Jay Johnson says LSU's prep for NCAA Tournament has been 'great'

LSU baseball head coach Jay Johnson is ready for the NCAA Tournament and said his Tigers had “great” preparation.

Despite the 1-2 record in the SEC Tournament, LSU (43-15) gets to host the Baton Rouge Regional. The Tigers, who are the No. 5 overall seed, have their first game Friday against Tulane.

So far, so good for LSU according to Johnson. The team might be pretty refreshed.

“It’s been great,” Johnson said of the team’s preparation. “I feel great about it. You know, Friday in Hoover, we had a meeting and got some things in line, and then went right to work on how we were going to operate the week. Had another meeting on Saturday morning before we left and the itinerary was set: plans for the coaching staff, we went to work on some things with some guys right away. 

“Both health wise and, you know, development wise we really had a good week. We gave them Saturday off I mean, we basically bussed home, took most of the day Saturday, gave them Sunday off. They haven’t had two days off probably since I’ve been the coach here other than Christmas break. So that was good. And then really deliberate, deliberate training this weekend. (We’re) in a good spot.”

Teams want to win every single game, that much is obvious. But with the way LSU and Johnson treated every single game, the approach was to be national champions in every facet.

Jay Johnson says LSU baseball is ready for NCAAs

That speaks to LSU’s winning percentage and why the Tigers are one of the favorites to bring home a trophy at the end of the College World Series.

“I mean, our approach to the season is every game is a playoff game,” Johnson said. “And by doing that, you put yourself in a position where you have talented players that play well consistently. Now you’re playing home baseball at this time of year. So that’s the first phase of it. 

“Then the other phase of it is you don’t have to change anything when you get to this point. And you know, if there’s a team that deserves to play with a lot of confidence, based on what they’ve done, this team deserves that because they’ve respected the process to get here and they know what it looks like and I trust them a lot.”

LSU takes on Tulane in the opening round of the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament Friday at 3:00 p.m. ET in Baton Rouge (La.).