Leader of the pack ... again

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 16, 2009 - Page: 1C

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When Tasmin Mitchell put his name into the pool of available players for the NBA draft after last season, many expected him to stay in the draft instead of coming back to school for his senior season.

After all, the bulk of the LSU team that went 27-8 and won a Southeastern Conference championship last season departed. Returning to college meant coming back to a program starting over.

The leading scorer from a year ago, Marcus Thornton, is now playing for the New Orleans Hornets. Garrett Temple, the defensive ace, is in camp with the Houston Rockets. Chris Johnson, the center, is playing pro ball in Turkey. Two other seniors are gone.

The five seniors were among the top seven players in the rotation, meaning, if Mitchell came back, it would be to a team he would most likely have to carry.

Turns out, that notion didn’t bother Mitchell at all.

“It wasn’t a problem for me coming back,” Mitchell said. “I wasn’t like ‘Man, I can’t come back, because I don’t have anybody.’ I never thought about that.”

After all, for all of the stars he’s played with in college — players like Glen Davis, Tyrus Thomas, Thornton and Temple — it’s not like Mitchell has no experience being “the man” on a team.

“I’ll play with whatever,” he said. “In high school (at Denham Springs), I didn’t really have (teammates) who played basketball. In high school, I had guys who were football players and baseball players. And we won, we were successful.”

Mitchell will likely need to channel some of his high school experience, a time when he became Louisiana’s Mr. Basketball in 2005 and getting an otherwise ordinary lot of Denham Springs players to the Top 28 in 2003 and 2004.

Now, as a senior coming back after a season where he made All-SEC by averaging 16.3 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, he is again the unquestioned leader on an otherwise unheralded team.

“It’s just like the high school days; only these guys have more talent,” Mitchell said. “I led those guys (at Denham Springs High) to the state playoffs, winning seasons every year. So let’s see if I can lead these guys.”

“These guys” include only one other starter from last year: point guard Bo Spencer. Only three other returning players — guards Alex Farrer and Chris Bass and forward Storm Warren — played meaningful minutes.

The rest of the roster consists of two big men who redshirted, two freshmen recruits and four walk-ons.

And make no mistake, the players coming back know Mitchell is the unquestioned leader.

“He’s a good leader, but he’s (also) good,” said Farrer, who enters his senior season as a leading candidate to start at shooting guard. “That’s what is so impressive. Some guys can lead, some guys are good, but he has both.

“I love playing with Tasmin. I feel kind of a bond from being around each other for it seems like ages now. He knows what it takes. He’s been there and done that, so I’m excited.”

LSU coach Trent Johnson has repeatedly said during the off-season Mitchell “can’t do it alone.” At the same time, Johnson has talked about the improvements Mitchell has made to an already impressive all-around game.

“Tasmin was a very, very good basketball player at the end of last year,” Johnson said. “He is a much better player now. He is very much improved and has worked extremely hard.”

Mitchell got feedback on what he needed to do to get better while attending NBA pre-draft camps that were a new experience for him.

Always a highly regarded prospect — Mitchell was a prep All-American who started since his freshman year at LSU — the NBA experience was the rare experience where Mitchell wasn’t on a pedestal.

At 6-foot-7, 245 pounds, Mitchell was painted as a “tweener” — too short to be an NBA power forward and lacking the perimeter skills of a pro wing.

He was advised to work on his perimeter skills and come back next year. He took the advice to heart.

“I spent an ample amount of time on my perimeter game,” said Mitchell, who was an accurate 3-point shooter on the rare times he was called upon to launch one last season, going 10-for-19. “I really did a lot of work on that. I was in and out of Houston, working out with John Lucas. He taught me a lot.”

It helps that unlike last year, when Mitchell played as a power forward with some perimeter aspects to his game, Mitchell will be the starting small forward this year.

Moving Mitchell to the “three” will be made possible with the development of Warren, a sophomore, at power forward and either Garrett Green or Dennis Harris, the two big men who redshirted last year, at center.

Mitchell said, even if the young big men struggle, he doesn’t expect to have to go back to playing primarily as a power forward.

“I’m going to remain on the perimeter regardless,” Mitchell said. “With (Johnson), he’s never been one to panic, to say ‘OK, we need to bring Tasmin back down (to power forward), because this is happening.’ He has faith in his guys.”

The commitment to playing small forward created a sense of urgency for Mitchell to improve his perimeter skills. Johnson said Mitchell is better at coming off a screen, setting his feet and shooting.

“Coach Johnson kept telling me, whether I came back to school or not, that’s what I needed to work on,” Mitchell said.

So he worked on it relentlessly.

As far his other new role this year — as the unquestioned leader — he already has experience with that.