Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 Yes, the program has slipped since the 90's, and anyone who thought we would win 5 National Titles out of the next 10 years when Skip retired was just pissing in the wind. There are no Skip Bertmans out there period. And I also will say that even those bomber teams we had back than had there terrible stretches playing against much weaker teams in the SEC, where only 2 or 3 teams were usually good in any given year.
Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 You were making great points in your post until this one, which contradicts all of your other points above that. Baseball isn't about who wants to win as much as it is about dominating pitching, hits falling in, not putting too much pressure on yourself, working hard and talent. If you don't think these guys are working hard and that they don't want to win than you haven't been to any games and seen the excitement, the disappointment, the look on their faces during that 13 ininng game vs Bama, etc.
Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 Scrappy, for a guy that backed Brady so much I'm surprised at your indifference to Smoke, knocking him even after an LSU win. I also get amazed that I've seen many posts pointing out how bad Smoke is after a loss or win against a supposed lesser program even though in so many posts others have pointed out over and over again that even Skip had many LSU teams that either loss or had tight games vs teams of the same caliber. It's like the farther away from Skips career we get the less losses he had and that he never had bad losses, bad streaks or bad play from his teams. This simply is living in lala land.
Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 Well, if going to Omaha 2 out of 3 years is slipping, then I guess we are in terrible shape! :wink: Even the great Skip Bertman didn't fair all that well under the super regional format. In 3 years under this system, Skip was only 1 for 3. Of course, he won it all the one time he advanced to Omaha. Smoke has only one thing to prove .... can he win in Omaha!
Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 It's simply the legend growing. It happens to all the great ones. They're still disillusioned over in Tuscaloosa that the Bear didn't rise up on the third day like they all thought he would. I will say this in defense of Smoke: LSU has more or less become a victim of it's own past success. Because of those CWS titles, over the years, kids in Louisiana developed their baseball skills and high schools developed their pograms, and all these kids hoped to one day come to LSU and shine. In most cases, Skip (and now Smoke) had to turn these young studs away because of scholarship restrictions, the 25-man SEC roster, and the simple fact that the rules of baseball prohibit fielding more than 9 players at a time. I don't know what Smoke's current policy is, but I know that Skip would sometimes help out some of these young men (who very often were only marginally not good enough to make the LSU roster) by steering them to another state school...thus closing the talent gap in the state, somewhat. In some cases, the young man picks another school on his own because he sees the handwriting on the wall (Rocky Scelfo and Nathan Meiners, both of whom ended up at Alabama come to mind).
Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 I agree with anyone expecting to win 5 titles in this decade is ludicrious, and you do make a good point about the bomber teams which most of the titles were won before the dead bats were introduced. And I agree with you on the terrible stretches, but the lack of longterm consistency is a problem. Again, this is probably the most critical week outside of post season play and we have to take 4 out of 5.
Re: LSU beats Nichols 3-2, Brandon Nall goes 8.1 And I agree that the bats being pretty silent, especially when it comes to big hits by the middle and bottom of the order, is a concern. Hell, all of the players and Smoke are concerned as evidenced by their statements. The fans sky is falling mentality is the only thing that bothers me. Sorry Scrappy, got you confused, you were really just knocking the hitting.
Thats cool. I didnt mean to infer that the sky was falling or that Smoke sucks or whatever. I dont think Smokes a bad coach. He can't hit for these guys, He cant lay down the bunts.
By the way, anyone kno where the SEC game stats are. The stats for just SEC play. I'm on SECsports.com but it seems to only have overall stats.
