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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2010Trent JohnsonTasmin MitchellBo SpencerNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue with LSU. We'll ask Coach Johnson for his opening thoughts. Just some thoughts on LSU headed into the Tournament. Then we'll take questions for the two student-athletes, dismiss them into the locker room, and finish up with questions for coach. COACH JOHNSON: Thank you. Obviously, we're looking forward to a new season. We're probably playing as good a basketball as we have all season long, having won the last two games. We have a stiff challenge in front of us in terms of Tennessee. I think Tennessee is playing as good of basketball as anybody in the country, probably anyone in the league. We're looking forward to it. We're as healthy as we've been and excited about the opportunity in front of us. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions just for the two student-athletes. Q. I'm going to ask you something I asked you guys earlier this week, but for the benefit of everybody else. Two years ago Georgia made a run from last place to win the conference tournament. Talk about that as maybe a motivation for you guys. TASMIN MITCHELL: Two years ago Georgia did it. It was unbelievable. I think, like Coach say, this was the start of a new season. And right now, I know the records show us in the SEC. But we're going to go out and play every game like it's our last and try to get one of those spots like Georgia did. BO SPENCER: Like Tasmin said, I want to go out and play a strong game. I don't think our record shows what kind of basketball we can play. Like I said, Georgia made the run. Hopefully, we can try to go out and play strong and try to do the same. Q. Can you guys talk about just what propelled you in those last four games. What kept you going, why you were able to win two of them. TASMIN MITCHELL: I think it shows that we got heart because we got heart. You know, we just continue to go out there and fight no matter what the situation was. You know, we never stop. We're never going to give up. I guess we just wanted to end the season on a good, positive note, knowing that whether we win, lose, or draw, we went out and played our hardest. BO SPENCER: Just want to go out and get us some wins. This is Tasmin's last year, last season, and we wanted to send him out with a few wins, and we just wanted to play hard. Q. For Tasmin, can you talk about what you've seen over your career in this league. Obviously, '06 and '07 was very good. '08 not quite as good. '09 only got three teams in. This year's it's kind of nobody is sure how many they're going to get in. Just talk about from '09 to '10 whether you think the league has improved. TASMIN MITCHELL: You know, I've seen a lot of ups and downs throughout this league. I've been here for a while. I played four and been here five. You know, the league has improved. I feel like we was always a good league. You know, I guess just other people would say that we were down some years and we was up some years. I feel like you've got to be ready to play every night in the SEC, whether it's '06 or '08 or from then to now. Yeah, I have saw a lot throughout this league, and I think the league has improved a lot. But I always thought it was the same. You just got to compete every night. Q. If you guys wouldn't mind, talk about the last matchup with Tennessee. You guys made a run. They had to hit a lot of key free throws in the final minute to hold on for a victory. If you could just talk about some of the keys to the matchup. TASMIN MITCHELL: When we played them last time in Baton Rouge, we gave them a pretty good matchup. You know, we just went out that game and played hard. They went on a drought. We went on a run. We had a chance to win the game at the end. So I mean, hopefully, this time around, they won't take it for granted, and we can come out with a victory at the end. BO SPENCER: Yeah. We played them in Baton Rouge. They came out. They did a good job of defending Tasmin. They stopped him from getting a lot of sets that would normally go through him. They did a good job making good interior passes and beating us in the interior. Hopefully this time, we'll come out and defend them well and stop them from the jump. Q. For Bo, I had a couple of coaches this morning talk about the importance of guard play in tournament time. For you to play well, to have the good guard play that other coaches are talking about, what is going right for you if you're playing well? BO SPENCER: I'm helping everyone on the team, making people on the team better. Getting Tas some open shots, knocking down my jump. Just out there really having fun and controlling the team. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse Tasmin and Bo. We'll continue on with Coach Johnson. Q. Coach, you talked about how well Tennessee's playing. Can you be more specific on what they're doing so well that this late in the season that maybe they struggled with earlier. COACH JOHNSON: Obviously, their length and their athleticism puts them in situations where they can really guard you, really defend you. Then they're making shots. They appear to be in a really, really good rhythm. When you go into Starkville and beat Mississippi State on senior night like they did, that speaks volumes to the caliber of player and how well they're playing right now. Q. Coach, can you talk about what -- if you've seen any difference in the league from last year to this in terms of talent and how good the teams are. Seems like the league got a little bit better this year. COACH JOHNSON: Well, I've said this before, last year the league was very talented, but it was very young. There were two teams in the league, us being one and Auburn, where a senior dominated, which were two pretty good teams. I thought we were a pretty good basketball team last year. So now the league is more experienced. It's been healthier. And then obviously Kentucky has an infusion of talent that's pretty good. You know, when you talk about our league and you start talking about this bubble talk, I think you need to start with Georgia. Georgia's beaten Illinois. They beat Georgia Tech. They beat a very, very good St. Louis team. And then you look at some of their league wins versus Florida, versus Tennessee, so on and so forth, Vanderbilt. So I don't think you can sit here and honestly say Ole Miss and Mississippi State shouldn't be a bubble team. Obviously, we know what Kentucky's done, Vanderbilt's done, Tennessee has done. My goodness, I think Florida -- Billy gets punished for winning two national championships back to back, but he's won 20 games three years in a row. Why are we talking about them as a bubble? I was in a league that was really, really good two years ago, and this league is without question just as talented