2012-2013 LSU Men's Basketball General Discussion Thread

read again. "arguably" probably means theres no way you can argue lsu isnt a bball school.

 

really??! do i we have to do this?

then the "n't" which actually means "not" in the word just before "arguably" would stand for not "is able to be" as in "is NOT able to be argued"

 

It's all about expectations. Especially with season tickets. LSU football now has a tradition of success that transcends seasons. Even when we have a "bad" season of 7-5 or 8-4 (which MOST teams would die to put up year in and year out) the people will be lined up to see what next year has in store the day after the bowl game. Same with baseball - we lose to Stony Brook and it sucked, but everyone was ready for next season the day after the last game was over. It's a reload and get at it mentality. It's built on repetitive success. With the way college recruiting works, it's the kind of process that feeds itself. The more repetitive success we have, the better recruits, the more repetitive success we have. It doesn't stop until the wheels come off. We were in danger of having it happen in baseball, but luckily we were able to right the ship before it happened.

I don't know if LSU basketball has ever had that kind of feeling about it. LSU has had some of the best basketball players in the history of the game come through here and yet we have never been able to put it all together. When have only had back to back NCAA tourney teams one time since 1993. One of those teams made the final 4 and then we fell off the map after that. Replaced the coach and made the tourney once, but weak recruiting and performance was the prevailing theme.

When LSU has a good basketball season it takes 1/2 - 3/4 of a season for the fan base to even notice, and when it does happen people just think we're having a "lucky year" and we'll be back to middling again next year. If we put up a program where we make the NCAA's and compete repetitively the expectations will build and people will be excited about basketball BEFORE the season starts, resulting in season ticket sales and attendance figures. If you build it, the people will come. It's not like there's a glut of high quality entertainment options in Baton Rouge. The people just want to know when they come and spend their money what they get to see will be worth whatever it is they had to give up to be there. Basketball may never be the #1 sport here, but everyone loves winning. They love beating Ole Miss, Bama, Florida, etc in ANYTHING - football, basketball, monpoloy, checkers, UNO, it doesn't matter.

 

Another good definition of a bandwagon fan--it takes 1/2 a season to notice "your"team is good.

 

I'm not a basketball fan. Outside of March Madness I pay very little attention to the national collegiate landscape in basketball and avoid any news or mention of the NBA. But I am an LSU fan. While I live too far away to attend any games, I watch any LSU BB game that is on TV and listen to the radio broadcast when they are not. That includes the bad years under CJB and CTJ along with the good. Same with baseball. I also watch the women's BB team when they are televised. I watch LSU track, women's volleyball and gymnastics when they are televised. The point is, I may not be crazy about a particular sport but I love and support any and every LSU athletic team. I want them all to excel and bring home the hardware. Of course football is king without question. But you can be an LSU football fan (not that there's anything wrong with that) or an LSU fan. I choose the latter.

 

It is needed over several seasons to have consistent crowds, I believe, and we haven't had that in quite a while. There are a number of programs with similar records over multiple seasons who have similar attendence in that same period. Are LSU fan's distinguished in their support of men's basketball? No. Can they be? I think so, with a consistent product over multiple seasons. I seem to remember fans gradually showing up en masse when Brady appeared to be turning things around, only to be let down soon after. I am not ashamed of LSU's support, I am hopeful that Jones can bring the consistency many of us have longed for over many years. I'd guess our last home game of the season will be one of the best attended of the season.

 

And that's my point. If it takes "multiple seasons" of winning, that's either the definition of fair-weather, bandwagon, whatever you want to call it--fans. Call it whatever you want, that was my point about LSU and potential basketball coaches and players' challenges with building a program at LSU. I refuse to acknowledge (but the data doesn't lie) that LSU has fallen below schools like Tennessee, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Bama in terms of SEC basketball pecking order. Remember this is a team that was routinely mentioned in the same breath as Kentucky in many of those 80s and 90s years. But, alas, that is LSU basketball lore. Then baseball came around and football regained dominance, and we did go through many up and down years where, basketball just became kind of an after thought.

I don't want to blame the fans either, and realize that AT LSU things will take time, but here's a first year coach, with a 17 win team who most thought would be in the bottom 3 of the SEC, and we can't outdraw Vanderbilt , who has routinely drawn 10K, 11K, 12K for their 13-15, 7-9 in the SEC team, at similarly sized Memorial Gym. Has Vanderbilt been consistently good? Despite their last few decent years under Stallings, they hadn't ever advanced past the Sweet 16. Tennessee? They get 19K to show up in their 20K arena for Florida on a weekday night and how consistent have they been over the last few years? Not that much different than LSU.

Regardless, as Lsu-i-like says, it's been a rough decade of LSU hoops this past decade, and yes, I do think it will take this off-season to see LSU hopefully get back in that 10K attendance range, and if CJJ has another recruiting season next year like he did this year, I see no issues with fan attendance in 2014 and 2015. The fact that it isn't going to be great now, given the circumstances, is just what annoys me a little bit. As you say, let's see who turns out for the Ole Miss game. Can't be a bigger basketball game (outside of the SECT) for this team than that one. A chance to either tie or beat last season's record, to beat a team that is NCAA tournament worthy and pick up RPI points, to show appreciation for this bunch that just plays hard each time out, and sets this LSU program back to its consistent winning days. Let me ask you guys, what would be a good/expected number of fans to show up for that game?

 

With baseball at home that same day at 6:30, realistically I'd be thrilled with 10K.

 

Tigers go on the road to face new SEC West "rival" Texas A&M tonight!

http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=206606760

If you can believe it... (so for those counting that's just six seasons out of 18, where LSU has had a non-losing or better SEC record).

LSU needs one win for a breakeven year in SEC play, which would be just the seventh non-losing or better SEC campaign for LSU since the start of the 1993-94 season. In those years, the SEC season was 16 games.

Not to jinx it, but man, it would be nice to win tonight, match last year's total win record and sweep the Ags.