LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson said it’s his team’s responsibility to bring fans to the PMAC.The men’s program averaged 8,565 tickets sold per game in 15 games last season. The PMAC holds 13,472 fans.”It’s on us to have a viable product on the floor right now,” Johnson said. “There are 19 of 20 programs in this athletic department that are carrying their weight, and we’re not. We understand that.”The LSU men’s basketball team begins its quest to bring in fans tonight at 6:30 p.m. when the team will hold an intrasquad scrimmage in the PMAC.Admission is free to the public, and gates open at 6 p.m.LSU returns nine letter winners to a squad that was picked to finish second in the Southeastern Conference Western Division behind Alabama on Oct. 20.Johnson said he doesn’t set tangible goals for the season.”I’m not one to talk about goals and expectations,” Johnson said. “The bottom line is you’ve got to learn how to be competitive on a day-in, day-out basis, and at the end of the year or during the course of the year, it will take care of itself.”Johnson said at the team’s media day he would start senior Garrett Temple, senior Chris Johnson and junior Tasmin Mitchell but wasn’t sure about the other two starters.”From everybody else, we need to fill in the blanks,” Johnson said.Johnson said LSU’s leadership runs through Temple, who was voted team captain by his teammates.”If his teammates were 75 percent of what he is, then we’d have something special going,” Johnson said.Johnson said freshman guard Chris Bass, brother of former Tiger and 2005 SEC Player of the Year Brandon Bass, is competing for the starting point guard position with sophomore Bo Spencer.He said Bass is still learning what Johnson calls the “hardest position to play” in his system.”They control a lot of what we do offensively in terms of the calls, implementing the right pass at the right time,” Johnson said. “[Chris Bass] is used to playing fast … he’s making the same mistakes over and over, but it’s early. It’s what you expect.”The Tigers also return last year’s leading scorer, senior guard Marcus Thornton.Thornton’s 19.6 points per game were second in the SEC for the 2007-2008 season. But Johnson said rebounding is one of the keys for LSU’s success this season.LSU  averaged 35.7 rebounds per game last season — eighth in the SEC.Johnson’s  2007-2008 Stanford squad collected 39.1 rebounds per game.Johnson said there’s no reason LSU shouldn’t be a good rebounding team this season.”We have length. We have quickness to the ball,” Johnson said. “We’re not as mentally tough, we’re not as physically tough as I’d like at this point in time. But we have to get there.”Seating for the scrimmage is limited to the lower bowl and south side of the PMAC because of construction.
 
 
 
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