First-year coach Johnson serves up LSU basketball

• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 9, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Trent Johnson had his own menu for Wednesday’s weekly Rotary International lunch meeting.

LSU’s first-year basketball coach served up meat and potatoes. The meat was on the tough side, the potatoes spicy, and, for dessert, there was lots of cake, no icing.

In his first civic club speaking engagement, the former Nevada and Stanford head coach served up the appetizer, words about how excited he is to be in Baton Rouge, and “ … how honored I am to be head coach of this program.

“I’ve heard a lot about LSU, Baton Rouge and Louisiana,” he continued. “I’m 52 years old and been around a little bit, and to be a part of the SEC is exceptional, and to be a part of the SEC and LSU is even more exceptional.”

Then, he served the entrée and it gave the Rotarians lots to chew.

“There is a lot of negativity surrounding our program,” Johnson said filling in the next two minutes with words like “accountability academically,” sociability and about his “we-first” approach to collegiate basketball success.

“I ask players to do things. I don’t demand they do them. I ask them what ‘we’ have to do to be successful. We need to get our confidence back, and we need to get our academics in place. I think they (players) have bought into what it will take.”

He pointed to the success of the football and baseball teams saying “ … that did not happen overnight,” and to the string of championships piled up by track and field teams to point out that LSU men’s basketball, “ … has to learn how to compete, to play the game the right way.”

And, Johnson made no bones about what “the right way” means to him: “All there is now in basketball is playing fast and to be entertaining,” but he said he knows success in the college game is based on “… defense, rebounding the basketball and taking care of the basketball.”

With former LSU center Ricky Blanton in the audience, Johnson singled out the 1986 Tigers — Blanton was a freshman on that team — saying, “Ricky got more out of his talent than almost anyone I know. Of all the great teams LSU has had, this (the 1986 team) was probably the least talented, but had the ‘it’ factor with Don Redden and John L. Williams. It was a group that really overachieved.”

With a certain tone of pride in his voice, he said his past teams, “… always maximized their abilities.”

That led to the second course.

“Academically, we’re not where we want to be,” Johnson said.