BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones took part in the summer Southeastern Conference teleconference on Monday as the league coaches looked ahead to the 2013-14 season.
Fans can follow LSU men’s basketball on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/mensbasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball. The LSU Athletics Ticket Office is continuing to sell $13 deposits that can be used for season tickets or mini-plans for the upcoming season of home games.
Here are some of Coach Jones’ comments to the media:
“We are really excited and looking forward to next season. We have a great core of young men who are returning from last year’s team. I think we have done a tremendous job in terms of recruiting and filling in spots. They’ve worked extremely hard this summer with the hope of being a better basketball team next season.”
On Hiring Assistant Coach Korey McCray…
“I think getting a coach is like recruiting. You have to do a good job of making sure you find guys that fit your program and team. We think we were able to do that in Coach McCray. He’s a guy who has a tremendous background in terms of AAU coaching. He’s also had an opportunity to come in contact with good coaches and players while working at UCLA. They have a tremendous program and have had one of the top recruiting classes over the last couple of years. We are really excited about the addition of Coach McCray to our staff. I think he will do a good job recruiting as well as developing our players on and off the floor. We think we have someone who will fit into what we are doing really well.”
On transfers in the college game…
“A lot of time its coaches wanting to make sure you do a great job on the front end in terms of identifying players that will fit into your program. Hopefully they will be here over a long period of time because they have been in your system, it will make them better players and they will buy in. It’s unfortunate that you might have guys who will come in and not play the amount of minutes that they expected. Unfortunately, the difference from being a senior in high school and a freshman in college is in terms of minutes played. It’s unfortunate that they don’t have an opportunity to grow but it’s a part of the business and as a coach you just have to adapt and move on.”
On Jarell Martin…
“It’s just like anything else anytime you are able to get high profile players and guys that can play at a certain level. It’s great not only for the school but our league. We have some really educated basketball fans out there and they are excited not only about their team but going and seeing guys on the other teams perform as well. Anytime we are able to attract those type of guys it will help put people in the seats and it will create a certain environment and atmosphere for our league. We are excited to have a guy like Jarell Martin on our team and I think he will do a tremendous job for us and really make a strong impact on our team. He’s a very versatile player that can play on the perimeter or the outside. He’ll have to continue to work because it’s going to be a transition from high school to college. He’s very capable of making the transition and making an impact.”
On Johnny O’Bryant III returning…
“I think once he became healthy during conference play the light really came on. He drew the attention of a lot of NBA scouts at that time and I think he has seen how he has been able to transform his body. He’s really excited and we can’t tell you how happy we are with him. He’s worked really hard and has shown a lot of leadership. It’s a transition from his sophomore to junior year and I think he’s seen the impact that he can have on our team and in the country. We are happy with Johnny.”
On getting him to return…
“We talked to him to make sure he was the best that he could be and about how good LSU could be if he was at his best. At the end of the year he had an opportunity to evaluate himself. He knew exactly where he was and how hard he worked. I think he made a good decision and did it on his own. We are really excited about him returning.”