LSU sophomore guard Tim Quarterman had one thing on his mind when his team squared off against Auburn, Ala. on Tuesday — stop No. 1.
No. 1 was Auburn senior guard KT Harrell, the Southeastern Conference’s leading scorer and 3-point shooter who torched LSU at the PMAC three weeks ago with five 3-pointers and a game-high 28 points.
Quarterman was determined to stop Harrell this time around.
“I had to go over every screen, and I just had to stay attached to him and make sure I didn’t lose him out there on the floor,” Quarterman said. “I had to make sure I wasn’t ball-watching and just stay alert and just stay close to him.”
Quarterman’s defense of Harrell was instrumental in LSU’s 84-61 thumping of Auburn. With 6-foot-6-inch Quarterman shadowing his every move, Harrell missed four of six 3-point attempts and scored only 14 points, half of what he had against LSU in the first meeting and his lowest output in nine games.
While some players shy away from guarding high-volume scorers such as Harrell, Quarterman never has.
“I always took pride in my defense growing up,” Quarterman said. “I never like when people score on me. I try to go into every game trying to get stops no matter who I’m guarding.”
Quarterman’s pride on the defensive end began when he was a child and flourished while playing for the Atlanta Celtics, an Association of American Universities squad in Georgia that has produced NBA stars like Dwight Howard and Josh Smith.
In the last decade, AAU basketball has become known for its extensive focus on offensive production rather than defensive prowess.
But Quarterman was always the odd-man out.
“I always wanted to shut down the best player, and that was the case when I was coming up in AAU,” Quarterman said. “I started guarding the best player on the circuit. If we were playing against a top-10 player, I wanted to guard him because that’s what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a top-10 player.”
Although Quarterman wasn’t nationally a top-10 player coming out of Johnson High School in Gainesville, Georgia, he was the 80th recruit in ESPN’s Class of 2013 rankings and No. 2 in his home state.
But 180 pounds stretched over a 6-foot-6-inch frame would be a problem for the rangy Quarterman at the next level, and LSU coach Johnny Jones said he knew the former Georgia Class AAA Player of the Year would have to adapt.
Quarterman has gained 7 pounds since arriving on campus last season, but Jones said the lengthy defender is stronger than his frame suggests.
“Although he is still wiry, he is much stronger than he was a year ago,” Jones said. “He is able to handle some of pressure put on him from an opponent defensively and trying to engage with him and able to make plays.”
LSU sophomore forward Jarell Martin, another member of the 2013 class, goes against Quarterman on a daily basis but admits he still struggles trying to score with the scrappy defender in his face.
“Before practice, we play one-on-one a lot, and it’s hard for me to score on him sometimes,” Martin said. “Tim is a great defensive player. He does a great job of slowing people down and not letting them get off to a good start. With his length and quickness, it’s real hard to score on somebody like that.”
Jones has repeatedly said Quarterman was the team’s best perimeter defender last year. But this year, Quarterman’s offense has caught up.
The sophomore point guard averages 11.5 points and 3.7 assists in 33.1 minutes per game. In his last five games, he’s dished out 30 assists against just 13 turnovers.
Despite Quarterman’s offensive explosion this season, he’d still rather shut down the other team’s best player, like he did against Auburn on Tuesday.
“I just don’t want to labeled as a player that can only do one thing,” Quarterman said. “I want to be a complete player.”
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.