BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team began preparations Monday for its SEC Tournament appearance that begins on Friday at 2:15 p.m. at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
LSU, the fourth seed after tying for third for the second straight year with 11 SEC wins, will play the winner of Thursday’s game between No. 5 seed Vanderbilt and the Auburn-Tennessee winner. The game will be televised by the SEC Network and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU will need to win three games to win the tournament after getting a double bye to the quarterfinals of the event.
The Tigers are 18-13 overall and finished 11-7 in the SEC.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media prior to the start of Monday’s practice and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“After finishing the season Saturday on the road against a very tough Kentucky team … We were excited about the opportunity going in and playing for a No.1 seed. Things didn’t pan out the way we hoped earlier a few hours prior to our tip off. At the same time, we still had the chance to put ourselves in great position playing against one of the top teams in the country. Unfortunately for us, they did a great job of hitting on all cylinders, playing extremely well. Now, looking back we are one of the top three teams in the conference, tied for third with a fourth place (seed) overall. We are excited about the double bye and look forward to 2:30 p.m. on Friday against a very tough opponent in the SEC Tournament. It’s one of the most interesting years for us with the balance of our league with the two top teams in our league finishing with five losses. We know the challenges that are presented out there for us. We look forward to hopefully playing well for three days there in Nashville.”
On takeaways from last year’s SEC Tournament game against Auburn…
“A lot of things happened in the Auburn game. We were still battling with injuries … with Jordan Mickey at the time. We were battling foul trouble. Things just didn’t work out that day. They wound up getting hot, knocking down some shots—they hit their shots in overtime—and wound up beating us. That shows you the sense of urgency that you have to play with from start to finish in a game like that, regardless of who the opponent is. Auburn presented that for us. That’s a prime example that we can certainly point to. You have to be at your best. You can’t look at who is going to win on Thursday night and take it for granted if it is someone other than the team who is the higher seed did not win that basketball game. You have to be at your best in those games.”
On his message to the team regarding the tournament…
“It won’t necessarily define our season, but it’s a new season for us. There’s a great opportunity at the conference tournament. It’s on a stage of its own because that’s a true representative of your conference champion. The team with the automatic bid comes from the conference tournament. We have an opportunity to play in that, and we’ve positioned ourselves through the hard work and effort that we’ve played with all year long to get a double bye. That’s what you play for to have an opportunity to play only three days instead of four or five days in that tournament.”
On if winning two games help his team’s postseason chances…
“I think we have to make sure that we do a great job and play well. We are hopeful that we are going there to try to win the tournament and hopefully be cutting down nets on Sunday. That’s our goal. If we happen to fall short, the weight of our league should mean something. Anytime you have teams finish near the top, which we have with other teams, how competitive our league has been all year, it should carry something. If you look at the strength of our schedule in the league with the teams that we’ve had to play twice, others that we didn’t and facing teams like South Carolina and Vanderbilt on the road without any return games that says something about the volume and the talent in the league and how tough it is with the number of the games we’ve played out there with the great deal of success that we’ve had. You can argue any points, but we certainly think the weight of our league should stand for something. We are hopeful that a number of teams will get in.”
On approaching the double bye and staying sharp…
“You’re absolutely right. I think it’s the mental approach. (Monday) and (Tuesday) we have to make sure that we get them focused and start trying to really get pace of play and things we are trying to get to. On Wednesday and Thursday we have to try and cut back a little bit. You still don’t know who your opponent is for Friday, but you have to try to temper things toward what you’re trying to do and get better in those areas for us. Defensively, we have to try to improve and get better, take some other positive steps along with rebounding the basketball. We average 80 points. We led the league in scoring, but we have to do a much better job on the defensive end of the floor. Rebounding has been a deficit for us, and we’ve been deficient in those areas.”
On the second half defense…
“I think it’s a combination of things. Early on, you’re worried about fouls, and people, depending on who you’re playing, have been able to try to drive the ball against us, making plays. Other teams have stepped out and knocked down some threes. Our rotation hasn’t been as deep. We’ve constantly tried to run. That’s why I think our numbers are still up on the offensive end of the floor. Our defense has started to take some hits as well. Kentucky, the other day, did a good job of some things we were trying to do, push them out offensively. They were able to read it. Their point guard (Tyler) Ulis did a great job of executing out of it. They got some dunks on the backside of it. Their execution of their offense beat our defense on that day and did a better job of executing their offense than we did on the defensive end.”
On the approach being one game at a time…
“It’s a one-game season right now. Survive and advance. That’s what it’s all about for the conference tournament. You want to make sure that you focus and play as hard as you can that one game. Then, you get ready and prepare for whatever is in front of you after that. We are fortunate that it’s three days for us. You’re talking about back-to-back games and the time and rest period that you have. If your team is built for it, conditioning and all of those things will show it. That’s when you have to make sure the number of bodies that are out there that can be prepared and ready for you to play at a high level because everybody will be playing with an edge. If you feel like you are in the tournament, you’re playing for seeding. If you’re not, you’re playing for an opportunity to get in. You’re going to get everyone’s best shot at the tournament, and we saw that last year playing against an Auburn team who was at the bottom of the league.”