Tag Archives: Garrett Temple
The Dust Settles and LSU Basketball is #17
What a season for the Tigers! This year’s team surpassed all preseason expectations and played with a new attitude, thanks to 1st year LSU coach, Trent Johnson. The Tigers had the best conference record in SEC (13-3) winning game after game down the stretch. Only SEC losses were the first game at Alabama and the last two against Vanderbilt and at Auburn. We will even admit here that when the season kicked off, we knew we had some talent and exciting players, but we didn’t think LSU would have the season they did.
The Tigers relied on the offense of Marcus Thornton, Bo Spencer, and Tasmin Mitchell. The bulk of the defense was left up to Garrett Temple and Chris Johnson. All of which except for Spencer and Mitchell, are leaving LSU as seniors. It should be noted that Tasmin Mitchell is testing the NBA waters, but has not hired an agent, leaving a return to the Tigers as an option.
Anyway, back to my thought; the Tigers were very shallow and inexperienced on the bench this year and the above five guys would have to carry the weight of the team most of the way if they were going to do something special. Much to Tiger fans’ surprise, that’s exactly what they did. Night in and night out, the tigers found a way to win games and won the SEC conference title. Awards were passed out (Thornton-SEC Player of the Year, T. Johnson-SEC Coach of the Year, Mitchell-1st Team SEC, Temple and C. Johnson-2nd team SEC) and LSU got ready for what was next.
Click to continue reading “The Dust Settles and LSU Basketball is #17″
LSU Tigers Survive First Round, Beat Butler 75-71
Ahhhhhh, the first game of the NCAA tournament. The ‘madness’ has begun. For the next 4 days, college basketball fans everywhere will be glued to the TV, to the CBS Sports.com’s live stream, or to ESPN’s update page. Hopefully everyone got their brackets in on time and they’re not too roughed up after the first day.
This morning the LSU Tigers came out on fire with a quick 3 by Bo Spencer. Then he stole Butler’s next possession and laid it in. Next Marcus Thornton got a steal and Tasmin Mitchell hit a jumper. Garrett Temple then got a steal and Marcus Thornton made a layup. The score was quickly 9-0 after only the first 1:40 of play…..Butler timeout. More after the jump……
Then, for whatever reason, the Tigers slowed things down and allowed the Butler Bulldogs from Indianapolis to creep back into the game and make things interesting. Butler chose to go with the one option that definitely works against LSU this year…… give it to the big guy in the middle. Butler’s Matt Howard got off a few layups in the first half, while drawing fouls from Chris Johnson and Quinton Thornton. Butler also began to do what they do well, which is make three’s. Pretty soon, they were back in the game.
Click to continue reading “LSU Tigers Survive First Round, Beat Butler 75-71″
LSU Outlasts Florida in Shootout, 81-75
32 points, including six three pointers, 10-11 on freebies, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds….. Marcus Thornton gave a huge effort in front of a huge crowd and a national audience on ESPN to lift the Tigers past Florida Tuesday night in the PMAC.
It was certainly everything a shootout is meant to be. Did I mention Thortnon had 6 three’s, 5 in the first half? As well as LSU played in the first half, Florida matched everything the Tigers threw at them. LSU may not have played their best defense in the first half, but neither team could miss. It was back and forth the entire 20 minutes. Florida went into the locker room with a four point lead.
LSU got some great contributions for Garrett Temple with 21 points and 7 rebounds (3-4 three’s, 4-4 free throws). Tasmin Mitchell had 12 and 8 and Bo Spencer had 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. The scary stat, which has become a trend lately…….3, yes 3 bench points. Terry Martin came off the bench to hit a jumper, get fouled and make the free throw…..that’s it. The lack of a solid sixth man or any bench play for that matter may hurt the Tigers in March.
