HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY

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Today is Courtney Jones birthday! In celebration we are going to practice twice today!!!
Happy Birthday Courtney!

Filed under  //  Off the Court  
Posted by Bill Martin  

TEMEKA VISITS MAGNOLIA WOODS ELEMENTARY

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TEMEKA JOHNSON (10-16-09):

Hey Lady Tiger fans! I'm loving this "Lady Tiger Way Blog" -- what a great idea! I've been busy since the WNBA Championship with my HOPE Foundation. I'm so passionate about trying to find away to give back. I've spend the past three days visiting a lot of places and this morning is one of my favorites -- Magnolia Woods Elementary here in Baton Rouge. I adopted the school last year through my Foundation and have enjoyed it so much that I adopted it again this year! The administration and teachers there are so amazing -- I respect them so much because they care a great deal about the students. And the kids are so enthusiastic! Today I met with the entire school at assembly and visited several classroom. Well, gotta run now to get ready for my celebration party with the Fast Break Club and LSU season ticket holders tonight -- hope to see you there!

 

Filed under  //  Community   Temeka Johnson  
Posted by Bill Martin  

GREAT NEW PICS OF MEEK!

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BOB STARKEY (10-16-09):

Going to be a lot of Meek stuff on the blog this weekend. It's "Temeka Johnson Weekend" in Baton Rouge and New Orleans in which she is out and about visiting kids, working in schools and visiting parts of these communities as part of her HOPE Foundation. She's even going to blog a little later tonight as well. But in the meantime.......Bill Martin, our SID, just received some fresh pics of Meek from the Championship Series and we wanted to share them with you!

 

Filed under  //  Community   Temeka Johnson  
Posted by Bill Martin  

KG EXCITED ABOUT THE NEW MEDIA GUIDE

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KATHERINE GRAHAM (10-14-09):

One of the most interesting and fun things about Media Day today was that we got a sneak peek of the Media Guide! I can honestly say that this might be one of the best ones yet! With media day over we know that the season is only a few hours among us! Until next time Lady Tiger fans!

 

 

Filed under  //  Media   Player's Post  
Posted by Bill Martin  

THOUGHTS FROM LSU BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

BILL MARTIN (10-14-09, 5:40 p.m.)
Today was media day for the Lady Tigers and as the sports information contact for the program, it is a busy but fun day. It's my job to serve as the liason between the media and our staff and players. The Lady Tigers are well prepared for speaking to the media. We are one of the few schools that actually puts the student-athletes through a media training seminar where they learn how to speak effectively and adhere to proper interview etiquette. This also is beneficial to the players as they go on to job interviews after college.

It's this day that signifies the beginning of basketball season. With practice set to start on Saturday morning, head coach Van Chancellor and the Lady Tigers each took their turn fielding questions from the media. The content of the questions was quite different from last year considering this time last year, LSU had lost all five starters and State Farm All-American Sylvia Fowles.

Today, the Lady Tigers have a year of experience and much of the attention went to 2010 National Player of the Year candidate Allison Hightower. Hightower has been through this drill for three years and is always great in an interview with the media. She needs no tips and answers questions like the leader she is. Her example carries onto the rest of the team. One member of the media asked Allison today, "You and (men's player) Tasmin Mitchell are kind of in the same process. You are leaders of your team. How do you handle that pressure?" Allison confidently answered the question, "There's no pressure at all. You go about your business as usual, work hard and lead by example." Both Tasmin and Allison will be participating at SEC Media Day next Thursday in Birmingham with Coach Trent Johnson and Coach Chancellor.

In closing, here is a great quote that LaSondra Barrett, the 2009 SEC Co-Freshman of the Year, gave to a question today: "It’s all about hunger right now and how hard we’ve worked. In this offseason, we have worked tremendously. Everyone has improved and carries it on the court. Impossible is nothing really.”

You can find complete coverage from media day, including video, audio clips and quotes at LSUsports.net. Follow the link below.

http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=204813482

Filed under  //  Media  
Posted by Bill Martin  

A LOT OF COVERAGE TODAY!

