Jay Johnson reveals his takeaways from SEC Tournament

LSU triumphed 10-3 over South Carolina on Wednesday before bowing out of the SEC Tournament with consecutive losses to Arkansas and Texas A&M, both by a 5-4 score. Despite the 1-2 record, it was not a bad week of play and the Tigers drove in more runs than they let up overall, but just couldn’t execute well enough in key moments to snatch victory out of defeat on Thursday and Friday.

After the team’s exit from the tourney, head Tiger coach Jay Johnson answered questions about the state of the ball club as they turn towards NCAA Tournament play. His first thought was that he wished his group was still playing this weekend, but he’s excited to get to host NCAA Tournament games next weekend and hopefully beyond.

“Yeah, it’s a great event,” said Johnson of the SECT. “Wish we were playing tomorrow, whether that was winning yesterday or winning today. There’s a lot to be gained from being here, and we’ll use that to get ready for the NCAA Tournament.”

You definitely won’t hear a hint of disappointment in Johnson’s voice when it comes to the team’s full season of play. The Tigers, even without a deep SEC Tournament run, have put themselves in great positioning for the postseason — and for that, Johnson credits the guys in the dugout.

“I think our team has had a great regular season, to put ourselves in one of those spots where we’re going to be one of the eight that have an opportunity to host a regional and then host a super regional if we’re able to win the regional. It’s a credit to the players. We’ll get back to work when we get home and get ready to go for next Friday, but it’s an awesome event, other than we’d like to be playing tomorrow.”

Johnson was pretty chipper considering the tough losses in Hoover to end the week. He even took up for their play afterward and was adamant his team did not come out flat, as one reporter suggested in the postgame of the A&M loss.

“I did not see that, I didn’t see flat. I saw we were out of character in some at-bats today,” Johnson summarized of the performance, but was not of the opinion that the team gave a lack of effort or wasn’t prepared to play.

It ought to be a fun next month for Tiger fans assuming this LSU team responds as Coach Johnson expects.