LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson began his career in Baton Rouge with a bang.
Johnson was popular with fans and the media after leading the Tigers to a 27-8 season and a Southeastern Conference Championship.
“Two years ago my son was saying, ‘Dad, you hit all the charts … Naismith Award and all of that,'” Johnson said Wednesday at his season-ending news conference.
Since his inaugural campaign, Johnson has garnered only five conference wins in 29 games.
“Now I’m hitting all the other charts — hot seat, going here, going there,” Johnson said. “It’s real simple for me. Nobody’s going to put more pressure on me to do this job than myself.”
Entering his fourth season, Johnson said he and his team feel “positive pressure” to climb out of the cellar in the SEC West, a spot LSU has occupied for the past two seasons.
But LSU will enter next season without two players — one who started 38 career games for the Tigers.
Guard Aaron Dotson will return to his hometown of Seattle to be with his family and his mother, who is battling cancer. Dotson also struggled with knee issues during his two years at LSU.
“When you start talking about the magnitude of what he dealt with the previous two years and now with his mother, it’s pretty self-explanatory [why he left],” Johnson said.
Johnson said he didn’t know where Dotson, who averaged 6.8 points last season, will transfer.
“He just said he wanted to be closer to home,” Johnson said. “That could be Washington State. That could be Seattle [University]. That could be a number of places.”
Walk-on point guard Daron Populist also departed the team after two seasons in search of a scholarship from another school.
“He’s in a situation where he’s going to have scholarship offers, and that was his goal, so for me, that’s exciting for him,” Johnson said.
Populist saw limited playing time off the bench, seeing the floor in 19 games with 16 total points in 2010-11.
Even though they lost two contributors, the Tigers will return a team with five seniors, a stark contrast from last season’s unit with no senior leadership.
“We’re putting as much pressure on them as possible, whether it’s individual workouts, whether it’s school, we’re being positive about it,” Johnson said.
Urgency may also stem from the fact that New Orleans will host both the SEC tournament and Final Four next season.
“Across the country everyone’s going to have a watchful eye on what happens in this state in basketball, whether it’s the high school level or the collegiate level,” Johnson said. “That’s an exciting opportunity.”
Johnson said he feels good about the potential of the post players next season with senior forwards Storm Warren, Malcolm White and Garrett Green.
The team will also add senior Justin Hamilton, who sat out last year after transferring from Iowa State, and incoming freshman Johnny O’Bryant, a Scout.com five-star prospect.
Patience is one thing Johnson wants to leave in the rearview mirror going into his fourth season.
“Now we have enough players in the program where … there’s not a game we’ll play next year that if we play well, we shouldn’t be able to compete with teams on the road or at home,” Johnson said.
Follow Michael Lambert on Twitter @TDR_Lambert.
 
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Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]