Antonio Blakeney wants to win every game.
While that seems like a given, it’s a step in the right direction after what befouled LSU’s postseason aspirations last season.
“I just want to come out and win every game and do whatever I have to do for the team to win,” the sophomore guard said. “Whether it’s scoring 20 points, getting 10 rebounds, playing defense, whatever the case may be — I just want to win.”
Blakeney’s statements come after a disappointing year when the Tigers were expected to make the jump after making the NCAA Tournament the previous season and securing the nation’s No. 1 recruit. But LSU made a habit of overlooking small-scale opponents and focusing only on highly-ranked teams.
What plagued the Tigers were early losses against Charleston, Houston and Wake Forest, as well as March losses to the Southeastern Conference’s bottom feeders. One week after falling to the Demon Deacons, though, LSU blew out No. 9 Kentucky for an 18-point victory and came within one possession of No. 1 Oklahoma three weeks later.
Ultimately, LSU’s bad losses outweighed its key wins.
Blakeney learned from past mistakes and is focusing on mending that deficiency. He said LSU’s newfound mentality involves taking the season one game at a time.
“I always say each game we play is the most important game of the season,” he said. “[Southern Miss] was our most important game and Friday we play North Florida, that will be the most important game. Just take it game by game, and then the wins follow.”
It helps that there’s little fanfare and bright lights surrounding the PMAC this season. LSU transitioned from the hunted to the underdogs, ready to take advantage of being overlooked.
“All these guys are excited about winning,” said coach Johnny Jones. “But it’s going to require, on both ends of the floor, doing the right things so we can get a bunch of assists that were sharing the basketball and playing where everybody’s moving.”
Last season was a learning experience for sophomore guard Brandon Sampson as well. Blakeney played 659 more minutes than his backcourt partner, so Sampson was able to be more observant.
Sampson studied what made last season’s leaders tick and what tweaks he could make when his time came, he said.
Now, he’s in that position.
“We need some momentum going into early in the season,” Sampson said. “Momentum going toward defense. I don’t think that’s a big key point we focused on last year, so just getting that momentum going toward defense because we know we have a lot of scorers.”
Blakeney echoed Sampson’s sentiments about defensive effort after ranking 288th in the country with 77.1 points surrendered per game last season.
In fact, he’s made a challenge out of it.
“[We’re] just trying to see how much we can hold the other team to,” Blakeney said. “Trying to hold them to 50 points or whatever the case may be. Trying to cut their waters off, playing the best defense that we can.”