Any time you garner a top-5 recruiting class, including the consensus No. 1 prospect in the nation, a college basketball program’s offseason becomes busier.
For LSU coach Johnny Jones and the No. 21 Tigers, a program experiencing a renewed anticipation, the summer and early fall months have looked more like a whirlwind. Accounting for a trip overseas, an NBA scouting combine, player eligibility questions and an injury to a key player, the site of meaningful basketball in the coming weeks can’t come soon enough.
Friday night’s exhibition against Southwest Baptist University at 7 p.m. in the PMAC won’t count toward LSU’s record, but freshman forward Ben Simmons’ said his goals are the same as they will be the entire season.
“To win,” Simmons said. “That’s my goal every time I get on the court. Every game I play is going to be like that. It won’t count, but to us, winning is everything.”
While his first appearance in front of a home crowd will be a “special moment” for Simmons, it will also be special for another reason — his brother, Liam, is an assistant coach on the Bearcats’ staff.
“His brother has been giving him a hard time,” Jones said with a laugh. “He told him they were going to bring 18 guys down here to foul him.”
Ben said his brother might have a few tricks up his sleeve to counter his skill set. After all, Liam jokingly claims to have made the 6-foot-10 Australian the player he is, according to Ben. So there’s plenty of motivation to put on a good show in front of his kin.
But more importantly, Ben and the rest of the Tigers are still making internal adjustments with the loss of senior guard Keith Hornsby, who endured a medical procedure on Tuesday. While the specific surgery and length of absence are unknown, Jones said Hornsby will miss several games and recovery could extend until the start of Southeastern Conference play.
With at least five other guards expected to contribute to the regular rotation, the depth behind Hornsby isn’t an issue. But the third-leading scorer last season, trailing just former LSU forwards Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey, brings a leadership factor to the team that can’t be replaced, Jones said.
“It’s not about how high you can jump or how fast you can run,” Jones said. “But there are some other things that he is able to do to integrate to our team that matters.”
Two of the guards who will have an increased role to begin the season in Hornsby’s place have climb through their own obstacles to be available for Friday.
Among other rookies around the country, according to Jones, freshman Antonio Blakeney was officially cleared for play by the NCAA after an investigation into workout videos with a trainer. The coach indicated he was notified about Blakeney’s eligibility just hours before the team departed for Shreveport for a scrimmage against Texas Christian University last weekend, allowing the Floridian to compete against the Horned Frogs.
Fellow freshman Brandon Sampson suffered a minor concussion last week and didn’t travel with the team to Shreveport, but Jones said Wednesday Sampson would be close to full strength by Thursday and should be ready to play against Southwest Baptist.
For a Baton Rouge native and Madison Prep product like Sampson, the opportunity to kick off the season in his own backyard is an easy transition from high school.
“Coming out, playing in front of all your friends and your family, there’s no better feeling than that, knowing you can be somewhere comfortable,” Sampson said. “You don’t want to go somewhere and then be uncomfortable when you can be right here and be so comfortable, playing in front of everybody you know.
But Sampson, Blakeney and the rest of Tigers will most often be taking direction from a player who made a quantum leap last season, junior guard Tim Quarterman. Quarterman, who became a regular starter midway through last season, is embracing the “floor general” role by establishing the Tigers’ tempo on the offensive end and playing the energizer bunny on the defensive end.
With the addition of three freshmen and a new starting center, sophomore Elbert Robinson III, Quarterman’s leadership in replacement of Hornsby will go along with by the time the regular season starts on Nov. 13 against McNeese State University.
“[Keith’s injury] is something that we didn’t want to happen, but it ended up happening,” Quarterman said. “We just got to step up and fill Keith’s void. He’s very important to our team, so we can’t wait until he gets back. But until then, we just got to go out there and play our hardest to fill that void.”