that has three road wins in Southeastern Conference play. Meanwhile LSU and South Carolina are two of the four teams that are undefeated at home in the SEC. Last year, LSU won six times on the road in the league and has won nine-of-its-last-14 road league games.
The Tigers have a one-game lead in the league ahead of South Carolina, Texas A&M and Kentucky, all at 7-3. LSU will also play Texas A&M on Saturday at noon at the Maravich Center and needs at least one win to assure itself of at least a tie for first entering the final three weeks of the season.
LSU point forward Ben Simmons was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the third time this season after recording his 16th double double in the win at Auburn (21 pts-13 rebs-7 asts) and 16 points-9 rebounds-7 assists in the win over Mississippi State. Simmons is averaging 19.4 points per game and 12.3 rebounds to go with 5.0 assists.
The Tigers are expected to go with the lineup that has helped them win four-of-the-last-five games – guards Jalyn Patterson, Keith Hornsby and Tim Quarterman, point forward Simmons and forward Craig Victor II. Hornsby is coming off a 25-point effort against Mississippi State while freshman Antonio Blakeney pumped in 31 points off the bench the other night to become the sixth LSU freshman to have 30 points in a game since freshman became eligible in 1972.
Blakeney’s teammate Simmons did it twice along with Rudy Macklin (1977), Dwayne Scales (1977), Chris Jackson/Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (1989) and Ronnie Henderson (1994).
South Carolina is coming off a road win at Texas A&M on Saturday and is led by Michael Carrera at 14.1 points per game (7.2 rebounds) while Sindarius Thornwell is at 12.7 points. Duane Notice scores at a 10.9 points a game pace and Mindaugas Kacinas is at 10.5 points per game.
LSU has won three straight in the series, including wins in Columbia in 2013 and 2014.
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Coach Johnny Jones met with the media on Monday afternoon and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“… We had the chance to take the day off yesterday in terms of practice. We are looking forward to getting back on the floor (in) preparation for a very tough, talented, top-ranked team in South Carolina. We know that they will present a great challenge for us on the road. They’ve had a great year, so far, and they had a big win on Saturday at Texas A&M. I thought they did a great job of playing throughout that game and hit 12 three-pointers in that game. That’s a great number for being on the road. That was a good, efficient night for them. We know that we will have to go in and play exceptionally well to hopefully be able to battle with a team of their caliber.”
On South Carolina’s improvements under head coach Frank Martin…
“Frank Martin has done a tremendous job of going in and trying to put his program together and on par through recruiting and getting the right guys in there that fit his system. He has a core of guys now that are upperclassmen with some exceptional talent as freshmen. Those guys have done a good job of playing together. All of that was on display Saturday in College Station. They all chipped in and did a great job and played extremely well, which gave them an opportunity to knock off Texas A&M.”
On focusing on the next opponent…
“We know how important each game and how tough each opponent can be. We know any given night in this league that anybody is capable of stepping up and getting a victory. They’ve shown that as well. I don’t think you can measure it based on who’s beaten whom. You have to really make sure that your team is playing well at the right time. Anything short of that or less than that puts you in jeopardy of having a setback.”
On having a team at full strength and the improvements with Hornsby, Patterson and Victor II…
“Since they’ve been together, we’ve played better. We’ve continued to improve each night out. During that time, we missed Jalyn Patterson as well, and other guys may have been out for various reasons. A lot of teams go through similar things. We have continued to grow. Now that we have the core of our team together, being able to manage minutes with those guys, we’ve been more productive. At the same time as the season progresses, they’ve become more familiar in the system that we are trying to implement and are doing a great job of executing and playing well together. The only thing that allows you to do that is games against good competition night-in and night-out when you are going to be battle-tested. We’ve been able to pass the test more times than not.”
