Of the players who could see regular action for the No. 19 LSU men’s basketball team this season, the backcourt contains a potential 2016 first round pick, and ESPN’s No. 3-rated shooting guard in the nation and No. 1-rated player from Louisiana, both from the class of 2015.
That’s without accounting for three other guards, including one player who logged the second-most minutes in the Southeastern Conference last season, another who led the NJCAA in points per game in 2014 and a third player who started the final 11 games for the Tigers in 2015.
Then there’s the top-ranked freshman in the country, Ben Simmons, a 6-foot-10 forward whose talent lends itself to a point guard.
While Simmons is asked to play in the post as well, the LSU backcourt — made up of junior Tim Quarterman, freshmen Antonio Blakeney and Brandon Sampson, seniors Keith Hornsby and Josh Gray and sophomore Jalyn Patterson — is already loaded without him.
The plethora of talented guards is leading to some increasingly physical competition, but the kind of physicality coach Johnny Jones wants.
“It’s been crazy,” said senior guard Gray, who is in his second year at LSU after leading the junior college ranks in scoring at Odessa College. “We’ve been doing everything but fighting each other in practice. We’ve been really getting after it, making each other better. High intensity and high energy.
“From elbows, to arms, to slaps, to scratches, to biting — teeth come out almost every day. We’ve been playing physical.”
While there may be some exaggeration in Gray’s response, the intense nature of fall practices is partially attributable to team’s five-game tour of Australia during the summer.
Against two all-star teams and two teams from the National Basketball League, the Tigers received a taste of the bruising nature of professional play in August, toughening them up for 30 plus-game schedule.
Even if practices lead to some nicks, Jones, a former LSU guard himself, said he expects a healthy roster by the time LSU tips off against Southwest Baptist University for a home exhibition game on Nov. 6.
“I tell our guys all the time. If you’re not a little banged up and having some nagging injuries, you’re not playing hard enough,” Jones said.
While Hornsby, who averaged 13.4 points in 35.3 minutes per game last spring, acknowledges the energy from preseason practices is high, he said it’s something he’s become accustomed to since transferring.
“I remember always having bumps and bruises,” Hornsby said. “I still have scars from my first year here. But it’s definitely physical. I’m a little banged up right now with a little something in my lower abdomen, but a lot of people have different things. That’s just how it goes. Our practices are designed to test us physically. Also, we dive on the floor a lot. Coach Jones demands that — the utmost effort at all times.”
The one-on-one practice matchup that displays the kind of effort Jones expects can be seen between Quarterman and Blakeney. The duo already accidentally bumped heads a few times, but that’s all par for the course, Quarterman said.
The physicality, at the end of the day, is about team improvement.
“It’s just making each other better each and every day,” Quarterman said. “Like I said, the older guys going at the freshmen, the freshmen going back at the older guys, just makes our team more competitive and just makes us compete more.”