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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2010Trent JohnsonTasmin MitchellStorm WarrenNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Tennessee – 59 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with LSU. We'll ask Coach Johnson for some opening comments, his thoughts on the game, and then we'll take your questions just for the two student-athletes and then excuse them back to the locker room and then finish up with coach. So coach, if you'd begin. COACH JOHNSON: I thought for the most part we were in a position where we could have came out with a win. We had some shots for us that didn't go down. There were a couple of key possessions where they hurt us on the glass, but I can't fault our effort. I can't fault our execution. I thought for the most part, like I said, I thought we had an opportunity, if we make a basket here or there, we're in a position that we can go down the stretch and probably pull this thing out. I don't want to take anything away from Tennessee. They're long and athletic, good basketball team. Very similar type game to the one where we played them in Baton Rouge. THE MODERATOR: We'll take your questions for either of the two student-athletes. Q. Tasmin, your thoughts right now on your career coming to an end and maybe the a thought about the way you were defended today. TASMIN MITCHELL: Like Coach said, we had many opportunities to win the game. How they defended me, they defended me like the last game. I've been defended like that a lot of times. But, you know, like Coach say, we just missed some shots. You know, the shots didn't fall for us. Even though I was guarded that way, we still had an opportunity to win the game. Q. Tasmin, as you look back on this season, obviously the wins and losses weren't where you wanted them to be when you came back. But just talk about your growth as a player, and do you regret at all coming back? TASMIN MITCHELL: No, I don't regret at all coming back. I wouldn't change the decision for the world. I'm glad I came back. I think I grew as a man and as a player. Coach Johnson allowed me to do that. Just because of the win-loss margin wasn't how we wanted it to be, I don't regret coming back and playing for Louisiana State University. I wear my purple and gold proud. Q. Storm, just talk about looking forward with this team. Obviously, you took some lumps this year, but a young team. And just talk about where you see this team going from here. STORM WARREN: Well, you know, it was a rough season, but we're just going to have to take it, learn from it, and build off of it for next year. Q. For both you guys, what was working for you guys defensively? And seemed to frustrate Tennessee a little bit. TASMIN MITCHELL: You know, it was kind of obvious, the zone. You know, Tennessee is not a great shooting team. I mean, I really don't think they made like two or three threes the whole game. Like Coach said, they beat us on boards and getting the ball in the paint doing the zone. But the zone always give Tennessee problems. They've never been a real good shooting team beyond the arc. So the zone was working. I feel like we played it okay, but we just didn't grasp it at the end of the game when we could have captured the game. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse you. And we'll continue on with Coach Johnson. Q. Coach, obviously, the zone was a factor. I think Bruce Pearl said coming in you only played them seven position zone down there at LSU. What was the reason for the switch, and what did you see this time? COACH JOHNSON: Well, basically for us, I want to say our last five or six games starting back at Vanderbilt, we made a conscious decision to go play zone because that gives us the best opportunity to slow the game down and keep them in front of us. Obviously, for this team this year in this league, we're overmatched physically from a quickness standpoint. I think that gave us the best opportunity of being in games and having a chance to win the game. What they did was a very, very good job of attacking when they needed to. On the other side of the ball, we were in a position where we were getting the ball to one of the better players that's played in this league on a consistent basis for four or five years. He had some plays he didn't make, and from my standpoint, he took a physical beating. But it's been like that all year long. Q. Trent, did you guys do anything special defensively? Scotty Hopson, I think he was 0 for 8. COACH JOHNSON: No. Basically in the zone we always try to identify the best perimeter shooter and try to shade a man and a half before him and keep him out of rhythm. Without looking at the videotape, he might have two or three open looks that didn't go down for him. But the bottom line is make sure we get two or three shooters. Our team is probably in the best position to try to take them out of rhythm. Q. Coach, talk about what Tasmin was discussing about growth this year? Did you see his growth this season from day one until the final game? COACH JOHNSON: He's special, okay. He's special. His best basketball is ahead of him, and he brings it every day. He's passionate, he's committed, and he's complete. When you look at the full body of work for a four-year period, it's hard to argue the facts, hard to argue the results. When you start talking about Tasmin Mitchell -- and the people in Baton Rouge who cover us, they know exactly what I'm saying. When a guy talks about where he ranks of all the LSU greats in terms of numbers, most thing he's proud of is minutes played because that shows the coaches trusted him and his teammates trusted him. That's the guy we're talking about. To me it was frustrating this year -- and the responsibility is on me because, obviously, when you're fortunate enough to be around a young man like that, you want to see him go out on a good note, and that didn't happen. But also he's a guy that I don't think was showed enough respect throughout the year when you start looking at how many times he went to the free-throw line as opposed to a lot of other guys in this league. What I mean by that is we go through him in and out all over the place. But the thing about him, he never complains, he never whines. He always continues to play the game, so he's special. I hope I'm fortunate enough to have another guy like that in the near future. Q. Trent, it was 30-30, and you had another one of those stretches where you go about four minutes without scoring, and, you know, they stretch it out to eight. Do you know, or do you recall what maybe went wrong in that stretch that time? COACH JOHNSON: It was 30-30, and we got a stop, and Chris Bass brought it out on transition to try to speed the thing up. That was a bad decision. Had to use a time-out, the place started going crazy, and it was a momentum swing. You don't want to get caught up running up and down with a team like Tennessee. We can run up and down with any team in this league, but we sort of lost momentum, and we couldn't get it back. We don't have a margin of error. So when that happened, it took the wind out of our sails. Bo and Tasmin. This night storm and Eddie played a lot of minutes. But they got out from under us, and we could never recover. Q. Trent, I don't think Brian Williams played against you guys at Baton Rouge. Could you comment on his play on the boards. He's pretty dominant. COACH JOHNSON: He's big. He's a big body, and he's active. 14 rebounds says what it says. I knew going in he was going to be a difference for them because he enables them to play slow. And when they take him out, they can play fast. But for the most part, when you're 6'10", 270 and you're active -- and I think he has something to prove just from the standpoint of what went on earlier in the year with the suspensions. He's committed to the team, committed to the school, and he's got a lot of energy. He's a difference maker. They've got a chance to go deep, they really do, because they can play fast. They can play slow. Q. Coach, as far as looking ahead with this program, obviously, this was a rough season. But you got some youth. You've got a core. And you've got some good recruits coming in. Just talk about the future of LSU basketball. COACH JOHNSON: Well, the future's bright. It's bright. Like I told them, well, take two weeks off here. We'll have an awards banquet on March 28th. And March 29th at 6:00 a.m., we'll start working back to get back to the top. I'm not one to get caught up in the future because this is the last game for a guy that's a special player. But our future's bright. Make no mistake about it. Everything that happened this year was -- I don't want to say it was expected to the degree it was, but the responsibility sits up here. My history dictates that I'll get it correct. Believe me. Q. Coach, not too long ago, your offense was as much as Tasmin and Bo would allow it to be. You were having a hard time getting points from other people. Tonight they were 5 for 22 and you had some other guys stepping up. Is that a sign that maybe you improved over the course of the season? COACH JOHNSON: Again, this team's gotten better. The end result hasn't been what we all would like, but this team has gotten better. The key for us is to -- spring and summer has to be very productive. And that they don't forget the hard lessons that they learned this year. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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