Opening Statement...
“Good win. I thought we played much better. Our defense was better. I thought we kept the ball in front, we guarded the ball better than we have. I thought we rebounded pretty well. We gave up some offensive rebounds in the first half but they did a great job of tipping them out. We had our guards coming down and they tipped them out from where our guards would be so they chased some things long and loose. I thought Darius Days played great, obviously Cam [Thomas] was tremendous. I thought Mwani Wilkinson played well. It was good to get Charles Manning back in a rhythm. Josh LeBlanc did some good things for us. Just a total team win. We had a good practice yesterday, outside of losing Shareef [O’Neal] yesterday with his foot. He should be back hopefully within a week or so. I thought we had a good practice, good preparation, we were a little more locked in and it showed tonight.”
On LSU’s poise…
“Also, I thought Javonte (Smart) played great tonight. He had six assists, two turnovers, I know he didn’t shoot it great. But it’s hard to do. Yesterday was his first full practice with us and for him to come back and play a bunch of minutes and do what he had to do in this type of situation, I thought he did well. But I think our guys are poised. It helps when we have some of those veterans out there like Javonte, Trendon (Watford), and Days. I think it helps when we have those guys out there. But I think Cam [Thomas] is poised, I think Mwani is wise for his years, LeBlanc’s been around the block a little bit. We’ve got some guys who have done it at a high level over a sustained period of time and hopefully we can keep that trait this year.”
On the work Cam Thomas puts in…
“He’s as consistent of a worker as I’ve ever seen as a Freshman. He’s never late, he shows up every day. He has a 9 a.m. shooting slot every morning, six days a week. He only doesn’t shoot on Saturday mornings. He shoots Sunday through Friday, every day, 9 a.m., for an hour and 15 minutes, and gets his work in. He’s about his business, he prepares well, he watches a lot of basketball, he knows what’s going on, he’s got a great feel for things. He’s got a great feel for open areas and where things are. He’s a tremendous talent and I’m glad he’s playing for the Tigers.”
On Darius Days and Cam Thomas scoring…
“It’s fun to watch. They’re two prolific scorers. We’ve got a lot of guys on this team that can really score it. Those are certainly two of them, you have Watford and Smart who have done it. I’m telling y’all, we haven’t seen it yet but Eric Gaines is built the same way. He’s electric. He had 35 in one of our scrimmages, he can really go. We’ve got some guys. I thought LeBlanc did a great job on the glass. It’s fun to watch. Tonight when we guard like that, we’re a little more fun to watch, but we’re always fairly solid offensively. I give our guys a lot of credit tonight offensively. The way A&M plays, I told them, ‘This is about players, this ain’t about plays.’ Usually we can dial some stuff up and get guys looks and that sort of thing. This was players, playing in space, having to play off two feet, making the right reads and that sort of thing. Our players did a really nice job.”
