2009-2010
Season Preview
A Commitment to Work Coach Trent Johnson enters his second season as the head coach at LSU and the commitment from the team to work hard everyday will be important during his second campaign in Baton Rouge. Gone are five seniors, including the SEC Player of the Year, who helped LSU to a regular season Southeastern Conference championship with a 13-3 record and helped Coach Johnson earn consensus All-SEC Coach of the Year honors. The Tigers recorded a 27-8 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to North Carolina in Greensboro, N.C., 84-70, in the closest game of any that the eventual champions would face on their road to the title. The lessons of the successful 2008-09 season remain as two starters are back. Along with the young talent who had moments to shine last year, and two freshman signees, the Tigers look forward to both the challenges and opportunities ahead of them.
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Returning Starters Tasmin Mitchell returns for his senior campaign, his fifth at LSU. The Denham Springs native made a triumphant return after ankle surgery that limited his 2008-09 campaign to just three games. Now he is expected to move back to the three position he played during his freshman and sophomore seasons for the 200910 season. A year ago, Mitchell earned First Team All-SEC honors, averaging 16.3 points per game, eighth best in the SEC. He also averaged 7.2 rebounds while shooting 52.2 percent (224-of429) from the field and 72.5 percent from the free throw line (111-of-153). Mitchell didn’t need to shoot the three as much while playing down low for the Tigers, but stepped outside to make 10-of-19 attempts, including the game-winning three against Kentucky at Rupp Arena that clinched the outright SEC regular season title for LSU. He enters the year on pace to be the all-time leader in minutes played with 3,535. The mark he will be trying to eclipse was set last year by former teammate Garrett Temple. He’s also on pace to become just the third player in LSU history to score 2,000 career points. Bo Spencer is back for his junior season and his second year as the starting point guard on the team. Johnson taught Spencer the role of the point guard in his system and Spencer responded with a strong campaign that saw him not only start the offense but score significant points. Spencer averaged 11.4 points per game and 2.6 assists per game. The Baton Rouge native
2009-2010 LSU men’s Basketball Media Guide
made 60 three-pointers and shot 40.3 percent from the three-point arc. He also canned 84.0 percent of his free throws (68-of-81). More importantly as the point guard, Spencer had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio with 87 assists and 63 turnovers.
Returnees Also back for the Tigers are players who will be asked to step up when given the opportunity during the season as some of them did at crucial times during the 2008-09 season. Alex Farrer will be the only other senior on the 2010 squad. After appearing in 14 games a year ago, he equaled his career high of 11 points in the second game of the season versus Alcorn State, and when he can get his outside shot going, he can be another long-range scoring threat for LSU from outside the arc. Chris Bass is an offensive speedster when brining the ball up the court as he showed in his time at the point a year ago in his freshman campaign and can put the offense in a different gear if needed. The younger brother of former SEC Player of the Year and now Orlando Magic star Brandon Bass, Chris Bass had 43 assists and just 14 turnovers during the season while appearing in 28 games. Storm Warren appeared in 30 games in his freshman year and in his playing time made 21-of-49 field goal attempts (42.9 percent). In league play against Mississippi State he had seven points in 13 minutes in the doubleovertime win in Starkville and in the SEC