LSU forward Darius Days to enter 2021 NBA Draft

LSU forward Darius Days to enter 2021 NBA Draft
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Updated: 3:07 PM CDT Apr 9, 2021
LSU forward Darius Days to enter 2021 NBA Draft
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Updated: 3:07 PM CDT Apr 9, 2021
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I didn't. And when you were called on, please state your name and affiliation. Coach, go ahead and give us a brief opening statement, and then we will go to questions. Really proud of our guys. I thought we really guarded in the first half. Our offense was a little bit raggedy, but we guarded and that kept us in the game. And then we went on a spurt there at the end of the half, get the nine point lead, and then the nine. Oh, run to start. The second half was huge. Um, three guys with double doubles. Andre, Hi. It was phenomenal. Four blocks 13 and 10 7 offensive rebounds. I thought he was just tremendous Trending and days did what they do. And then, obviously Cam was it was phenomenal. Getting to the free throw line and attacking and and making place. It was a total, um, total total team effort. I thought our guys were locked in, and we're really, really prepared, and we're gonna need to turn it around quick for Monday. Okay? We've got a lot of questions out there, so we'd ask you would limit it to one each time you're on there. Our first question comes from Glenn West s I Hey, Well, you know, it really seemed like, you know, when you guys were struggling there in that first half, Um, your defense really kind of kept you in that game. I mean, just what defensively was working so well for you guys throughout the entire Well, I think I think if you haven't seen the switching, the switching is difficult to play against. Especially when they're using their screening angles to create. They're using their screens off ball screens and on ball screens to create the angles to get their guys downhill. When you when you can switch and stay in front of everybody, Um, makes it very, very, uh, difficult, Um, on, uh, you know, on the other team. And so I thought the switching, um, really bothered him. We forced him into some contested jump shots. And we're able to sit there with the high hand and and contest those and and and contest those looks. But not our guys were locked in and knew where the shooters were and are switching. Was was on point. Next question comes from Jared Joseph from V L. A. Hey, Well, the offense, of course, really struggled in the first half. What specifically worth ST Bonaventure doing to, you know, limit you all so much through the 1st 20? Well, we we didn't have very good spacing. They had a They had us muddled up in the middle. We had three guys above the free throw line too much. We we we just had, um, poor, poor spacing. And then they did a great job. They moved 21 around. Our whole plan was to pull 21 away from the baskets. We could drive it in there and make some plays, and they started, um, al Fahm Hyatt. Then they put them on days in transition, and we just couldn't We couldn't pick at the matchup like we wanted to, um, for part of the first half. And then we were able to settle in and and and get into a rhythm against what they were doing. And then, you know, you've got elite scores like Cam Thomas and you got Andre Hyatt and various days on the offensive class like that. You know that that helps quite a bit. Mm. Next question comes from Michael Kabul of W B R Z. Well, uh, we often talk about your bad habits, you know, coming up in the game. But you guys, all your good habits were on display today are sharing the ball spreading movement, defending, rebounding. How impressed with you with just your teams poised. Especially when you consider this is the first tournament experience for some of these guys. Yeah. Great guard play wins and tournaments. Um, and, uh, you know, I thought our guys were prepared. You know, I told our guys last night, I said, you're prepared and you're ready. Nobody in this room should be nervous, like we're prepared and we're ready. You get nervous when you ain't ready. And our guys were ready to go. We we we had to walk through. So I mean, we we we were prepared to the nth degree, uh, for this game both offensively and defensively, and our guys were ready. And you want guys that perform on the big stage that can make plays in big moments. And we did that today. All right. Our next question comes from Ron Higgins of Tiger Rag. Ron's asleep. Okay, let's go to Sheldon Michels of The Advocate, Sheldon's in the building somewhere. You must have a bad connection. Hey, this is wrong. Can you hear me? Yeah. Ron, I got you. Okay. Ah, you know, the early cold shooting was in a case of nerves. And also what are you saying? Those timeouts. Just We're gonna just keep playing defense. We're gonna play through this, just play on. Yeah. I mean, we were getting stopped. That's what I was more excited about. The offense always comes around, and we scored 76 points on a on a great team. I think we had four points in the first eight minutes of the game. Um, and so, you know, the offense always comes around for us. It's about getting stops and rebounding, which is what we we did a great job of. And, you know, I knew as long as we were getting stops and getting rebounds, we were going to be, uh we were gonna be in pretty good shape. And so I was focusing on the positive with that and just get our guys to calm down and let's get some easy ones on offense. One more 32 javonte where he hit that. That really, really helped us out. Sheldon, are you available? Okay. If not, we'll go to Scott Rabalais from the Baton Rouge Advocate. One advocate guy can pension for the other. Well, I haven't been on all your many zoom calls this year, so forgive me if you talked about this before, but what What made Andre a starter for you? You have all these stars, and and everything is not a good player. But