For freshman point guard Erica White, taking on the point guard position at LSU never looked so hard.
“It’s tough being a point guard at LSU,” White said.
In her first year at LSU, White has taken on a role of the student, learning from not only senior All-American Tameka Johnson, but also coach and former point guard Pokey Chatman.
According to White, it is not always easy playing under a current and former point guard.
“With [Chatman] being a point guard, she can be real hard on me,” White said. “But while most people may run from that, it helps me out a lot. It makes me stronger and tougher and lock in on what I have to do.”
In her four years at LSU, Chatman held the previous record of all time assists (570) and steals (346). Yet it was Johnson who broke Chatman’s assist record last year.
And now, White has taken on the role of learning from both Chatman and Johnson.
According to White, playing under Johnson has benefited her.
“Tameka is the best point guard in the nation,” White said. “So playing against her every day has to put me somewhere up there.”
Johnson said while White brings certain aspects to the game, there are some things she is still learning.
“Erica is a very talented player,” Johnson said. “She is extremely quick on defense and can see the floor. But it’s the mental aspect that’s new to her.”
Just a few months replaced from playing high school basketball, White said learning the mental aspects of the game is what she needs to take on.
“I’ve learned that you have to focus everywhere,” White said. “You can’t just focus two hours before a game. It starts during the summer.”
According to Chatman, it is good to see a team leader take on the mentor role.
“It’s the game within the game, the in-between part in terms of being a leader,” Chatman said. “It’s nice to sit back and watch Tameka in practice, but the development outside of practice and games is what’s important.”
Aside from holding LSU’s all-time leader in career assists, Johnson has put together numerous honors, including a 2003 Southeastern Conference Tournament MVP award, 2004 first-team All-Louisiana and a 2003 third-team All-America selection.
“She gives me little bits of information when we’re standing on the side at practice,” White said. “And during drills, she’ll even coach me while she’s defending me.”
Aside from serving as not only the team’s point guard and mentor, Johnson said serving as a leader benefits her as well.
“After I noticed that some of the younger players were looking up to me, I knew I couldn’t always be my typical jokester-self,” Johnson said. “And they don’t realize it, but they help me, and I appreciate that.”
And for Chatman to be hard on White, thanks in part to her being a former guard, Johnson said it helps more than it hurts.
“That fact that coach played the point plays a role,” Johnson said. “But her being tough on people is just her expectations of the players.”