BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers look to get back on the good side of the Southeastern Conference race as they prepare for a two-game road swing through Knoxville, Tennessee and Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Tigers, losers at home for the first time in conference play in 2016 Wednesday night against Alabama (76-69), began practice preps for Saturday’s game at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville against the University of Tennessee.
The Volunteers (12-13, 5-7 SEC) play at Kentucky on Thursday night prior to the game with LSU.
LSU (16-10, 9-4) is in second place behind Kentucky and one game ahead of South Carolina, Florida and Texas A&M at 8-5.
The LSU-Tennessee game is set to start at 4:30 p.m. CT and will be carried on ESPNU and the LSU Sports Radio Network. LSU will travel to the University of Arkansas next Tuesday.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media prior to Thursday’s practice and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“Following a tough setback against a very talented and tough Alabama team, we have to bounce back and get on the road and go play a team that we feel has a great deal of potential and has won some big games at home, including coming back from a 21-point deficit against a league-leading Kentucky to win a basketball game. We know how capable they are and what a tough team they will be to contend against on the road. We certainly look forward to the challenge Saturday against Tennessee.”
On the perimeter offense…
“Pretty much you know what you’re getting. Keith Hornsby has been really consistent. Antonio Blakeney has really been consistent for us, coming off of the bench or in the starting lineup. Last night wasn’t one of his better offensive outputs. When we get to balance what we get from Ben Simmons night-in and night-out and Craig Victor II it’s pretty consistent, but there are some nights that other guys that score and guys that are double figure scorers sometimes you’re not sure and the percentages are not there to indicate that you can get that night-in and night-out.”
On the perimeter defense…
“Unfortunately, on several of those occasions some (opponent players) have gotten career highs, including last night maybe two guys reached their career highs. That’s something that we have to do a much better job at. We have guys who have been really good defenders that are not defending at the level that they have before. We are going to have to make sure that we improve and get better at those positions.”
On Ben Simmons going back onto the court after the loss to practice his free throw shooting…
“It was on his own. Keith Hornsby did the same after the Oklahoma game when we had a setback. Keith went out afterward and shot free throws to continue to get better. I think it helps those guys afterward if they don’t feel like they performed their best. It’s good to see that guys are self-motivated to do things like that to get better. It’s always good to see the guys take on ownership and do things like that to improve.”
On getting back to playing again after a loss…
“It’s good to get back in a game. Anytime you have a setback like that or anytime that you win you are always excited about playing. That’s the beauty of our sport. We generally have two games a week, and it’s good that we only have a day or two prior to getting out on the floor to hopefully improve and get better and have a chance to bounce back from a setback. We’ve been pretty good about that throughout this year. This time we will just have to do it on the road instead of coming home to do it.”
On helping Tim Quarterman to find consistency from game to game…
“You just try to coach him, and hopefully, we can get him to where he’s more consistent in long periods for us. That would be really helpful for us. That’s for any of our guys though. The more consistent they are on the positive side for us gives us a much better opportunity or chance to have success. That’s one of the things you have to keep continuing trying to guide him through.”
On the rotation of players late in the season…
“Depending on what you’re getting, that’s where the preseason helps you and guys are able to play against stiff and stellar competition. As the conference season has rolled around and we’ve been in games, we’ve seen the productivity we’ve gotten from our bench. It hasn’t been at the level we would like it to be night-in and night-out. Therefore, we have to sometimes push guys to play longer minutes. We don’t want to do that. It would be great if we could get these guys playing anywhere from 28 to 32 minutes, but sometimes we have to stretch them out and play them a lot longer. That has happened over the past games for us.”
On Tennessee’s Kevin Punter…
“He’s an excellent scorer. He can really play. He has the ball in his hand a lot. We’ve played guys this year from Stefan Moody to J.J. Frazier. Those guys when they are out there on the perimeter they are a big threat. Punter with the ball in his hand poses a big time threat for us. We are going to have to do a great job against him.”