Click to continue reading “LSU Outlasts Florida in Shootout, 81-75″
LSU Rips the Rebs
Chris Johnson scored the first bucket of the game on a slam dunk and that was about as close as Ole Miss would come. LSU went on a 12-0 run to start the game with Ole Miss’ first basket coming at the 15:33 mark. Garrett Temple was 3 for 4 from three point land in the first half and finished the game with 14 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds. Tasmin Mitchell added 17 points and Marcus Thorton scored 13. LSU played flawless defense the entire 40 minutes with no player ever really in foul trouble. The same cannot be said for the Rebels, who had 13 turnovers and LSU added 21 points off those turnovers.
LSU took a 41-18 lead into the locker room shooting 46% from the field in the first half and finishing with an incredible 49% for the game. Terry Martin and Quintin Thorton looked really comfortable coming off the bench. Martin and Thorton both added 6 points each and that is a much needed contribution. LSU’s bench is not very deep when it comes to experience and these 2 guys really need to keep it going in order for LSU to be successful. LSU out rebounded the Rebs 43 to 29 and also added 11 offensive rebounds which is always a good sign. Ole Miss tried to full court press and LSU easily worked their way underneath the basket for an easy bucket consistently. This was one of the better “all around” games I have seen in a long time for the tigers. LSU will try to add to their PMAC winning streak when they take on a tough Mississippi State Bulldog team Wednesday night. I expect the PMAC to be rocking as this could be a special year for the Tigers if they continue to play like they have the past 2 games!
LSU Basketball Dominates the Gamecocks in SEC Home Opener
First off, I’d like to say that I’m sad to see Brandon Lafell leave LSU. He announced his plans to enter the NFL draft yesterday. Once he learned how to catch 2 years ago, he was a force at the wide receiver position for the Tigers. He will be missed, but I speak for all of us when I say, best of luck, #1. Charles Scott, Ciron Black and everyone else that should stay here are doing just that, it appears.
Now to last night’s game. I went with the newly engaged “Undefeated”, his fiance, and some others to watch the Tigers play last night in the PMAC. We also wanted to see in person if the Tigers could turn their recent skid around and win a game. The Tigers not only won the game against South Carolina 85-68, but they played very aggressive and hustled throughout on every play. There was a little slacking at the end as they were up 15 or so, but that’s to be expected, I guess. The Tigers were not going to let a ball just roll out of bounds without a great effort to dive for it, which they did several times. They ran hard all night and completely smothered the Gamecocks’ offense. One quick fun fact which has nothing to do with any of that…. South Carolina shot an abysmal 36% at the free throw line (8-22). That is just sad. The Tigers hit 77% of their free throws.
Trent Johnson had the Tigers fired up. A large and very animated crowd didn’t hurt either. Fans came out in abundance last night (11,393). Really though, Coach Johnson has these Tigers playing above their efforts of years past. Their great hustle and will to win was evident the entire game. Efforts like this will lead to great things……12 steals for instance! 5 for Bo Spencer and 3 for Garrett Temple. This type of effort is not something the average fan would normally have seen with Brady at the helm. Johnson has instilled in these Tigers a winning attitude and as a fan, you have to love that.
Click to continue reading “LSU Basketball Dominates the Gamecocks in SEC Home Opener”
LSU Comes Out Flat Against Utes
The LSU basketball team will begin their SEC season with a bit of a sour taste in their mouths. LSU was defeated by the Utah Utes by a score of 91-61 before the SEC opener at Alabama on Sunday. Don’t know if it was the altitude or what but LSU shot a miserable 33.3% from the field while their opponent shot 63.5%. The game started off promising for LSU as Chris Johnson scored the first bucket of the game. Johnson, who has been as cold as the snow outside the arena in Utah, had 13 points for the Tigers. While his offense may have improved, his defense took a big hit. He was up against Utah’s Luke Nevill most of the game and could not come up with an answer to stop the big man. The 7’2 Nevill scored 23 points (11-13) and really manhandled Johnson every time he got the ball in the post. The Tigers tried double teaming Nevill, but did not receive positive results. Garrett Temple played horrible tonight scoring ZERO points, 3 turnovers, and 2 personal fouls. One thing that did stand out that will not show up in the stats was his leadership. He chewed some ass and played hard even when the game was out of hand and I applaud him for that. Tasmin Mitchell scored 14 points, most of those in the first half and Marcus Thorton had 17 points respectably. From the stripe LSU was 17-23 and Utah was 21-24.
