by Kent Lowe, Sr. Associate Sports Information Director
BATON ROUGE -- LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson met with the media Tuesday in preparation for the 2009-10 season opening basketball game with ULM on Friday night at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets are available online at LSUsports.net and at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office. Tickets will go on sale on gamenight at 5:30 p.m. LSU students with a valid ID card are admitted free.
Here are some of the comments from Coach Johnson and players at today’s media session:
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening Statement ...
“Alex Farrer dislocated his kneecap. That’s the preliminary read. The best case scenario from what I understand talking to our medical people is six weeks. The ball was on the other side of the floor, the guy Alex was guarding just made a simple cut to the baseline, Alex turned and it was just one of those freak things. Obviously, I feel for him being a fifth year guy, a senior. There were a few good things in the scrimmage; it was a lot like the South Alabama game. I think the one thing we really do understand is that we have a great feel of how hard we have to play on every possession. Our ability to take care of the ball is huge. This is a basketball team that has to catch it with two hands and we have to protect it like it’s everything. We’ll go hard today and tomorrow and taper it down Thursday then get ready for a very talented UL-Monroe team. They return a lot of guys from last year’s team that lost 19 or 20 games. This is a group that has a level of experience, but the case for us is to always get better every day. We’re making some progress in that regard.”
On the loss of Alex Farrer ...
“The way he had been shooting the ball periodically he was starting to come around. What we’re going to miss is his experience. He also has a high basketball IQ. Aaron Dotson was afforded the luxury of getting to come along at a slower pace, but we’re going to have to speed that up. When you recruit kids, they all like to be in situations where they have an opportunity to play. Now there’s going to be more opportunities for more guys to play more minutes. My feelings are for Alex because injuries are a part of this thing, but I hate to see a senior who put as much time and effort into this program have that happen. It took a while for the guys to regroup, but it’s going to have to be a position played by committee like every other position with the exception of Tasmin (Mitchell).”
On how Farrer’s injury affects combinations ...
“The only real difference is that I’ll have to use Chris (Bass) and Bo (Spencer) together at times, more so than I would have liked this early because of the inexperience factor. We’ll get a really good look at that on Friday because Monroe comes with multiple types of pressure. We’re going to have to adjust a little bit more because Alex was a guy that made really good decisions.”
On how much the first game shows about the team ...
“This basketball team will have to play well and extremely hard. There are a lot of guys on this team that haven’t played a lot, but we have a ways to go, and I think we understand that. My concern is always that we can do three phases that keep you in games and go from there, which are defend, rebound and take care of it. We have great shots, but defensively in transition we’re not as good as we need to be at this point in the year. We’re working hard, but it has to be accelerated. There’s not a sense of panic here, though.
Bo Spencer, G
On getting the season started ...
“Everyone’s getting really anxious. We can’t be too anxious though. We have to go out there and play the game like we’ve been coached. We’re looking forward to going out and playing smart and playing good defense, and hopefully come out with a victory.”
On UL-Monroe ...
“They’re probably going to come out and go after it. They’re a scrappy team and like to play defense and get up in your face. We have to be poised and under control and come out and execute our plays.”
On the first game ...
“We just have to go in and take what they give us. The first game always tells you how you’re going to be in the future. There are a lot of unknowns right now. We have to just come out and capitalize.”
Storm Warren, F
On preparation for Friday’s game ...
“Our coaching staff has been preparing us pretty well for the game. I’m from Monroe, so I know quite a few of the people, so I’m going to be ready to play.”
On the team’s scrimmages ...
“Scrimmages are always good to get a true feel of your teammates outside of practice. It’s also good to get a feel of how an opposing team reacts to some of the things you’ve been working on.”
