SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2021

Trendon Watford

LSU Tigers

Postgame Press Conference

LSU 76, Ole Miss 73

THE MODERATOR: We have Trendon Watford. Questions.

Q. Seemed like you and Darius were determined you were going to play physical, go to war. Can you talk about that. A physical, desperation game on both sides.

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, coming into the game, we knew it was going to be physical. Me and Darius, we embrace the physicality, embrace getting down there and doing the dirty work. That's just something we've been doing all season. Even when we went there the first time, it was still a physical game. Even though the score wasn't close, it was still a physical game.

We knew it's tournament time. Nothing comes easy.

Q. You've gotten a lot of grief about your ball handling. Tonight you had a really clean game. Does the stage raise everyone's game, not just yourself but the entire team?

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, all of us work. I work on my ball handling daily. I work on my play daily. That's all I rely on. I don't really try to get too much caught up into what other people are saying. I just try to work every day. Everybody on my team works every day.

It's going to pay off. It's tournament time. We're not done yet. I'm not done yet. On to the next round.

Q. This is your first real taste of post-season basketball. You said a couple days ago it was a big reason you came back to LSU. Was it everything you dreamed of? Any surprises about the atmosphere?

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, it was good. It was good. It was good to finally get a chance to play in the post-season. Last year, I got here, didn't get a chance to play. So this was special to me.

But we're not satisfied yet. We're not done yet. We're going to keep going. We're not done yet.

Q. You got Arkansas-LSU on tap, round three tomorrow. You guys both kind of knocked each other out at home. How do you feel about a three-peat on a neutral floor?

TRENDON WATFORD: We're ready. That's all I'm going to say. We're ready. We've been waiting on this one. It's two good teams going at it.

Q. Darius had an uncharacteristically tough shooting game in Fayetteville. Do you expect him to do a lot better this time around?

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, I know he will. He's going to do a lot better. We're going to do a lot better as a team. We're just ready for tomorrow.

Q. When you and Darius play like you did tonight, how confident are you guys? How tough do you think you are to beat?

TRENDON WATFORD: We know we're tough to beat. When me and Darius are down there doing dirty work, Josh LeBlanc, even the guards get in there doing the dirty work sometimes.

We just try to make up for it with our physicality, with our size. I think we did a good job of that tonight.

Q. Did you guys talk about the push from Ole Miss, the expectation to kind of weather the storm and come back? When they made their run, you were able to counter, never give it up.

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, that's been our biggest weakness, when a team goes on a run earlier in the year we'd lay down, just sort of give up. But that's been our biggest thing, just trying to bounce back whenever adversity hits. We know that's what great teams do in March. We just trying to stay together. All of us did a good job uplifting each other, came out with the win.