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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2009Trent JohnsonTasmin MitchellMarcus ThorntonTAMPA, FLORIDA Mississippi State – 67 CLAUDE FELTON: We'll begin with LSU. Opening comments from Coach Johnson. COACH JOHNSON: Yeah. You need to tip your hat to Mississippi State. Thought they played well. Obviously, from looking at the stat sheet we didn't shoot the ball very well. We were outrebounding them. Our assist-to-turnover ratio is pretty good. We need 20.do a better job trying to attack the rim so we can get to the free-throw line. Q. Can you talk about the defensive effort? Just talk about what they did defensively on y'all? MARCUS THORNTON: Going into every game they were trying to be physical with me and Tas. We know they're going in. We're just trying to get ourself prepared for it, and tip your hat off of Mississippi State. They did a good job, and they won the game. TASMIN MITCHELL: Me, personally, I don't think they did anything different. We just weren't making shots. Like Coach says, the stat sheet shows, sometimes we had good looks, sometimes we didn't. But it wasn't any different than they did. They just came out and played good basketball. Q. Did you guys get a little frustrated in the second half? You know, just talk about the way the second half went? MARCUS THORNTON: I think we kind of got unraveled at times. You know the calls weren't going our way every time. But you know, they beat us to loose balls. They did everything they had to do to win the game, and that's what happened. Q. Was fatigue a factor at all? Just from watching, it looked like y'all were a step slow at times. Maybe at times you weren't. But there were some times it looked like y'all were a step slow? MARCUS THORNTON: I wouldn't say that. You know, like I said, it all boils down to Mississippi State doing what they had to do to win the game. At times, we probably did look fatigue when they came at us. They're a run-and-gun team. We made a missed basket. They'd run the ball right at you and you've got to hurry up and get back on defense. So at times it was kind of tiring to be out there. But it's a game we've got to play. And they won the game. TASMIN MITCHELL: You know, sometimes, you know, I mean it's natural for a person, for a team to get a little fatigued. But I don't think we were that fatigued. Like Marcus said, they just came out and executed and did what they had to do. Our hats off to Mississippi State. Q. As frustrating as this game is, can you talk about the excitement now of putting this behind you and playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time? MARCUS THORNTON: Yeah, when we leave we'll probably get it behind us. But until we leave I'm going to think about it. And I know Tas feels the same way. We both don't like to lose or whatever. But they won the game. We have to put it in the past and move on to the NCAA Tournament and try to make a run there. Q. Can you talk about the presence of their big man? Are you aware of him every time you get into the paint? MARCUS THORNTON: Like I said, you know, he's a great player. He didn't do nothing out of his character or whatever. Just made a couple of shots. I think down low Chris played good defense on him. He just made a couple of shots. You know, that was the termination of the game. Q. I know that you said you're going to have to think about this moving beyond into the NCAA Tournament. Maybe a little bit after this game. But can you just talk about the season as a whole? You said you don't like losing. You didn't do a lot of that this season, and it's certainly a turn around from what you had experienced at LSU? TASMIN MITCHELL: Yeah, you know, at LSU, losing is not the key, you know what I'm saying. The past two years we lost. But this year was a whole different year. Like I said, we don't enjoy losing, you know what I'm saying. We haven't done it that much. But we have learned to deal with the losses, you know what I'm saying, that we have gotten and moved past it. But like I said, and Marcus said, it's going to be hard for us to get past. I mean, it's going to be hard for us to really look ahead. We know what's ahead, but it's going to be hard for us to look ahead because Coach always taught us to think about the present. You know what I'm saying? What we could have done to win the game. What we did do to win the game, things like that. Like next week or so, we might be happy to see where we're at in the NCAA Tournament. But right now we're just focused on this loss today. MARCUS THORNTON: This season as a whole has been a blessed season. Who would have thought we'd be headed to the NCAA Tournament this year. After the termination of Coach Brady, Coach Johnson came in with a philosophy and we got right to it from day one. His resume speaks for itself. He came in, did what he had to do, and we're headed to the tournament. This will be my first time going. This will be