MODEL OF A MID-MAJOR. So, Trent's LSU Tigers men team boarded a bus yesterday to drive to Bossier City to play mid-major Wichita St in a "neutral" setting tonight. For folks that don't know, WSU is a basketball school. Prior to the success of Northern Iowa last season (beating Kansas in the tourney) there was Wichita St who hails from the same conference. I know there are folks "skeptical" of the LSU team so far, but make no bones about it, outside of Memphis, this is probably THE best team on the OOC schedule. Wichita State has already beaten ACC Virginia, earlier this season, who will play LSU before SEC play starts (Virginia coincidentally then beat ranked Minnesota, so they're not so bad either). Wichita St hails from the Missouri Valley Conference, the same conference where giant killers like Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Creighton have come from. Frankly, when big schools want coaches, they stop off at the MVC. Wichita St "Shockers" have at the helm Greg Marshall, a 4th year coach who was a successful coach at Winthrop before making the jump to WSU, to succeed Mark Turgeon soon after his Sweet 16 run in 2006 (now the coach of Texas A&M). For the non-hoops followers out there that wonder "who is Wichita St?" it's a school in Wichita, Kansas with a school of close to 15,000 students. Their arena, the Charles Koch Arena, recently built in 2003, seats 10,572 and has an average attendance of around 10,478 (pay attention Tiger fans, that's like a 99% attendance rate) and before the LSU practice facility was built, it blew the LSU facilities away. For those that don't believe LSU should lose to a non "BCS" conference school, just remember that since 1981 in the NCAA tourney, LSU has not beaten WSU in the three meetings since then (as you can guess, Brady never beat the Shockers (and frankly some of the losses were beat downs)). At the same time, the finest showing by WSU has been an elite 8 showing three times, coincidentally the last time they reached the Elite 8 they lost to Dale Brown's 1981 team. Now, as some would say "talent is everything" (and Trent can't recruit) you would think that WSU doesn't have the horses, right? Right and Wrong--they play with predominantly Jr and Srs on their team. They have a 7 foot center, and no guards under 6'4". Their recruits hail from Kansas, but also South Carolina, Arizona, Texas (quite a few in fact), Nevada, Alabama, Mass and GA. In other words, they recruit nationally and their recruits are good (borderline top 150/100 guys), but not McD A-As. Despite this, famous alums include Xaver McDaniel and Antoine Carr (and a bunch of other NBA alums). What's my point? Basketball programs, like "model mid-majors", like Wichita St, Gonzaga, Butler, are built on consistency and development--good recruits that stay in a program and develop into Jrs and Seniors who understand a system, play together for a while and have good team chemistry. Success doesn't typically happen "overnight" and the Kentucky/Calipari situation is few and far between. Even schools like the mighty UCLA, UNC, Kansas, UConn will struggle with the turnover of one and done players. So, what Trent is doing is right, folks, and we should support him and his team. Ralston Turner as a Junior, Stringer and Derenbecker as Juniors, are going to look a lot more like the kids on Wichita St's teams. You sprinkle a Johnny O'Bryant in there or a Ricardo Gathers, or that 5* under those conditions and hopefully, you're looking at a final four or national championship instead of Sweet 16. I'll be looking forward to the game with earnest. Tonight on CST at 7 p.m.. It's a picture of where we want to go, believe it or not. And, no doubt, LSU is the not the favored team here. But, perhaps we can all continue to aspire to be like Wichita State. 2theadvocate.com | Sports | Wichita State vs. LSU: At a glance — Baton Rouge, LA :geauxtige:LSU231::geauxtige:LSU231:
WSU is 7-2 this year losing to UConn by 4 and ranked SDSU. They beat Nicholls St. by 18. This will be a tough game for the Tigers.
Wichita State is probably the best team we will face all year out of conference. They are an experienced team that starts a fairly tall lineup. Will be interested to see how White stacks up against their big man who is a 7 footer who averages about 14 a game.
Bummer. LSU's down 14 at half, due to poor shooting, youth of Turner and Stringer, foul trouble on White and Warren. Not a lot to get excited about right now, other than hopefully our kids are seeing what a mature, experienced team does to inexperienced teams.... WSU isn't exactly shooting lights out though, and frankly, they're outscoring us on the foul line. LSU's fouling a ton and putting them on the line a lot (officiating isn't helping). But, if the young guns find the range and get hot? .... Heard that saying live by the 3, die by the 3? :geaux:
I posted in one of the other threads that he has been our best post player this season, and he is playing really well tonight.
