Edna Stewart
March 15, 2011
Is Our Seafood Safe?
March 17, 2011
It was a rough ride for the LSU basketball team this year.
That ride finally came crashing to its end in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament when the Tigers fell 62-50 at the hands of the Eastern Division’s No. 3-seed Vanderbilt.
The loss ended LSU’s season with just an 11-21 record for the season – something Tigers coach Trent Johnson is already hungry to correct.
“Twenty-one losses this year, 20 the previous year, it is what it is,” Johnson said. “And losing’s a bad habit and it’s something that I can’t deal with very well. I haven’t dealt with it and I’m going make sure that they don’t get accustomed to dealing with it.”
The one thing the Tigers were “accustomed to” this year was being outclassed in experience.
LSU fielded a team without a senior and often struggled to recover mentally when hit by adversity throughout games.
That was on full display against the Commodores, as LSU started the game on a 7-2 run, before falling behind by double digits thanks to a 24-5 Vandebilt run, which put the Tigers at arm’s length for the remainder of the night.
“We definitely don’t use [youth] as an excuse,” freshman guard Andre Stringer said. “We work like everyone else works, everyone else puts our jerseys on like we do, so we can’t hang that over our head. We have to play hard and listen to coach and execute. And this year, it’s been up and down and we got to get better.”
Johnson believes with this year put behind them, the Tigers will be ready to move forward next season and will be better able to handle the pressure of competing in the SEC.
“All the adversity, the up-and-downs, the inconsistency, that they will learn from it,” Johnson said. “But that’s all going to be judged in the spring and the summer.”
Junior forward Storm Warren agreed and said despite losing 20 or more games for two straight seasons, the LSU players have not lost faith in the direction of the program.
“We have a great coaching staff, and they’re going get us in the spots we need to be and capitalize on mistakes that we made on this season and point out the things that we probably wouldn’t be able to see ourselves being out there playing,” Warren said. “But I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a nice team next year.”
One of the reasons the Tigers will have a nicer lineup is because in addition to returning every member of their 12-man roster, LSU will also bring in one of the highest-rated recruiting classes in the country.
Johnson received verbal commitments from Pickering High School guard John Isaac, as well as blue-chip 6-foot-9-inch Mississippi power forward Johnny O’Bryant.
With those players, the Tigers will also see the debut of 6-foot-11-inch Iowa State center transfer Justin Hamilton.
That added talent has Johnson hopeful that next year might be different for LSU.
After all, Johnson does know a thing or two about building programs from scratch. In his first two seasons at Nevada, the coach went just a combined 19-38. He had winning seasons in each of his next three campaigns, including the 2003-04 season when he took the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament with a 25-9 record.
“Obviously, we have a group of guys that are coming in here, that on paper, they’re pretty talented,” Johnson said.
“I have a really, really good feel because the bottom line for us, and I said this going into this year, this is a team that’s a bunch of good kids. And I love them as kids. But between the lines, we’re nowhere near where he we need to be to be competitive. So that’s going to be addressed daily, and I think on paper, we’ll be as talented as a lot of teams in our league.”
LSU forward Storm Warren attempts a jump hook during a game this season. Warren and the Tigers struggled to give a strong effort this season, posting just an 11-21 record – something coach Trent Johnson hopes to fix next season. STEVE FRANZ