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TRAVIS MAYS (10-14-09):

Today was Media Day at LSU and it always creates an air of excitement. When Media Day arrives -- official practice can't be far behind. One of the things I enjoy about being at LSU is the vast media coverage we get for Lady Tiger Basketball. We were covered today by TV, print media, radio and internet. We were covered by outlets from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and in between. ESPN was there to cover us today. The type of coverage we received today is reserved for the best programs and I'm proud to be a part of one -- LSU Lady Tiger Basketball!

 

 

Filed under  //  Media  
Posted by Bill Martin  

MEDIA DAY -- THE LADY TIGER WAY

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THOUGHTS FROM COACH CHANCELLOR:
“We’re pumped up about the season. We were very young last season. We’re still pretty young. We have 14 players and seven of them are freshmen or sophomores, so that still makes us a young basketball team. But we work hard, and we’ve had one of the best fall (workouts) I’ve ever been around. We have a team that has a great attitude. They’re working towards their goals and aspirations, and when you have a team that’s fun to coach it’s a joy just to be around them.

“We are returning a great player in Allison Hightower, a player that’s gotten so much better since last spring. We met with each player we had and asked them to improve. We would write down certain things and say to them, ‘Here’s what you need to do,’ and one of those things was, ‘Allison, you’ve got to become a better three-point shooter.’ She has had an outstanding fall. She’s been the hardest worker in the weight room, in conditioning, and in basketball. When your best player is your hardest worker, that gives you a shot to win.

“I think that LaSondra Barrett will have a great year. At this point in time, I think our strength will be that if you take out Hightower, I think there’s about eight or nine more players that are pretty even. If you asked me where you think we’re going to go this year, here’s my own personal opinion: In the league, we’re one of four or five teams at the top. There’s Tennessee, us, Georgia, Mississippi State, and I look for South Carolina to be the most improved team in the league. With that in mind, I think we will be in that mix. I don’t know where we would be, but it will depend upon finding a third scorer. I think we’ll be another great defensive team. We’ve been in the top five or six in the nation forever and we’ve been No. 1 in the SEC for five years in a row (defensively). We don’t give up a lot of points here at LSU. But if we’re going to compete and be at the top of the league, in my mind we need to find a third scorer, someone who can take the pressure off of Barrett and Hightower from last year.

Filed under  //  Media   Van Chancellor  
Posted by Bill Martin  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COACH WOODEN!

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Everybody in the Lady Tiger program would like to wish Coach Wooden at Happy 99th Birthday! Coach Wooden is someone who has touched the entire game of basketball and done so with dignity and grace. He has touched our program specifically. Seimone Augustus still fondly recalls meeting and talking to Coach Wooden one year so much that when she returned she had one of Coach Wooden's books and had the entire team read it. Happy Birthday Coach Wooden!

Posted by Bill Martin  

MEEK CELEBRATES A CHAMPIONSHIP!

Only days after capturing her first WNBA Championship, Temeka Johnson joined her Phoenix teammates and fans at the US Airways Center to celebrate their title and watch the team drop their Championship Banner.

 

Filed under  //  Temeka Johnson   WNBA  
Posted by Bill Martin  

WEIGHT ROOM IDOL

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MELISSA MOORE (10-12-09):
Today we held our first annual Weight Room Idol! After a grueling morning at the track, this competition allowed the team to have a lighthearted learning experience in the weight room. Players competed against each other in 3 rounds. In each round, players selected one technical exercise to "audition" in front of "Randy", "Paula", and "Simon". The judges were of course myself (as Simon) and my two assistants Kristina Hull (as Paula) and Matt Shadeed (as Randy). I couldn't keep up a British accent for long, but Kristina and Matt stayed in character the whole time!

Players were rated on technical merit only. The learning experience came from hearing the judges' critiques. Players had the opportunity to learn from each others mistakes and improve their technique in the following rounds. The competition exercises were: power cleans, hang cleans, push jerks, splits jerks, overhead squats, parallel back squats, front squats, step-ups, glute-ham raises, incline bench press, agility ladder drills, push-ups, and box jumps.

The competition came down to a 3-way tie between Allison Hightower, LaSondra (Boogie) Barrett, and Destini Hughes. After an elimination round on the agility ladder, Allison Hightower took home the honor of being named the first LSU Weight Room Idol! Congrats to Allison and to a great performance by the whole team!

 

Filed under  //  Strength & Conditioning  
Posted by Bill Martin