A few athletes who have never played in a regular season college game could be critical to the LSU men’s basketball team’s success this year.
The first nine points of the Purple vs. Gold scrimmage last Friday were scored by freshman guard Ralston Turner and freshman forward Matt Derenbecker.
Turner finished with 21 points and was 4-of-5 from 3-point range, while Derenbecker finished with 13 points as the duo led the team in scoring.
Turner was ranked No. 70 on the ESPNU recruiting board, while Derenbecker was 87th for the 2010 class.
“Ralston is really patient on offense, and he is really smart,” said sophomore guard Aaron Dotson, who added 12 points and five assists in the scrimmage. “He has a really high basketball IQ, and we all know Matt can shoot.”
Not far behind Turner at No. 72 on the list was freshman guard Andre Stringer, who knocked down two 3-pointers and dished out four assists at the scrimmage.
Stringer, a 5-foot-9-inch point guard, was leading scorer at Forest Park High School in Mississippi. He rotated with junior guard Chris Bass at point guard.
“Andre, coming in I didn’t know how he was going to be because he was so small,” Dotson said. “But he’s really good. He has a really good shot and a really good change of pace.”
Despite switching in and out with Bass, Stringer said he doesn’t consider the position a competition.
“At the end of the day we’re on the same team,” Stringer said. “We want to teach each other things. We want to help each other.”
The freshmen combined to shoot 8-of-18 from 3-point range in the scrimmage and contributed 44 of the game’s combined 96 points.
LSU coach Trent Johnson said junior forwards Storm Warren and Malcolm White should benefit from having so many perimeter shooters.
“For us to be effective we’re going to have to have balance,” Johnson said. “With the range of some of these kids … that post play’s going to open up.”
Sophomore forward Eddie Ludwig said it took him five to 10 games as a freshman last season to get accustomed to college basketball.
He said this year’s freshmen need to be ready immediately. Based on how they played in practice and scrimmages, he thinks they should be ready by the first game.
“You could tell coming out they weren’t really sure what to expect, but once they got in the flow of the game and got under control and started handling the pressure well, that was a positive,” Ludwig said.
Johnson said the freshmen are “as good as advertised” but are slightly behind defensively.
“As intense as practice has been and as much as they’ve been thrown in the fire they’ve held up physically as good as anybody,” he said.
 
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]