BATON ROUGE – Coach Will Wade and the Tiger players went through media day activities on the LSU Campus on Tuesday as the time begins to close in on the opening game of the 2017-18 season.
Women’s basketball Coach Nikki Fargas and her Lady TIgers also met with the media prior to the start of the men’s portion of the media day activities.
The Tigers will play a special for charity exhibition game approved by the NCAA on Tuesday night, Oct. 31, at Devlin Fieldhouse on the Tulane campus in New Orleans at 7:30 p.m. and then will open the regular season on Friday, Nov. 10 against Alcorn State in the Maravich Center. Tickets for the Alcorn State game start at just $1 and are available at LSUtix.net.
Coach Wade covered a wide variety of topics from how to recruit graduate transfers to injury updates to recruiting the fans to come back to watch the Tigers play. Here is a transcript of what he had to say to the media:
Opening Statement
“An injury update to start, (Jeremy) Combs is progressing well. He’s been on the court. He’s been running and doing some five on 0 stuff. It’s good to have him back running. Mayan Kiir, the freshman, has been injured the last couple of days. We expect to be back later on this week. The biggest issue we have now is with Aaron Epps. He has a foot injury and he is going to be out for at least the next week and probably a little bit longer than that. We hope to get him moving forward. He is a big piece for us and worked extremely hard and done a lot of really good things. We want him to get back where he can help us. Hopefully this will allow us to the opportunity to build some depth behind him or around him. Aaron has worked hard to position himself and we want to make sure he has a great year. The best way to do that is to rest his foot right now and get him back in the saddle. Practice wise we are still going strong and ready to play someone else. We’ve got the scrimmage this weekend and the exhibition at Tulane next Tuesday. That will be good. We are still trying to shore up our defense, and we have a lot work to do left with that. We’ve been working hard and working at it. We are making progress.”
On the SEC predictions and where the team is projected to finish…
“We’ve talked about it. I guess you can use it as motivation. I don’t think with six minutes left in a close SEC game you’re going be sitting there thinking I want to prove the beat writer from Arkansas wrong that predicted us 14th. That’s not going to do it. You need to focus more on what it takes to build your team up and what it takes to move your guys forward. I think if we focus on our team and our guys getting a little better every day then we will play the games and see where we end up. I certainly understand why we were picked 14th since we ended there last year. We lost our leading scorer and if you’re doing it on deductive reasoning then that would be a solid conclusion to come to.”
On the goals for this season…
“We haven’t set any goals for the first year. I think we need to worry about getting our own house in order and getting a little bit better every day before we worry about setting a ton of team goals for the season. This weekend we identified what we wanted our identity to be and what we wanted to be thought of as a team. I think it’s important to play to our identity. We need to try to make sure our actions meet our words with our identity. I think that’s the most important part. We’ll get to goals later on. Our number one goal is to get a little better every day. We have to shore up our defense”.
If defense is the first identity…
“We need it to be but it’s not right now. We need it to be. We have to get better and improve there. We’re looking for multiple guys that want to continue to get better in that area. We will know more this weekend when we can put four or five guys out there who are committed to doing what need to do. The teams are divided out so it hasn’t been as even. We are able to put four or five guys out there at the same time who have a commitment and high level of understanding of what we need to do. Hopefully it will improve when we are able to put those guys out there together. We want to be a tough team and that’s part of your identity. We want to be a family, play smart, and be consistent with what you do. Those are big word with anything you do. You want to be consistent in every walk of life to be successful. You want to be tough and have some resilience to set the reset button. Make sure things don’t spiral out of control. You want to be a close knit family and you have to be smart and make smart decisions on and off the court. You have to make smart plays on the court. I think all that stuff goes into having a championship identity or a good identity.”
On who has stepped into the role of Antonio Blakeney…
“We’ll see. I think Duop (Reath) has been our most consistent kid. Our big kid. I know he scored quite a bit. We have some other guys that are really capable scorers. Randy (Onwuasor) is a really capable scorer. We have some other guys who can fill that role and score points for us. I don’t anticipate scoring points is going to be a big issue for us. I think stopping the other team is going to be a little bit bigger issue.”
On Skylar Mays in the new system…
“Skylar has been awesome. I love Skylar. He’s just a great kid first of all. He has the second-highest GPA in the entire department and he’s pre-med. That’s doing it now. He’s just a tremendous person. That’s hard to do now. The people he’s competing with don’t have the basketball stuff going on that he does. That just speaks to how a high level of a person he is. That carries over to the court. He has a unique understanding of what we are trying to do. He is a good player. I think he can make shots and play multiple positons on offense. He may not be the quickest guy, but you can make up for your quickness when you think quickly. He thinks quickly defensively so he’s usually in the right position. We just have to get him to finish off plays defensively. He has to block out and finish off plays and not just watch the ball. If we can get that done then I think we will have a complete player. He is a very good player. He’s worked hard on his body in the offseason. He’s lost weight. He came down the lane yesterday in practice and tomahawk dunked on our players. He has gotten a lot more athletic. He’s playing well. He will be one of the guys that has the most noticeable improvement I think.”