But what? What about his game has allowed him to hang in there and be a starter. And obviously, today, he had maybe his best game. Yeah. I mean, what you saw today. I mean, that's what we see every day in practice, and he actually shoots it really, really well, um, but, you know, I trust him. He's steady, You know where he's going to be. And this is why, you know, as a coach, you stick with guys. We went away from him a little bit there in the middle of the year, but he earned that starting spot. It's not like we just, you know, handout starting spots like Halloween candy or something. On Halloween, you show up and you get it, but I mean he had earned it. He had earned it in his preseason and how hard he worked. And, you know, as a head coach, I trust that, and we trust that. And, um, you know, he came up, he came up huge force. He came up huge force against Alabama. He came up huge force and in, uh, in this game here. And that's why you, uh that's why you stick with guys. Next question comes from Billy and Body. They will ask him about this, but javonte not having a turnover today. How important was that? And just you seem to get you guys in the right spots, you know, to produce offensively and just allowed all the guys to be able to contribute. It was huge. We talked about, you know? Well, you know, you just don't have as many possessions against Bonaventure because of how they run their offense, how they move, how they cut, you know, they're going to take a lot of time off and us not turning the ball over and not giving up a bunch of offensive rebounds were two huge keys, Um, coming into the game. And I thought javonte, um did a great job. You know, playing, um, you know, just just playing a solid, solid floor game. Next question is from John Blau, The Bloomington Herald Times. I asked him about this, but trended Watford. Obviously, his older brother Christian, has a history in this building. Trendy came in, obviously had that double double. I mean, how happy were you for him to be able to put the performance up that he did today? Very happy. The Watford love Assembly hall. Uh, he was so excited to play here. He texted me as soon as he knew This is where we were playing and Christian texted me, and he was excited. Christian and the family was obviously, uh, in the arena today. And so they were, uh, they were They were really, really fired up. And I was just I was so proud of him to hit the three, and and to be able to play well, um, in a place that's so special to to their family. Next, what was the 10 year anniversary of the watch shot, I think. Is that correct? That will be in December. Yep. There we go. Okay. Next question. Kevin McCaskill from Force Apartment uh, Kevin McCaskill, Junior FP Sports Forest Park Media Springfield, Mass. Coach. Do you think Josh Gray will get any minutes going forward in the tournament? Well, we'll see. You know, we're gonna need them, you know, against, you know, assuming Michigan Beach, Texas Southern. I haven't seen a score gap, but, um, you know, we're gonna need some big bodies. We've played Josh. When we played Mississippi State, who had big bodies with the dough and told Lou Smith, I know, um 100. Dickinson's of a different, um, you know, he's a different animal, and he's a tremendous, tremendous player, one of the best freshman in one of the best post players in the country. So anytime we've played against bigger bodies and bigger guys, uh, we've thrown gray in there, so I think there's a There's a good chance that you'll see him in that Michigan game. Is there any chance Shareef O'Neal comes back this this season? No, he's out. He's got a foot injury, and, uh, we've shut him down. Probably six weeks ago for the rest of the season. Thank you, Coach. Congratulations on the win. Thank you. Michael Kabul. W B R c. Um, Well, just you're all his ability to play through the fouls and, um, to manage those fouls, especially in the first half. Again, I guess. Maybe kind of speaking to the poise and and understanding of the moment from your team. Yeah. I mean, we've always played guys with two fouls. I think we're, like top 25 in the country in terms of minutes played with two fouls. Everybody always what ifs. Worst case scenarios will. All right, what if you hold him out for five minutes and the lead goes away, and then he only ends up with three fouls for the entire game? I don't even think we had a guy get to four fouls. Um, today smart may have, but I don't think we had a guy get to four fouls. So we're always going to play our guys with two fouls, and we're gonna be smart when we're on defense. We're gonna sub guys in and out and that sort of thing. But we're always going to play our guys with fouls especially, um, in these type situations and win or go home situations. Final question goes to Matt Trent. Matt, if you can identify your affiliation, please. Hey, Coach Matt Train with W B R Z t v. Here's got Rouge. It feels like to me you checked off all the boxes this week that you were talking about, that you needed to to be successful, rebounding good defense. Do you think this was the perfect game at the perfect time? And now do you think you can sustain this level of play going forward? Well, we certainly played better. Our second half defense left a lot to be desired. We got driven too much, but I think you know we've played. We've played a lot more physical lately, ever since that Vanderbilt home game. So those two. Vanderbilt, Missouri, the three tournament games today we were really physical. We did a great job on the glass. And so, you know we're going to have to play our best game of the season on Monday. There's no doubt about that. And so hopefully we're building towards that and can and can reach a crescendo on Monday. All right, coach, that's all the time we have. Thank you very much. And we wish you the best of luck. Moving forward. Thank you. Okay, that's it for

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