LSU coach Johnny Jones is still searching for his starting “quarterback.”
Freshman guard Skylar Mays started as point guard — a position which Jones calls his “quarterback” — in the first four games of the season for LSU before junior guard Jalyn Patterson assumed the starting role in the Bahamas for the following three games. Yet Patterson and Mays have basically split time on the floor this season with Patterson averaging 24.3 minutes per game compared to Mays’ average of 20.6.
“Coach just told me to go out there and do the same thing,” Patterson said. “I just kind of took it the same way. Come out and play hard defensively and do what I have to do to help the team. It’s nothing too different.”
Patterson is averaging 4.4 points and three assists per game for LSU this season. Mays, who dished 11 assists off the bench against Houston on Tuesday, is averaging 5.3 points and 4.4 assists.
Mays’ near-dozen assist count versus the Cougars was the most at LSU since Ben Simmons had 10 assists against North Carolina State last season.
“It’s not too hard to get 11 assists when [sophomore guard Antonio Blakeney and sophomore guard Brandon Sampson] get hot,” Mays said. “I was just trying to get everybody involved.”
Mays’ 11 assists versus Houston was the fifth game in the Jones era with a player having a double-digit assist game.
“Mays is a great ‘quarterback’ for us,” Jones said following LSU’s 91-69 defeat of Wofford. “He’s only a freshman, but he doesn’t play like it.”
Transfer guard Branden Jenkins is on the verge of returning to LSU’s squad for conference play in January. Jones stated before the season began that Jenkins could also be a candidate for the starting position prior to the season.
Jenkins transferred to LSU from Lee College beside LSU forward Duop Reath and has been rehabbing a torn meniscus in his left knee. Jenkins, who has been out of a knee brace for weeks and is running on his knee, was expected to return in December, but a January debut is possible.
“I’m going to bring that defense, that push,” Jenkins said during LSU’s in-house media day in Oct. “Skylar’s more of a skill guard, more offensive minded than I am, maybe. Jalyn brings a lot of things — the experience. He’s been here a while, so he knows what Johnny wants.”
Jenkins averaged 15.6 points and 3.5 assists per game in his sophomore season at Lee College.
LSU is taking a two-week break from play for final exams before facing North Carolina Central at 8 p.m. in the PMAC on Dec. 13.