On convincing a graduate transfer to come to LSU…
Grad transfers are unique. It’s a unique deal and there has to be a need for them. We had a grad transfer at VCU who was very successful. His name was Korey Billbury. He transferred to us from Oral Roberts. He had a great year for us and was on the all-tournament team in the A10 Tournament. He was one of the main reasons that we went to the NCAA Tournament. He was one of the main reasons we were able to keep it together. A lot of those times those fifth-year kids are looking for someone who has a track record with other fifth-year kids because it’s a difficult situation. You bring in a kid to a new team and they don’t know him. The kid is expecting to play. The kid was the best player on his other team typically and you’re bringing him in and he may not be your best guy. He is one of you best guys. We certainly had the need at the position with Jeremy (Combs) and Randy (Onwuasor). We are still working on getting to get Jeremy out there, but we certainly had a need at those positions. We had a track record. Coach (Bill) Armstrong had a couple of fifth-year kids at Ole Miss that had done well. Coach (Greg) Heiar had a fifth-year kid at Wichita State. He was a big kid who had done well. We had a track record and history of being able to weave those guys into the program.”
On what he told them to get them to come here…
“We tell them our plan and how we are going to get them better. How we see them playing and how they have to do it on a bigger stage than where they’ve been playing at other places. We are going to give you the stage, the plan, and the opportunity but it’s up to you to take advantage of it.”
On the difference in recruiting now that he’s at LSU…
“I think you recruit against yourself most of the time. I think most of the recruiting comes down to not stubbing your toe and not making a mistake. If you have a good product then making sure they understand what your product is. If you have people who are locked in to what your product is about then you’re in good shape. The hardest part of recruiting is identifying the right guys. You want to identify a person who is the right type fit with your personality, the coaching staff’s personality and with the personality and identify of what you want your program to take on. If you identify someone those type guys then they’re automatically connected to you. You don’t have to do a lot of selling. You have to find those personalities and those guys that work. When you find those guys, you dig in and build relationships then you get going with it then you get positive outcomes. It starts out with identifying the right guys. If you identify the right guys then you’ll probably get them.”
On Tremont Waters development and the risks of starting a freshman at point guard…
“Tremont the last week to 10 days has really picked it up. He has looked really good. There is a learning curve and you know that when you sign up. When you have the opportunity to roll out there with the freshman point guard at then he is going to be in there for some clutch situations at some point during the season. There is going to be some ups and downs with that. We are going to have to grow together and work it out together. He is getting a little bit more toughness to him, not that he wasn’t tough, but he is getting a little bit more grittiness to him. He is certainly improving. He has to continue to improve throughout the course of the season. He is a good player, an electric player with the ball in his hands. It’s like he has five eyes. He is passing the ball all over the place and sees guys all over the place. Our guys are learning how to play with him because they have to be ready and learn when to catch it when it is coming to you. You may not think you’re open, but he thinks you’re open and he will get you the ball. I think early on it is going to be a growing process. It is going to be high risk, high reward. He is going to have a lot of assists all year. I think early on in the year he will turn the ball over, but as he adjusts to the speed of the game, the pace, and how things go. What you want to see is improvement where those numbers go down throughout the year and to where we get to big-time assist to turnover ratio. I think we will get there. He works hard, he studies the game, and he wants to be very good. He is one of the most competitive guys we have. Anytime you are a competitive guy you have a chance to be successful.”
On making a pitch to students and fans to come to game the way he recruits players …
“It is all the same. It is all basic recruiting. Our players have worked hard. Are we a perfect team? No. I think that it is important for them to see that their work is appreciated and respected, so I think it is my job as a coach to work just as hard for them to make sure they feel like their work is appreciated with our fans. I think it is also my part as the head coach of LSU, being the flagship school of the state of Louisiana, to engage those LSU fans and get those people excited about our basketball program. I think that is an important piece to our job. It’s something that I enjoy doing. I enjoy getting out and meeting people. We have great people here in the state. It’s been fun getting to know folks and I look forward to continuing to do that. We certainly need to grow the basketball element of our fan base. The best way to do that is to get out and meet people and you have to win. All this stuff is nice, but if you don’t win then nobody cares. Nobody likes being associated with a loser. That is the facts. We need to do this to get people interested and peak their interest, then we need to win. When we win, then I have no doubt that we will have problems selling tickets here. That has been proven and it is my job now as head coach of the program to get out there and rally support and let people know how hard our guys are working and that is what I have tried to the best of my ability.”
