Staring directly at the flashing cameras and throng of inquisitive reporters inches from his face, LSU junior guard Josh Gray shouldered the blame.
Gray wasn’t concerned that his Tigers let a 13-point second half lead turn into a one-point deficit with 23 seconds remaining against Texas A&M on Saturday. When the game was on the line, the ball was in Gray’s hands, and then it wasn’t.
“It was my turnover that cost the game,” said Gray, who coughed up the ball with eight seconds left during LSU’s 67-64 loss to the Aggies. “I’m going to take responsibility for it. I’m going to learn from it and get better for it.”
On the game-altering play, Gray drove past a screen and tried to hit LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby outside for a potential game-winning bucket, but Texas A&M junior guard Danuel House stripped Gray midair.
Moments later, Gray and his Tiger teammates watched as the Aggies rushed the PMAC hardwood to celebrate their first-ever victory inside the 43-year-old building.
It was a bitter and disappointing end for Gray, especially given the turnaround the 21-year-old Lake Charles native experienced in Southeastern Conference action prior to Saturday’s contest.
But the steel-minded Gray — who played at three different high schools and two colleges in a five-year span before becoming the ignition behind LSU’s potent offense this season — has encountered numerous setbacks during his playing career, so a costly turnover isn’t much to overcome.
When SEC play began Jan. 8, Gray wasn’t feeling like himself. Though he tallied 11 assists in consecutive games against Savannah State and Missouri, Gray committed nine turnovers and totaled just four points.
The self-proclaimed “gym rat” couldn’t determine why the long hours he was logging in the gym and putting into his craft weren’t culminating in game success. But a chat with LSU coach Johnny Jones quickly cleared Gray’s mind.
“I went to Coach Jones and told him, ‘Coach, I’m killing myself in the gym, but I’m not producing on the court,’” Gray said. “He was just telling me I had to clean up my personal life and get my personal life back together so it could translate to the court.”
Gray politely declined to reveal the specifics of what bothered him mid-season but said that it “didn’t have anything to do with basketball.”
“It took my mind off the game and my focus off the game plan,” Gray said. “I just wasn’t ready. I wasn’t prepared mentally for the game. The game is more mental than physical.”
Any athlete can mindlessly rattle off that cliche. But for Gray, who lost his mother at 16 and was arrested in 2013 for shoplifting in Sulphur, it’s a motto he lives by.
“I deal with a lot of deep cases of depression, and the only way for me to vent is to be in the gym and live in it all day,” Gray said. “That’s the only way I can be myself and be at peace.”
When Gray is himself on the court, LSU scores in bunches. Gray is the floor general of a Tigers team that averaged 75.1 points per game, the third-highest mark in the SEC, before the Tigers’ 79-61 win against Florida on Tuesday night.
This is unlike Gray’s previous stop at Odessa Community College, where he led the junior college ranks in scoring with 34.7 points per game. With equally talented and capable teammates surrounding him, the brash point guard has taken a step out of the spotlight and let it shine on his teammates.
Gray tallied 24 assists against 13 turnovers in LSU’s first four SEC games, and was second in the conference with 5.2 assists a night during that span. As a team, the Tigers average 16.6 assists, trailing only Arkansas in the conference.
“It took a little bit of an adjustment for [Gray],” Hornsby said. “He had to do so much for his [junior college] team for them to be successful. [At LSU], he’s surrounded by other guys who are talented. It took him a little while to find that middle ground between scoring and distributing, but I think he’s found that.”
All it took was a bit of advice from the cornerstone of Gray’s beloved Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan.
“In [Jordan’s] book, he talks about the gym being a sanctuary,” Jones said. “It’s a chance to get away from everything and block everything out. That’s what those players have to do. A lot of times, it’s their getaway.”
Though Gray’s safe haven has been a nightmare at times this season, he still wants the ball when the game’s on the line.
“I’m a grown man, and I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I’m not proud of,” Gray said. “But I’m going to own up to my mistake. I made the turnover and cost the game, but I will learn from it, and it won’t happen again. I’m going to make a lot of mistakes, but I won’t make the same ones tomorrow.”
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.