On if this team is the most versatile team he’s coached here…
“Ben Simmons lends to that because he has the ability to play one through five and is certainly a match-up problem sometimes for a lot of people because of the ability to move him to different spots out there on the floor. We’ve implemented enough offense and things that we can execute, utilizing that. We have guys that are capable shooters on the floor. Saturday, having Antonio Blakeney and Keith Hornsby step up and play is something we’ve been looking forward to. Hopefully, guys are hitting on all cylinders in the same night. Our guys did a good job of playing within us and making sure that we got the ball to the guys who were most effective that night. That’s a part of growing as well. We have a lot of weapons, but at the same time, we are still young and learning how to be very productive with that. As the season progresses, we will continue to grow.”
On Antonio Blakeney…
“I think he had what people feel is a ‘block’ in shooters when you transition from high school to college. Guys are volume shooters. When they get to college, you’re surrounded by other guys as well. You may not get as many shots to get in your comfort zone in terms of just playing. He’s played his way into understanding what we consider a good shot, a bad shot. He’s been able to identify those things for us and what we are looking for. It’s been really good for him. He’s been patient in trying to do those things, and he’s had a good attitude about it. We are excited. Nothing was ever wrong technically. He shoots every day after practice. He spends time on his own. It was good to see his shot going down for him the other day. He’s very explosive and can really play. We’ve been looking forward to that. He did that early in the season for us prior to those other guys becoming available to us. Before Keith Hornsby was there, he had some big nights for us early on. That was good.”
On the team roles…
“Not hard, it just takes time, especially with a team that if we had an experienced basketball team, you don’t have any worries because guys have been around. They’ve been there and they understand exactly what needs to take place. There’s less frustration for them. When you have a new team come in like Antonio Blakeney, Brandon Sampson, Ben Simmons, you name it, those guys are looking to try to feel their way and understand the pace of play and the level of their teammates and their roles and things on the team. It’s tough to just jump out there and tell them exactly what those roles are and define them on the first day because of the fact that they have to weigh-in and have an opportunity to play, practice and learn with these guys. As the season progresses, these guys are feeling their way and understanding exactly what the dos and don’ts are and being able to play more to their strengths, staying from their weaknesses. That’s a good thing for us and how they identify it. It’s helped them with their role playing.”
On Ben Simmons and critiques from across the country…
“The good thing about Ben and why he is so productive is that he has a very small circle. He’s very family-oriented. He’s not a guy that has some entourage out there. He’s very team-oriented. That’s what allowed him to be as successful and as grounded as he is as a player and a person. That allows us to be excited and to help him. The good thing is that he doesn’t have to listen to or play up to outside noise as much because he’s more in tune to what the inside voices are saying to him. That’s what matters most to him. You can see the maturity that he has because of all of the stuff people are saying he should or shouldn’t be doing and all of the other things. He’s at practice every day. He knows what’s best for our team for us to be the most productive and the way that we’ve asked him to play. He’s been able to try to steer close to that. That’s a good thing.”
On coaching a young team…
“If you have a more experienced team, you come into practice and know what to expect and the expectations of those guys. Then, you have older guys actually serving as leaders. When you have practice they can jump in there and see what these older guys are doing– the experience that they have and how they are playing, pace of play, drills or whatever it is. For this team, it’s almost like teaching over. You have to go through all the things. You talk about being fundamentally sound. From day one it’s not like you’re hitting. I thought that helped us a little bit because we started practice early and were able to go over to Australia with the 10 days of practice and the games we had over there. That helped a little bit. That still didn’t give them any birthdays. We were still a young team at the end of the day, going out there and competing against other experienced junior, senior dominated ball clubs that were talented. There are always challenges out there. We just have to be conscious of it and cognizant and understanding when mistakes are made and understanding that we have to have growth, not getting too upset when things happen, knowing that the reason for some of those things is because of the lack of experience that we have. We are hopeful that we can keep growing.”
On the growth of the team…
“I always look at February and March as the goal that you are hopeful that you have implemented your system and guys are playing in the right way and you’ve put enough things in and they understand pace of play, what’s expected of them. That’s where we are and that’s my expectations of this team with where we are. In February, we should be further along, not saying that we will win all of our games, but we should be prepared to play better in them and understand what’s expected of us.”