There is no way we will lose 7 SEC games. I saw a post by Gumborne and he stated that he felt we would lose 7 SEC games. In my opinion, there is no way this will happen. I see us losing to Florida in Gainseville; Mississippi State in Mississippi; and Kentucky in Baton Rouge; and maybe Vanderbilt in their gym. That's a total of 4 losses. I see us going 22-4. Once Antonio Hudson comes back 100% and regains his confidence he will force defenses to get out of the zone. Darrell Mitchell is a pure shooter. He has tons of confidence and will attract defenders. Tack Minor will be a starter before the year is over. He will take Xavier Whipple's spot. Tack has the ability to drive to the basket and shoot it or dish it. Believe it or not,,,he also has the ability to hit the outside shot. Regis Kondjia just has to adept to the college game. He is a 6'9" 215lb. swingman. His defense is why he starts, and once he learns to take the ball to the goal instead of settling for the outside shot he'll be fine. Brandon Bass - what can I say. He will get his. He is an excellent free throw shooter. (went 10-10 against UAB) He is so strong around the goal and can run the floor for a big man. Jaimie Llordea - what can I say. He will also get his. So strong around the goal and always gives his all. Huge surprise for me is the play of Darnell Lazarre of the bench. Darnell is a 6'8" forward and has a knack for making big plays around the basket. If Lazarre can continue to spell Llordea and Bass this will be a big help in SEC play. Others who will help. Charlie Thompson seldomly makes mistakes and is an excellent free throw shooter. Xavier Whipple makes good decisions but just doesn't possess the quickness at point guard that Tack Minor does. I haven't seen alot of Ross Nelter so I'm not going to judge him. From what I have seen,,,he looks like he needs to strengthen up, but does seem to have a good touch for a guy that stands 6'8". Any takes on this??
BasileTiger, I like you are very optimistic, if you read gumborues posts maybe you read mine too. I said I thought we would lose 5 games in conference, I don't think we will lose 7 though. But, You never know, the SEC is a good league and if we have some injuries it could hurt us or if we don't play up to snuff once or twice. Its a long season and a lot of things can happen. I like what I see in this team, if we can continue to control the boards and play good D we can beat anybody anytime. One thing I will say........... If I was Coach................. One thing I noticed from the UAB game When we had to break thier press we were running and gunning and getting lots of easy baskets and thats when we had our biggest lead at one point. If I saw this zone was shutting down our offense and we were having trouble scoring I'm going to a run and gun offense until we can be more consistant from the outside. I like that we can handle the press....... there's a lot of teams that have trouble with that.. I pretty much agree with your post BasileTiger....... Its going to be a great 04 starting with the Sugar.............
Thats dead on, but it kind of scares me a little. There are going to be other big, strong teams down the SEC stretch, and I really hope we can keep up the physical, dominating inside play we have seen thus far. I think that our freshmen will come around as shooters and make an outside presence. I really like what I have seen from this team so far defensively, but I would like to see a better perimiter game as well.
Brandon Bass already looks to be light years ahead of what Stromile Swift was at this stage of his career...and we all know how awesome Stro was as a sophomore. It's just scary how good Bass has a chance to be.
Jaime was a stud last year in the SEC and he has only gotten bigger and stronger. And he's in better shape so he'll still be full bore at the end of the game. Brandon Bass has the body of an NBA power forward. I don't think that anyone in the league will be able to push him around. What all of this means is the other teams in the SEC will be worrying about our physical, dominating inside play, not the other way around.
i like optimism, but maybe we slow it down a bit. its hard for us to say whats up before we play an SEC team. its not a suprise that our athletes are superior to the MAC or instate guys. keep in mind, its just damn tough to win sec road games, even if you are really really good. the better team doesnt always win every game. but mostly i agree with you we kick ass. we have talent everywhere, but not experience. you point out that bass is an excellent free throw shooter. man that is great, and so rare for a big strong monster to have touch at the line. if they do win all these games like you say and go 22-4, what sort of seed do you think that adds up to in march? anytime anyone wants to talk basketball, count me in.
Stromile hadn't even stepped onto the court at this time during his freshman year but it's still a good comparison to make. I think Bass is more polished than Stro was as a freshman and is even more impressive than I thought he'd be. I've always thought that intangibles are important for a point guard, kinda like how they are for a QB. Minor seems to have more talent than Whipple but Whipple might be better suited to start games for LSU. Get the team into an offensive flow and bring Minor off the bench for a spark. Of course, it may be impossible to keep Minor out of the starting lineup eventually. Kounjia will be a star one day but he's doing well as a role player right now. Lloreda plays hard every play and has managed to stay out of foul trouble. Hudson might be the X factor to this team. If they stay healthy, I could see a 22-4 type record with the SEC down a little bit this year (especially the west) but more realistic would be 6-7 losses. Just get in the dance and anything can happen.
I'm still a little uncomfortable when Tack is at the point. He's awful quick but still needs a lot of discipline. He's like a year old Lab puppy. You know he's going to be a great dog but you can't put him in the duck blind just yet. When we get into a game against equally physical teams, it's going to come down to the refs. If they let them play, no one can beat us inside. Some zebra with a quick whistle is going to be trouble. I really, really like this team, though.
alright! some of you are really getting out of control. only 4 losses? no way. ok, maybe a 5% chance that happens, but be a little realistic. 4 losses in the sec starting 2 or 3 freshman, with little depth. no way. just off the top of my head--look back at the 2000 team with swift that went something like 28-4. swift, smith, beshara, williams, and bright. do i have that right? temple, dupree, and bridgewater didnt really play. no real bench with the scholarship restrictions. wow, they sure did great with so little. bright (fr), williams and swift (so), beshara (jr) and smith (sr). ok, so maybe 4 losses is a little more possible than i first thought, but look at the differences between the teams: (1) 2000 had size at guard---2004 will have trouble with good guards with a little size (2) 2000 had more size at 5. dont get me wrong, both bass and lloreda are better on both ends of the court, but i think good post players will give us trouble too. i didnt really like how that guy from uab (you remember, he looked like karl dunbar) scored at will. (3) Stro. Bass is solid, but he is no Stro. Bass is smarter (doesnt leave his feet) and a better rebounder and ft shooter, but not as athletic. Remember, we beat a lot of teams that year with uptempo. You swap Stro with Bass or Lloreda and that team is nowhere as good running the court. i really like what brady's getting started, another year or two and we might have the best lsu team ever. but i still cant get around the fact that we have no shooters. hudson has been a wet noodle on offense since two years ago, mitchell is too streaky (atleast last year we had three streaky shooters). minor has a very long way to go. he'll help against florida (maybe), but when the sec opponents slow it down he'll be lost. i'll feel much better if we handle houston on the road.
