LSU men’s basketball team has plenty of fresh faces on the roster this year, and maybe that’s a good thing.
After slogging through an 11-20 season last year, the Tigers sounded eager for a new beginning at media day on Wednesday.
“Everybody wants to come in here and gain our respect back,” said junior guard Chris Bass. “With the way last year went, we’re just glad for a fresh start. Hopefully we’ll turn this thing around this year.”
After weeks of individual drills, the Tigers will kick off the 2010-11 season with their first team practice today.
“I’m very excited about this basketball team,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “For the first time since I’ve been here, we’ve got a group of guys that the fanbase and you can grow with. Our team is going to be in place for two or three years, so that’s exciting.”
The Tigers have four freshmen who figure to make an impact on the team this season.
Freshman guards Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner and forwards Matt Derenbecker and Jalen Courtney are all in the mix for playing time this season.
“I am optimistically cautious, because when you go up against competition, you have to find out how guys are going to react,” Johnson said. “But I think Stringer will react at the college level like he did at the high school level. I think Turner and Derenbecker will be the same way.”
Stringer stands out as one of the most intriguing prospects of the group. The diminutive 5-foot-9 guard was named Mississippi’s Gatorade Player of the Year twice and averaged 26 points per game with nine assists during his time at Forest Hill High School.
Johnson was effusive in his praise of Stringer.
“Stringer has a chance to be special,” Johnson said. “I think he was about 6-foot-1 when we signed him. Now he’s about 5-foot-5. That is the only thing I don’t like about him right now.”
Stringer is in the running to split time with Bass and sophomore guard Daron Populist in the backcourt.
But the biggest addition to the team may be 6-foot-9 junior forward Malcolm White, who will be playing for the Tigers this season after transferring from Ole Miss.
The Baton Rouge native    averaged 7.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game with Ole Miss during his sophomore season and will team with fellow junior forward Storm Warren to provide an athletic frontcourt.
“With [Warren] and I being inside, it’s going to be a really big plus for us,” White said. “I think this year we’ll be really tough inside. We know what our roles are and what our jobs are.”
When asked whether the team has a different feel to it heading into this year than it did last year, most players mentioned the family-type atmosphere of the team.
“The camaraderie of the team is completely different,” said junior forward Garrett Green. “We seem to have a better flow with each other. We’re a little more comfortable, and the more we play the more we find out about each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
_____
Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]