The Tiger bench was 2-12 from the field with 6 points coming in free throws and of those free throws, most of them came in garbage time. LSU’s bench is not helping at all. The last few games the bench has been ice cold!!!! The SEC may be down this year but it’s still gonna be competitive and you’re gonna need substitution help. LSU needs to learn to win on the road. They’ve only played 2 road games but their record is 0-2 with both losses coming by double digits. LSU was only down by 9 at the half (43-34). The game was not out of hand until 11 minutes left in the second half and once Utah got a 20 point lead it just seemed to snowball for LSU. I like to see a team get down early in the season and see how they respond with adversity. There was adversity tonight and LSU folded. I’m glad this happened before SEC because now they know there is serious work to do. I guarantee that an away game at Alabama is gonna be a lot more tougher than away game at Utah. The main positive that can be brought from tonight’s game is that LSU received a wake-up call, they’re not that good YET!!!!!!
LSU Tigers Embarassed in Last “Warmup Game” at Utah Before SEC Play Begins
The Tigers simply couldn’t get it done in Utah tonight. In fact, they didn’t get much of anything done as the Utes took care of the Tigers, handing them the worst loss in….. well can anyone remember the last time the Tiger lost by 30?! And don’t say this year against Tebow and the Gators…… But, that’s right, LSU went down in Provo 91-61. And just so you know, since I had to look it up, it really wasn’t as long ago as I had thought that the Tigers lost by such a deficit….. Jan 22, 2005 at Kentucky (89-58). Anyway….
Well, let’s try and analyze it. Garrett Temple scored as many as I did. Terry Martin had 3 and Alex Farrer put in 2. I must say that I’m baffled as to why Farrer started in the place of Marcus Thornton tonight. But I guess since the game wasn’t on TV and I was unable to attend the pre-game locker room speech, I may never know, but it happened. Thornton came off the bench to score 17 in 22 minutes. It appears that he was in some foul trouble (4) because Bo Spencer played 30 minutes off the bench and scored seven. Tasmin Mitchell and Chris Johnson contributed a little bit scoring 14 and 13 respectively. But where was the defense?!?!
The Tigers were out rebounded 33-24. Also, Utah has a center from Australia who is 7’2″, 265lbs. Well as you may have guessed, he went 11-13 and scored 23 points with 6 rebounds and 3 blocks. We obviously couldn’t stop him, probably because he outweighed his LSU counterpart (Johnson) by 55 lbs, but we didn’t try to foul him either…..he only took two free throws on the night, of which he only made 1. The Utes had another player score 17 and two others score 13 each. Three other players contributed 8, 7, and 6 points.
Tigers Win 6th Straight on the Hardcourt
LSU beat Cal State Fullerton tonight giving them a record of 6-0. Marcus Thornton lead all scorers with 24 points, with three other Tigers in double digits, including solid play off the bench from Bo Spencer. Tasmin Mitchell had 16 pts and 15 rebounds while Garrett Temple tossed in 8 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
The Tigers had no problems rebounding tonight, out-glassing (made up synonym for rebounding) Cal State, 56-26. The Tigers led most of the way and were not threatened in the 2nd half at all.
Yeah it was Cal-State, but the Tigers won by 21, while the starters played most of the game. However, LSU almost violated my own personal key to playing a good game: You must have more assists than turnovers. Unfortunately there were 19 assists and 19 turnovers. This hasn’t happened much this season (only once, in the first game vs. Jackson State), but for those that paid any attention to the waning years of the Brady era, you know it happened an uncountable amount times.
Click to continue reading “Tigers Win 6th Straight on the Hardcourt”