and just as deep. But like the Pac-10, they lost a bunch of kids to the NBA, so the league took a drop. That's usually what happens. Q. Trent, last year a lot of the coaches said that, when Kentucky's good, all boats rise. It helps the whole league. They weren't very good last year, so there was some perception the league was down. Now, obviously, Kentucky's a lot better this year. Yet the SEC seems like from the talk is only going to get three solid teams in, maybe a fourth. How do you explain that? COACH JOHNSON: First of all, Jerry, I like to think that the talk should be that, when LSU is good, the league is down, like last year. So now LSU's down, so the league's down. No, I don't get caught up a lot in that. I think, obviously, you know, Kentucky has played extremely well. They've gotten it done in nonconference. But you got to look at the full body of work. Once you start getting into league play, you start beating upon yourself so much, I don't think there should be a lot of stock based on what happens in terms of rankings and all that. Again, for me, I look at the caliber of basketball that's being played, I look at the teams that have won games on the road versus nonconference opponents. So I think the league's good, and it's up because Kentucky's good, because Vanderbilt's good, because Tennessee is good, because Florida is good. You look at some of the wins Alabama's had in their nonconference. I think there's probably one team in the league that's not very good right now, and you happen to be talking to him. Q. I just wanted to get your take on the old adage that guard play wins at tournament time and specifically how that applies to your team. You're not very deep in the backcourt right now. For you to get the guard play you need, what does that mean? COACH JOHNSON: No, that speaks volumes to we're not deep. It speaks volumes to our inconsistency in our play, our inexperience at times. But to me, guard play keeps you in games and gives you a chance to win games. Obviously, your point guard or your two lead guards, whatever it may be, are an extension of their coach. If they're on an even keel, and they're an extension of him making plays and keeping the team involved and making guys better and getting the basketball to the right guy at the right time, that gives you a chance to win. Again, it's no question, if you look across the country, the teams that have really good guards, solid guard play, are the teams that are winning their share of games on a consistent basis. Now, to go back to Kentucky, they got solid guard play, and they got a couple of animals in the post. Vanderbilt's got real good guard play out front. They got a real good post guy. So you can go on. But guards give you a chance to win. Q. Coach, Tennessee's obviously gone through a few transitions with personnel. I wonder how much different do they look to you now than when you played them in Baton Rouge? And how would you characterize their strengths? I know you mentioned the defense, but as far as offensively, where do you start at? COACH JOHNSON: Well, where do we start offensively? Q. Tennessee. COACH JOHNSON: With Tennessee. The difference between with what we saw in Baton Rouge and what we're seeing now is the addition of Brian Williams, the Williams kid. Now they have the luxury of playing slow on the backcourt and also playing up tempo if they take him out. Their talent level has always been good. A lot has been said about the suspensions and the guys they didn't have, but the guys that remained were good players. Obviously, Bruce does a good job, getting his players ready to play all the time. Offensively, we have to try and limit transition baskets. We have to try and play them and match them on the glass in terms of rebounding. And we have to try and take care of the ball. Bobby Maze is really an unheralded guy in our league in terms of point guard play. He doesn't get the publicity a lot of guys in this league do, but he's a very, very good player. For us, we've got to defend. We've got to rebound. From our standpoint, attack them offensively. We've got to have our guys step up and make shots because they are going to play up against our guys in the perimeter. Q. Coach, Kentucky's got two, probably three guys that are going to be one and done this year. As a coach, do you take a one and done guy knowing in advance he's going to be one and out of there? And what are the pluses and minuses to your program if you do take those players? COACH JOHNSON: First of all, the first question, they don't have three, they've got four. They can take Orton too along with those other three. And the second part of that question is, yes, we do take one if he's good enough. Because my wife likes to shop a lot, and she likes the payroll. The third part of that question is what fills your program? It depends on the situation your program is in. The APR, I think a lot of people don't understand the impact it has on how you recruit, which is the academic progress rate. So our program's in a situation now where this year or next year, or even the following year, can we take a guy who could be a one and done or two and done? Yeah, probably. But the other guys in your program need to be good students and need to be program guys, so to speak, that are going to look to their education and not flunk out of school. To answer your question, I want the best student-athlete, the best player possible to help us win games. Make no mistake about it, it's about winning games. Those guys that are one and done usually help you win a lot of games. Q. Going back to the good guard play, how important is it at tournament time to have a guy who can create on his own? I'm just assuming that maybe a lot of teams know each other pretty well by this point. How important is it to have a guy that can just sort of make it happen? COACH JOHNSON: Well, there's a guy that's with the Hornets that we had last year. All that stuff we were running two and three strong, you know -- I'm talking about Marcus Thornton. It's everything. At this time in the year, teams are so good defensively. It turns into a half-court game. So your ability to get it off the bounce on late clock or create your own shot once your offense breaks down is huge. I go back to our game last year, Kentucky, when we clinched it. They took us out of everything, and the only thing we had was to isolate Tas and Marcus by themselves and let them go make a play. I think it's everything. But usually those guys, Jerry, as we well know, if they're in the post or the perimeter, usually they're pros. So I think it's a definite correlation if your team's going to advance deep into the SEC Tournament or win the SEC Tournament maybe has one or two or in some cases three guys that are NBA players. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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