I think the combination of Tyrus Thomas & Big Baby make this a very media-friendly team. Good personalities, great players & very entertaining to watch. The fact that we hung so close to so many good teams despite how young we are also helps the media hype us up. I think this writer put us in his top 8 for shock value. We're a hot team right now with some players that are getting recognition, but for god's sake we aren't even ranked. I wonder how many of you will be writing him to tell him how wrong he is...? Where's that evil media LSU hatred now?
I will state again, like I have in other posts, (1) playing contenders early buys you favor (playing cupcakes do not)--kudos for Brady to finally scheduling real basketball schools in the pre-SEC season (he did it of course thinking he'd have Tack and Bass...)... more of it is to come ) ), and (2) we're a name in the headlines again b/c playing basketball schools on national TV on their home court and losing close is better than playing nobodies and winning big. I think a subtext to this has to also be (as much as folks would bitch about CJB), college basketball is STILL built on recruiting and decent (not always stellar) coaching. I think despite the amount of time I spend complaining about lack of guards, CJB has almost seemingly "quietly" and slowly recruited LSU back into the spotlight. Remember in Bass's year we had a top 5 national class, last year we were a top 6 class. After probation and in recent years, we HAVE added talent to the team (funny thing is much of the impact this year is our recruiting year of TT and GT... a no ranked squad)... despite the departures, and despite that some players haven't worked out... there have been very nice surprises (Tyrus) and overall, the talent at LSU has improved. I'd also say, why do we have a "chance" to win it all? As much (again) as I'll complain about the lack of guard play, you have to have balance. In today's game, you have to have a PG and guards that can handle pressure, run the team and not make stupid mistakes in the tourney. All that said, if you have a NBA front line of big men, it doesn't hurt. LSU (with the exception that we have a gutsy little SG playing point) has what a lot of folks don't have--two legitimate low posts threats, depth on the front line, which means good defense on the interior and an outstanding rebounding advantage. Sure, it'd be nice to have a legit PG (and if we did, I'd say we're truly elite 8 material), but if GTemple and Tas' mature enough to take some of the pressure off D.Mitch, we COULD surprise (still big IF, if I'm being realistic). Lastly, I'd say while I have been down at times this seasons (after Houston and Northern Iowa mostly), I was probably most down when DJ Augustin committed to Texas. If you read the subtext tho' of what DJ said in recruitment and what Terry Martin Jr said in his latest quotes, these players ARE seeing what it appears that fans have failed to see or denied seeing, which is that LSU is in fact a program on the rise. LSU is clearly one of the SEC's elite teams in Bball again (Rick Stansbury said so... ), and if they stay together and keep playing the schedules they are now, they will eventually rise in the national scene again. The media is also now also sort of getting it... Let's just hope the fans in BR also get it. :geauxtige Brady still has to prove himself in the tourney... and that's the final step to our rise again.