On what the fans should expect in the first four minutes of the opener…
“I think you will see a blue-collar, tough, hard working group that wants to win. Does that mean we are going to win every night? No. We are going to care, lay it on the line and I think it will be a group that represents our people well, represents our state well, and represents our school well. You are going to see a tough team. A team that is diving all over the floor, flying around the court, a team that is giving great effort. A team that does all the little things well. A team that sprints out of the huddle, sprint on the court. You are going to see a bench that is into it. You are going to see a coaching staff that is enthusiastic. That is the sort of stuff that will be recognizable off the jump and then we have to continue to get better with details and playing smarter.”
On what is keeping the defense from where it needs to be…
“A couple of things. We are not being active enough with our hands, our point of attack defense with our bigs isn’t where it needs to be. I could go through a whole list. We have to be a little more active and a little better with our positioning. When the ball moves, we all have to move. We just have to get a little bit better with our team defense. We are working every day. We won’t do any offense today in practice. It will be all defense. If it does not happen, it won’t be for a lack of trying. I can promise you that. It will be all defense today and we will go from there.”
On how Kavell Bigby-Williams has helped Duop Reath‘s development…
“Kavell is going to be a good player. He has been really good for Duop in that we can put him on the same team as Duop and conserve him a little bit in practice because he is going to have to play quite a few minutes for us. Kavell is a presence down there. I mean he is 6′ 11”, he can block shots, he runs the rim, he is developing some offensive skill, and he has worked really hard. He is taking advantage of his redshirt year. He is always calling me to get in the gym with him or being there early or staying late after practice to work with him. He has been diligently working and he challenges Duop. I think the more Duop is challenged, the more prepared he will be when we open the season. Kavell is a legit SEC big man. Some of the elite teams have two or three, our second one just happens to be unable to play. He can practice against him which will prepare him to play against other guys who are like Kavell in our league which is a huge plus. It is good for Kavell too going against Duop.”
On moving onward from a dark offseason for college basketball…
“I think anytime something like this happens it opens thing up for change. I think change is certainly needed to the recruiting model that we’ve had. With the NCAA commission and some of the things that they’ve got in the works I think there will be a change to the recruiting model. The reality is, you’re not going to be able to keep the agents and all of these people out and so you better include them and make them feel good. I think we need to go to a baseball or hockey type model. I think we’re headed down that path. I think the NBA sees we need to go down that path. I think everybody in college basketball sees it needs to go down that path and I think we’re going to see it start heading down that path, probably sooner rather than later.”
On the good that can come out of exhibition matches…
“I saw Kansas and Missouri raised 1.75 million (dollars) I think I saw for different relief efforts. I think all that stuff is a positive for the game. Not too many things unite people like college basketball and college athletics in general. It doesn’t matter your background. I mean, go look at
Tiger Stadium or the PMAC, Alex Box or wherever on a game day and there are people from all different backgrounds, all different races, I mean everything. It just unites people under a certain cause and I think that’s something that’s very, very positive about sports. I think when it’s used in the proper light, used for the common good, like it is in these cases for the exhibition games I think that’s certainly good.”
On talking about toughness and hustle instead of talking about being at a program with a talent deficit that he maybe can’t talk about…
“Well, I’d say we’re going to talk about toughness and hustle. Do we have to play perfectly to win? I’d say no, but we’re going to have to play very, very well. Alright, we’re going to have to play very, very well. We’re going to have to handle the details very well. Our margin for error is not what some other teams probably. We’ve got to be masters at all the little things. We have to be masters at late game situations, end of game situations, and end of half situations where we can go two-for-one. Baseline situations. Sideline situations, with the new rules there’s going to be a lot more side out of bounds plays this year. We’ve got to be excellent in all that stuff and if we are we’re going to give ourselves an opportunity to win. The way we shoot the ball, if you give yourself an opportunity in the last six minutes, you can come away and win some big games. I think, like I said, we don’t have to play perfect, but we’re going to have to be much improved defensively and we’re going to be much improved with our discipline, our attention to detail and how smart we are down the stretch in close games… I do want to be clear. We’ve got some talented players, we do. We have good players at our program on our roster. We’ve just got to stay connected, stay tight and play extremely well together. Listen, our one-through-4 or 5 may not wow you, but our one-through-12 isn’t that bad. Our one-through-five, whatever you put out there, you put out there, but our one-through-12 is pretty good. We’ve got to get it to where our game is our whole one-through-12 because we’ve got a lot of guys where there’s not a lot of difference. We just need them to play extremely hard, play their role and be good with that. I think we’ve got guys who want to do that because they know that’s what it’s going to take to win.”