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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2011Trent JohnsonRalston TurnerStorm WarrenATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by LSU. We'll go ahead get started with an opening statement from Coach Johnson. COACH JOHNSON: Well, basically, it's a new season for us, and obviously we have had our share of struggles throughout this year in terms of being able to sustain the level of consistency in our play. But we know we have a supreme challenge in front of us versus a very, very good Vanderbilt team, and one thing I like about this group is that all year long, we continue to work and continue to try to compete to the best of our ability. So we're looking forward to tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the coach or players. Q. Coach, if you could, just talk about tomorrow, the schedule for the team obviously having so much time to sit around and wait for the game to get here. COACH JOHNSON: Well, it's a 10 o'clock game, so if I'm not mistaken, Storm, who is elder statesman of the team, put in a request to sleep until like 6 p.m., get up and have a pregame meal and go play. No, obviously we'll get up in the morning, have breakfast around 10, I believe our shoot-around time is around 4:00. But during the course of the day, we have study hall, academic responsibilities. But the main thing is to get off our feet this evening. We have already worked out twice. Get rested and relaxed and try to compete at a high level. So that's pretty much our schedule for tomorrow. Q. Trent, would you elaborate a little on the "fresh start." Is that a wiping away of everything that's happened so far or how do you do that? COACH JOHNSON: I don't know if you can ever do that. But our struggles and our youth and our inexperience throughout the course of this year is what it is. But one of the things I've always tried to do, and obviously these guys can elaborate on it more and you can hear their take on it, is to try to stay on an even keel regardless if it's non-conference or conference or post-season. And talk about playing the game the right way, talk about its competition and not looking too far down the line, and so from that stand point, yeah. I mean you have to look at it like, Hey, if you continue to play well and if you continue to win, you have a chance to advance. I've always felt this, I've always said this, this is one thing about college basketball, it's not like football or any other sport for that matter. At the end of the year, you can be 0-30, and if you have a chance to play and win, you can continue to play. So that's how we look at it. But from my standpoint, I look at it competing at a high level and always value the possession and get better as a player and so on and so forth. Q. I know that Andre Stringer has been in some big games in high school, but how confident are you in him leading the team in this kind of situation? COACH JOHNSON: Well, he is what we have. He's had his ups and downs. And he's been consistent at times and sometimes he's been not consistent. But sometimes too much is put on one individual's shoulders, and preferably in our sport, it's the point guard. I've told him, the thing I've been impressed the with the most is he's continued to work, he's continued to stay aggressive and look for his shot. So I'm very confident in terms of I have no choice, but also there's a reason we recruited him, there's a reason I like him as a young man and young player. But the bottom line is that he's done a good job of continuing to get out on the floor and do the best he can within his ability. Q. Malcolm, is he okay for tomorrow? COACH JOHNSON: Well, he hasn't practiced in two and a half days, so hopefully between now and tomorrow, he'll loosen up a little bit. It's extremely tight. He was able to shoot free throws here this past hour and a half, and hopefully he'll loosen up tomorrow. Q. I just wonder where you see your team at now as opposed to where it was back in October when this whole thing got started. COACH JOHNSON: That's a good question. In October, we very, very inexperienced. Going into the year we knew we were going to have to play extremely well as a unit and have all our pieces in place. And quite frankly, these two young men here, Storm and Ralston, they both were injured at the start of conference play, that took a toll on this team in general. And then when they both got back, because basketball is a game of rhythm, it took them awhile to get in their rhythm. So I think, if anything, the indication of our play the last six out of nine games is where we thought this team would be throughout the year. We haven't done a decent job, we haven't done a very good job of trying to finish games. And I say trying to finish games, so we're a better team, and obviously there's a lot of guys on this team that have got a lot of experience over the course of a year. But going into this year, there were a lot of guys coming out of high school who were stars who never played at this level and were asked to do a lot of things that they did in high school at this level of play. And the guys that were returning on this team were basically role players in the previous year and a half or two years. So we're better than we were then. Obviously, the wins and losses don't say that, but obviously I tip my hat, as hard as it is to, to some of the people that we played. And quite frankly, they have been better, and our record indicates that. THE MODERATOR: Storm and Ralston, guys, just your general thoughts on the game heading into tomorrow. Storm? STORM WARREN: It's just come out and play hard and leave everything on the court because at this point in the season, it's either you go hard or go home. You come out with a win or you're going home. So don't hold anything back and just let it all go out on the floor. At the end day when you look at yourself in the mirror you said you did the best you can, you did all you can do. THE MODERATOR: Ralston, same for you. RALSTON TURNER: Tomorrow, as we know, we're playing a very good Vanderbilt team, but I think the main thing is that we're still trying to build, like we're still working hard and we're still trying to get better. So tomorrow we are going to have to come out and play hard and try to put ourselves in the best position moving forward, whether that be the next game or the next year. Q. For both of you guys, the first game against Vanderbilt obviously went real well in the first half. I think you guys were up two going into the break and then it got away from you a little bit. Can you just talk about what changed in that game and why it went the way it did. STORM WARREN: We had a couple of mistakes coming out and a couple of breakdowns. We were kind of a step off coming into the second half and they capitalized on those and they just held the lead that they had for the rest of the game. RALSTON TURNER: I remember at halftime in that game, Coach Johnson came in and said defense was what was going to win it for us, and that's what lost it for us. We had some breakdowns, we didn't get back in transition, and things got a little out of hand and we weren't able to recover from that. Q. Vanderbilt can attack any team inside with the Ezeli. They got obviously Jenkins on the perimeter. How do you go about trying to prioritize what to contain? COACH JOHNSON: You're good, Jerry. Well, you know, bottom line is, and I said this in the year, I thought there were three teams in our league that were special and had a chance to be special, and Vanderbilt is one. I think you have to pick your poison in terms of Ezeli or are you going to try force him off his left shoulder and let them throw the ball in the post and then not cover down off of Jenkins? Now that's one. Or Taylor is so effective, he's probably one of the more underrated players in our league, let alone the country in terms of his explosiveness and ability to defend. But I think the key to their basketball team is Brad Tinsley. I think he does an exceptional job of getting the ball to the right person at the right time. I think one thing you can do with a team like ourselves is you got to mix it up with two-man, you got to mix it up with two-zone, give them different looks. And then there's going to be certain situations where we have to do a better job of scoring and getting crucial stops at key points in the game, whether it's early in the first half or late in the First half or early in the second half or late in the second half if the game's in striking distance. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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