It has been 212 days since the LSU women’s basketball teamstepped off the basketball court, and the countdown to 2004-2005could not have ended fast enough for senior point guard TemekaJohnson.
Johnson, who returned for her final season, lost the ball in thefinal seconds, allowing Tennessee to score the winning basket inthe Lady Tigers’ 52-50 loss to the Lady Volunteers in the2004 Final Four in New Orleans.
The preseason No. 3 Lady Tigers open the season tonight in anexhibition match against Everyone’s Internet, a travelingteam of former collegiate players, at 7 p.m. in the PMAC. It willbe the first time Johnson has played in front of a crowd since thatgame, and Johnson said she’s ready to get the yearstarted.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Johnson said.”We’ve been waiting for it for a while.”
LSU, which went 27-8 last year, returns four starters and isexpected to play most of the players on its roster in the game,including five new roster additions. Tillie Willis, KhalilahMitchell and freshman Quianna Chaney will not play because ofsuspensions due to violations of team rules.
Preseason SEC Player of the Year Seimone Augustus highlights thereturning stars. Augustus averaged 19.4 points and six reboundslast year and earned first team All-SEC honors.
Johnson also earned first team All-SEC honors, averaging 12.8points and 8.3 assists last year.
Augustus said the main goal of the exhibition game, which willnot count officially in the standings, will be to put theteam’s motion offense into play against some differentopponents and see what aspects need to be tweaked or improvedupon.
“We just want to see where our offense is at,”Augustus said. “We’ve been running it for a while, soit’s going to be good to see if we can get into ourtransition game and then how quick can we get out of the transitiongame. You’ll see a lot of different match-ups out there, butnothing really complex.”
Other notable returning players for LSU include guard ScholondaHoston (8.5 points), forwards Wendyln Jones (6.6 points, 5.5rebounds), Hanna Biernacka (4.5 points) and center Crystal White,who returns after missing much of last year with an injury.
First-year coach Pokey Chatman also is a new addition of sorts,assuming full-time duties after former coach Sue Gunter retiredlast year. Chatman spent part of last year as acting head coach,going 15-5 including four wins in the NCAA Tournament.
Chatman said the main focus of tonight’s game will just begetting players game experience.
“It’s an abundance of things, but I think because ofthe experience of the returning players and the intelligence levelof the freshmen, we may be looking for more than most people atthis particular point in time,” Chatman said. “Ourhalf-court defense, motion offense and kids adjusting to the lightsbeing on. From a basketball perspective, there’s no one thingor area we’re working on. It’s a lot ofthings.”
This is the only exhibition game this year for the Lady Tigers,although Chatman said another game with a different team could notbe worked out in time.
“Sometimes your not quite sure what you’ll get in anexhibition team,” Chatman said. “They may not be ableto challenge you like they’re supposed to. With our team, wehave a full roster, so I feel OK that the other exhibition gamedidn’t work out. From top to bottom, we have talented enoughkids to make the most of it.”
Johnson said the chance to get back on the court and start doingwhatever needs to be done is what motivates her going into thisyear.
“We need that to make ourselves better as a whole, and tosee what we can do to improve as individuals and as a team,”Johnson said. “My big concern right now is about LSU and whatwe can do.”