BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson and players Justin Hamilton, Storm Warren and Ralston Turner met with the media to discuss the team’s trip to Italy at the end of May and other topics.
Among the things discussed by Coach Johnson was that Director of Operations Nick Robinson has been elevated to full-time assistant coach in place of the retiring Hall of Fame Coach Lynn Nance and that strength and conditioning coach Juan Pablo Reggiardo is leaving the team to take another job on the West Coast.
Here are some of the comments from the press conference followed by those of the three LSU players on their trip, which LSU posted a 6-0 record:
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening Statement on the trip to Italy …
“I thought it was very productive for our basketball team. Probably the first thing in order is to thank our administration and thank all the people who are responsible for the private funding to allow us to have the opportunity to go. Obviously you’ll see the benefits of it here in the future.
“Going over, one of the things we wanted to accomplish was obviously put our guys offensively in situations where they have to learn to make plays on their own, learn how to play faster, and learn to maintain a level of aggressiveness when things got tight. When you look at playing four 12 minute quarters and a 24 second shot clock obviously that puts you in situations where you have to play aggressive and you have to play fast. With the 35 second shot clock over here you have 15 seconds to transition if you don’t have anything, but when you take that out of the equation you are forced to play faster so we got that accomplished.
“Obviously winning is something we needed to learn how to do. The first three games were games where quite frankly we were bigger, stronger and faster and we had a depth advantage. That was our goal was to get everybody right out the gate to have an opportunity to play games while we practiced. The last three games were very challenging from the standpoint of we were down two at half in one and up six and up eight at half in the others. They were very physical and our guys had every opportunity to be put in pressure situations and collapse and lose their aggressiveness and confidence. The last three games from a standpoint of me personally, they more than exceeded my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised at how some guys played individually, but more important collectively, how they stayed the course. They were obviously a little tired and a little fatigued, but I know they have all said they enjoyed the experience and the trip. That’s what winning does for you. It was a great experience, but more than a great experience it was productive for our basketball team and our basketball program moving forward.”
On how the motion offense went in Italy …
“It went good. Again, it’s something we knew we were going to have to do because at our level of play some of the people we’re going to play against can take you out of your offense in their set stuff. Motion teaches you how to play, it teaches kids how to make plays on their own and there’s a level of predictability that you don’t have. It was good but also I understand and they understand when you go overseas playing defense is not their forte. They want to play on the offensive end, they want to beat you up physically and they want you to shoot it as quickly as possible. We got a chance to take a look at (the motion offense) against a couple of teams and that was good.”
On Justin Hamilton‘s play …
“There’s certain things he does from a skill set standpoint that is going to really help our basketball team. It speaks volumes about how well Storm (Warren) and Malcolm (White) play because he’s a different type of player. He can catch it, he can pass it and he understands the game. He’s not as explosive as those two but it’s a different dimension not to mention the fact that he can score the basketball. He also has a very good understanding of the motion offense because he was a screener and a mover at Iowa State. We need him to score the ball, we need him to make good decisions and we need him to be able to run offense through him in the post sometimes going inside out. He played well and he played really well in two out of the six games. I wasn’t surprised. Not having played basketball in a competitive situation in a year and a half we needed to get him in a game environment.”
On the good assist to turnover ratio at the point guard position …
“I don’t want to get caught up in the numbers, but they played really well because there are more possessions. Chris (Bass) was the quickest player on the floor with the exception of one game, and then you put in a 24 second shot clock and get going up and down the court. The thing I was impressed from his and Andre (Stringer’s) standpoint is they know going forward that we’re going to play at a faster pace. So the conditioning and being able to get on and off the floor is going to be huge going forward. That was a good thing. Chris did play well. He defended and I was impressed with the way he kept guys in front of him. We all know he is physically as quick as there is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean something because at times he hasn’t been able to keep guys in front of him at the point of attack. There were some things we did defensively that I really liked so that’s going to be big for this team moving forward.”
On the defensive toughness of the team …
“It was improvement. It was improvement from the standpoint of the environment they were put in, how we traveled, how many games we played and how many times we practiced you are forced to have to play through some things. I talk about toughness but it’s a process. It has to do with a lot of factors such as growing up and getting stronger. There is toughness when you get a little stronger and you get a little more experience, so obviously there was some improvement there.”
On the coaching staff next season …
“Nick Robinson is going to replace Coach (Lynn Nance) because he’s going back into retirement, and that’s pretty much it. (Juan Pablo Reggiardo) is going to take another job and go back to the west coast to Stanford. There will be no more movement on our staff. I’ve got some things in mind and in place, but as you guys know I don’t make a lot of early decisions. We’re going to stay as we are right now.”
On Shaq retiring …
“There will never be another one like him. We all know about his basketball game but just his genuine openness and his ability to be secure in his own skin. To me it’s been amazing how everyone talks and starts making comparisons. I saw Wilt (Chamberlain) play in the back end of his career and I saw (Bill) Russell play. Shaquille O’Neal is unbelievable to me. To hear people say he underachieved because he didn’t win this or didn’t win that, I think we all just need to take a step back and see there will never be another one like him. Just his ability to walk around and be so open and have time for people and crack jokes. As much as we as coaches want this game to be work, work, work he enjoys it and he can laugh at himself and have time for everybody. He’s helped a lot of coaches. I know he’s helped me. (His retirement) was hard for me. It didn’t have anything to do with him going out like he did, it had something to do with me studying the game and knowing you probably won’t see anything like him again.
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On Italy…
“Italy was great overall, especially the experience. It is one thing to see it on TV, but it’s amazing to actually go over there and see it and experience it for yourself personally.”
On team chemistry…
“Italy was a great team bonding experience, especially for all of us to experience it in that way. Then again, we didn’t have many other people to talk to, so we were all we had. It was a lot of fun.”
On the positives and negatives of a year off…
“The positives were that it gave me a chance to get healthy and understand more about the game. I worked a lot with Coach (Brent) Scott and Coach (Lynn) Nance and even Coach (Trent) Johnson. They helped me with the mental side and with different position work and different angles and ways to see the floor. I really liked learning more about the game. But as a negative, it was really frustrating just sitting on the side and watching guys play and not win knowing that I could help right away.”
On his play in Italy…
“Personally, I think I would give myself a passing grade. The main thing was that I tried to work on stuff that we have worked on as a team and tried to work on things I’m not as good at. A lot of times I didn’t score as much, but I felt like the defenses demanded a lot. I felt like my defensive effort was really good and that was important to me.”
On the effects of the motion offense on his play…
“I like the motion offense. I wouldn’t say my scoring fell off because of the motion offense. I mean I don’t make excuses, but you know fatigue may have set in a bit by the third game in a row. I like the motion offense. It gives me a lot of options. I think the rest of the team likes the motion offense as well. It really opens up the floor.”