LSU fans surely love hearing what’s coming out of the Ben Simmons camp, while Big Blue Nation will surely use it as bulletin board material.
Either way, the LSU-Kentucky matchups in the SEC during the 2015-16 season just got a little spicier thanks to a few quotes in Nicole Auerbach’s feature on the 6-foot-10 Simmons in USA Today.
“Ben’s a little crazy in that Ben doesn’t want to play with the quote-unquote top five players in the country and win a championship,” said Liam Simmons, Ben’s brother. “He wants to play with good players, in their right great players, and go out and beat the Kentuckys and the Dukes, the North Carolinas of the world. He’d love nothing more than to go into Kentucky and beat them … rather than go to Kentucky and win a championship because that’s expected.”
Simmons chose LSU in part because his Godfather, David Patrick, is an assistant under head coach Johnny Jones and he also felt comfortable with the program as a whole.
Along with fellow incoming freshman Brandon Sampson and Antonio Blakeney, LSU now has a loaded freshmen class that may challenge Kentucky’s incoming freshmen group of Skal Labissiere, Isaiah Briscoe and Charles Matthews (as well as JUCO guard Mychal Mulder) for victories, headlines and attention from NBA scouts.
“I don’t see why we can’t be the best team in the SEC,” Simmons said. “Kentucky has good players but we have good players, too. It depends what leaders you have, who can lead. Me going to LSU is huge because I have to be a freshman and lead. I could have gone to Kentucky and been one of the other guys just playing there and trying to leave.
“For me, though, I want to leave a legacy — and that’s at LSU.”
Meantime, ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla said he expects Simmons to be the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. DraftExpress.com currently has Simmons at No. 3 behind the 7-foot Labissiere and 6-7 Jaylen Brown, who committed to Cal.
“You don’t want to put the whammy on him by comparing him to Magic Johnson and LeBron and Tracy McGrady, but he’s going to be a positionless star,” Fraschilla told USA Today. “You’re going to be able to put him on the court anywhere essentially at LSU, and he’s going to be successful. He is a quintessential point forward. He’s going to be Johnny Jones’ coach on the floor. He’s a marvelous talent, excellent athlete, great basketball instincts.
“It would be absolutely stunning to me, barring injury, if he’s not the No. 1 pick in 2016.”
**For more from David Patrick on Simmons and LSU’s class, check out this edition of The 4 Quarters Podcast.
Photo: USA Today