Tas's second time. You know, I'm just trying to take full advantage of it and enjoy it. CLAUDE FELTON: We'll continue with questions for Coach Johnson. Q. Tasmin and Marcus didn't feel they did anything special against them defensively, but they held them to much fewer points than in the regular season meetings. Can you just talk about what you saw on their defense against them? COACH JOHNSON: Well, we found looking at the tape, I would agree with both the young men. I do recall certain situations in the first half and the second half I thought we had wide open jump shots that didn't go down. I thought Marcus attacked the rim pretty good in various situations. I don't want to take anything away from Mississippi State. But Tasmin was 7 out of 18, and Marcus was 5 out of 19. I've got to believe that six, seven of those shots missed were good shots without looking at the tape. Q. The disparity in fouls, I think you all got called for 26 and State 13. Does that kind of build frustration among your guys? COACH JOHNSON: Well, I mean, you know, again, they're human. They're human, so, you know. As hard as it is for me to say it, that's not what beat us. What beat us is our inability to execute, and Mississippi State's ability to make plays. Q. This is the fourth straight game where you shot less than 40%. Is shooting a concern going forward into the NCAA Tournament right now? And what can you do there to maybe address that? COACH JOHNSON: Well, what we can do to address it is not a concern. We're playing good teams and we're playing good players. So in terms of addressing it, we'll do what we've always done. We'll do what we did to win 26 games. We'll keep working on the same things. Q. You have no control over this, but how will this loss affect your seeding, or should it affect your seeding? COACH JOHNSON: I don't know. I don't put a lot of stock in worrying about that on or thinking about that. I try to worry about the things that I can control, and for us moving forward, the bottom line is we want to get out of here as soon as possible and get these guys back to have the day off. And sometime tomorrow we'll be together as a group and watch the selection show and find out if we're going to play Thursday or Friday and move on from there. Q. Some fans get irritated as they refer to the SEC Championship as the team that's won the tournament as opposed to a team that was successful in 26 games. Obviously, you feel that the 13-1 mark to wrap it up, that you guys are the champions and should refer to it as such carry weight in the tournament? COACH JOHNSON: Full body of work always carries weight for me. Full body of work. Three days, two days, is that more important than two and a half months, three months? Q. Along those lines, even with a loss today have you had any time to reflect that you're maybe one of the only SEC teams coming into this tournament that was already a lock for the NCAA Tournament? Have you been able to look at the season as a whole that you've been able to put together? COACH JOHNSON: In all honesty, no, I haven't. You know, I've said on numerous occasions for some of the local writers here that I'm happy for them. But this is not my first opportunity. This is not my first rodeo so to speak. So my responsibility and my job is to make sure they're on an even keel and playing ground. They've done a good job themselves without me having to worry about it. So to be honest with you we'll have plenty of time, I'll have plenty of time to reflect when this is all said and done. Q. Can you talk about the play of Varnado? Was this the best he played of the three games you played Mississippi State? COACH JOHNSON: I don't think so. I think that at Starkville he had 31. No, I don't think so I thought he was really, really good. Q. The fouls mounted on your post players, how did that impact what you were trying to do in the game, trying to defend Varnado and their other players? COACH JOHNSON: Well, they gave us problems on the perimeter. But for us to be in a situation where this basketball team has 67 points? I mean, I don't want to think the defense was the problem as much as it was we missed a couple of open shots here and there at crucial times. We lost our composure. So storm did a decent job, I thought Quinn did a decent job, and c j did a decent job. You know, you look at the stats and you're talking about Varnado. They had 28 points in the paint, we had 26. So, there you have it. Q. What is your feeling about Mississippi State moving on? Do you feel they're tournament worthy at this point? COACH JOHNSON: My feeling about Mississippi State is the same feeling I had about Auburn. You know, we played this group double overtime in Starkville, and they gave us as many problems as anybody. You know, obviously Auburn and them are moving on. So, I feel Mississippi State in the West is pretty strong, wouldn't you think? End of FastScripts |
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