The 2007-2008 season has yet to begin for the LSU men’s basketball team, and already some unexpected circumstances have been thrown its way.
Junior forward Quintin Thornton tore his left pectorals muscle in a workout late this past week and is expected to miss most – if not all – of the season, according to a Tuesday report in The Advocate.
Thornton, a junior college transfer from Odessa College in Texas, was expected to help fill the void at the forward position left by the departure of former LSU standouts Glen Davis and Darnell Lazare.
His 6-foot-8-inch, 230-pound frame makes him one of the largest players on the team. Junior forward Tasmin Mitchell, listed at 228 pounds, is the only other Tiger who weighs more than 220 pounds.
Luckily for the Tigers – who were picked by media members to finish No. 5 in Southeastern Conference Western Division ahead of Ole Miss – Thornton’s absence should not have an immediate impact on LSU’s offensive plans.
With five new players on this season’s roster, LSU coach John Brady decided in the preseason to shift to a more perimeter-based offensive attack.
This past season, LSU finished 17-15 and missed the postseason for the first time since 2001. The Tigers ranked No. 11 in the SEC in both scoring offense and 3-point field goal percentage and were the only team in the conference to make less than 200 3-pointers.
Brady said he hopes the new offense he will employ this season will improve those statistics dramatically.
“The offense we’re using is not only going to get our perimeter guys some shots but will also give them an opportunity to get down in the post,” Brady said.
For the past few seasons, the Tigers have used more of a low-post offense, centered around former players like Davis and Brandon Bass.
With Brady’s abundance of perimeter threats, he has changed the focus of his offense from inside to outside of the paint.
“We’ve got some things we need to clean up, but the overall ability of our team to grasp what we’re doing from a conceptual standpoint is quite good,” Brady said.
In addition to veterans like Mitchell and junior guards Garrett Temple and Terry Martin, the Tigers have added players whose strengths lie in the perimeter, and some of those players have already shown flashes of their potential.
In the Tigers’ three-game, preseason trip to Canada during the Labor Day weekend, junior college transfer and Baton Rouge native Marcus Thornton led the team in scoring, averaging 26 points per game and hitting 11 of his 25 3-point attempts during the Canadian exhibition.
The junior said LSU’s new offense should suit him well.
“That’s what I try to bring to the team,” Thornton said. “That’s what I’ve been good at my whole life. We should put up points – fast.”
Temple said the three wins in Canada helped the Tigers get a jump start on developing team chemistry.
“We had almost our whole offense in place,” he said. “We have the basic stuff down. So we’re just tweaking it a little bit.”
But the Tigers will not get that opportunity until they open their exhibition schedule Nov. 1 against Belhaven in the PMAC.
LSU’s first regular season contest is a home game Nov. 12 against Southeastern Louisiana.
The Tigers will not have too long to work out the kinks in their new offensive scheme. LSU takes part in one of the prestigious pre-conference tournaments, the Maui Invitational, beginning Nov. 19.
LSU plays Oklahoma State in its first game of the tournament. If the team advances to the finals, there is a possibility the Tigers could face Duke in a rematch of the Sweet 16 matchup from two seasons ago.
Before conference play begins Jan. 9 against Mississippi State, the Tigers have home games against Oregon State and Washington and road games against Texas A&M and Villanova.
“I just hope we can play well enough against those kind of quality teams to prepare us for SEC play,” Brady said. “Once we get into the season, we’ll either look back and say the schedule beat us down or helped us, depending on how we perform in the league.”
Temple said all of the newcomers on the team, coupled with the tough pre-conference schedule, reminds him of the LSU team from two seasons ago that advanced to its first Final Four since 1986.
“We went to Connecticut and to Ohio State,” he said. “Going to Texas A&M and going to Maui is very comparable. I think that’s going to strengthen the team and toughen our skin.”
——Contact Tyler Batiste at [email protected]