LSU coach Johnny Jones faces the tough task of trying to revive a Tigers program that has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2009. LSU was picked by the media to finish 11th in the SEC.
LSU coach Johnny Jones:
On what practice has been like so far:
“We have had 11 practices so far, we have been excited, we think we have made some improvement each day. We’re excited about the effort and the energy level that our guys have been practicing with. So, it gives us a reason to have hope.”
On expectations of the three walk-ons on the team:
“We hope to make a decision soon. We are hopeful that we can possibly keep all three guys, we have to do our part with them and make sure we would like for them to be a part of our program. They have been extremely hopeful in our practices we have had because of injuries or class schedule conflicts. So those three guys we would love to try and keep around if possible.”
On the transition progress:
“We are hopeful with the base that we have on the guys that we have returning from last years team. We hope that we can do a great job in terms of developing the talent level that we have and continue to recruit very aggressively. I think that if we do that, and have some consistency about it then I think we can get it turned around a lot sooner rather than later.
On guard play:
“Anthony Hickey is a sophomore, I think the great thing for Anthony, he had the opportunity to be thrown into the fire last year and played a lot of minutes. I think he started all but one game. They say a lot of times the best thing about freshman is when they become sophomores and I think that holds true to form with a guy like Anthony as well. With the lack of experience returning from last year’s team, Anthony has had to step‐up and show some leadership qualities and he has really embraced that in the short time. One of the young men that did not start last year but played quality minutes in Andre Stringer and he is a guy that we want to have to make sure that we look to this year as well. So our backcourt in those two guys will be really important for us.”
Courtesy of SEC Digital Network