Basketball: The Importance of Experience (and LSU's lack of it)

I do agree that Trent is the man & just needs more time but at the same time I am disappointed that they are not playing harder. Not as easy as it looks I know as I played BB for a long time but if Nick St, Rice, C Carolina can do it then I think LSU should be able to do it also.. Yes, Foul shooting is something of a lost art it seems..

 

I care very much about LSU hoops. I despise the type of fan who roots for UNC or Duke during basketball season. So this season hurts me, but it's not the end of the world and it's definitely not unexpected.

I'd like to see us be a bit more competitive/respectable, but I realize that obstacles that Trent and the kids are facing right now, and can only look forward.

Going to be a long year, but I still have faith in Coach Johnson.

 

A good point was made about kids not being well coached in the fundamentals of team play...and their NBA role models not being good examples of how to play college defense.

I really believe that, in the South, football is on a higher plane than elsewhere because the South has the best coaching by far. And I don't mean "College Coaching"...I mean playground, Jr. High and High School coaching.

In football, these youth coaches aren't someones dad with a whistle around the neck, a beer in one hand, drawing plays up in the sand. But, in basketball, maybe that's what's happening at the youth level...I'm not sure about AAU leagues.

 

It doesn't help when an organization like the LHSAA squeezes the basketball season to fit between football and baseball requiring two weeks in between each of the major athletic seasons. It literally took two weeks away from previous seasons. Less time for HS teams to develop fundamentals much less a cohesive team. The school my son plays for has two of the three basketball coaches involved in football. Had they had a decent team and made the playoffs they wouldn't have had a freshman or JV coach until the season started. As it is they were only with the teams for two weeks before the season began. Sure the varsity coach runs things until they are available but he can only do so much with 20-25 kids at practice. There is also a severe lack of camps that can help these kids and when there is it's usually a brief weekend in order for some AAU team to make some cash. Other parts of the country may be different such as in ACC or Big East areas...I'm betting that is why you see a better brand of talent in those areas

Speaking of AAU...most of those teams are made up of various good players from a certain area and they are pretty much left to do what they want. They have some structure to varying degrees but mostly it's street ball.

 

I think it's just being in different areas. In the south...

A) football practice is allowed year round. I know states in the north don't have spring football practices. That's why you will always notice that they also run track a lot of times because they don't have year round practice.

B) Weather. it's simple that when it's ****ty outside, kids are going to play an indoor sport, which is most likely basketball. in the south, you can play football year round.

 

You're absolutely right. For the purposes of my exercise, I didn't take redshirting (or transfers for that matter) into account, b/c one it's harder to get that info and two I assume every team has a little bit of that going on. As you say, Syracuse has a bunch of redshirts, so their Srs and Jrs are actually 4 and 5 year players. When I saw Syracuse play yesterday, you see these 22 and 23 year old kids run down the court and they're physically imposing. LSU has actually, White, who is a 4th year Jr, but Dotson, Stringer and Turner are all "true" sophomores and freshmen.

By the way, the UConn team of FR and SOs lost to Pitt in their first Big East, the more "experienced" team.

 

Stanford ... is that the best model?

I'm sure the debate of players vs player development will continue to rage on as it comes to LSU basketball, but after watching the Stanford football domination of Va Tech last night in the orange bowl, I can't resist the urge of drawing the analogy. It also is poetic that our own Trent Johnson is a Stanford coaching alumn.

So for those that sort of poo-poo the recruitment of 2*/3* recruits and think all success is based upon the quick strike recruiting job, we look to the job that the now "walk on water" Jim Harbaugh has done. Even with the academic requirements and the lack of football rep, Harbaugh recruited hard-working kids and cultivated them into a Senior class that went 12-1. They dominated folks with their physical play and smash mouth football, coupled with a great quarterback and an underrated defense.

Now, would folks doubt the formula worked in this case? I know, football is different from basketball and all that. But, perhaps at some level, it's not. And, while folks are also down on kids like Andre Stringer, Ralston Turner, Matt Derenbecker (perhaps a little unfairly), let's just recognize that Jim H's record was 4-7 in his first year, 5-8 in his second year, 8-5 in his third year and then 12-1 this past year. Coincidentally, his players that he brought in coincided with that development. Oh, and now he's the hottest name in coaching.

Now, I understand that the parallels are not 100%, and who knows if 2 years from now, Trent will have the basketball equivalent of a 12-1 season. But, he almost did himself a disservice by winning the SEC championship in his first year perhaps.

The point of my thread continues to be it takes time to develop a program for various reasons. And, hopefully, folks will support the program (when it needs it the most) despite the fact that we're in year 2 of that 4 year climb.... :geauxtige


P.S. I wonder if Trent knows Jim, and talks to him?

 

The problem I have is that they haven't progressed past the year 1 level. Halfway through the process there should be some improvement. In fact, they've regressed.

 

Well, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer to wait until after the season to make the call as to whether there's been progression or regression. Afterall, the Tigers went 11-20 and 2-14 in SEC play last year.

We'll see whether we truly regressed by the end of SEC play.

 

You Hang in there Hornland, These next two games should tell us a lot.. I hope we do well as in win both. We just gotta get better as the year goes on! Problem is everyone else (other teams) is expecting the same thing..