To see a video of try outs and hear what Johnson had to say, click here.
LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson said he has made a practice of turning walk-ons into scholarship players. Johnson, in his 10 years as a head coach at LSU, Stanford and Nevada, has held walk-on tryouts for nine of them. He’s did the same this season. Johnson said he doesn’t undervalue walk-ons. “I try to stay away from the walk-on tag,” Johnson said. They’ll be a part of this team.”Johnson believes the walk-on tryout to an important ritual. One of Johnson’s finds at Stanford, Chris Bobel, is now the LSU director of basketball operations. Johnson said he wants guys like Bobel to be a part of the program. “Obviously, you want to have some guys come out for the team that can help you,” Johnson said. “The prerequisite is being a good student and being a good person and wanting to compete every day.”More than a dozen students participated in an open tryout Tuesday evening in the PMAC, and Johnson said he will likely keep four to five of them. “We might keep five, but right now we’re looking at keeping four,” Johnson said. “We have nine scholarship players, so we need to add four guys on the team that will put us at 13 or 14 so we can have productive practice.”The decision won’t take long. Johnson said he has a “pretty good idea” of who is going to make it. “It could be tomorrow, could be the next day,” Johnson said. “It just depends.”Sophomore Zach Kinsley, who made the team as a walk-on last season, had to try out again this season. But there was not much drama. Johnson let Kinsley leave the tryout about halfway through. “He’s on the team,” Johnson said. “Obviously, he played for us last year and he’s proven himself this year. If you looked at how much he’s improved physically, he’s a guy that’s going to help us this year.”Johnson brought in two of LSU’s famous walk-ons — Jack Warner and Brandon Landry — to talk to this year’s participants. Warner and Landry own the popular Baton Rouge restaurants Walk-On’s. Warner played from 1996-2001, and Landry played from 1997-2000. Johnson said he’s been impressed by the impact Warner and Landry have had on LSU and Baton Rouge.”They’re something special here from that standpoint, unlike any other place I’ve been,” Johnson said. “If you look at what those guys have contributed to not necessarily LSU basketball, but LSU athletics, it’s pretty special.”—-Contact Chris Branch at [email protected]