I remember when I could walk into Pete's Palace in the early Dale Brown years - then he brought in some talent - Cookie, Rudy, Sacales, etc. - I had to wait in line to see a game. I went to every game with a good friend who was a Wooden player. We spoke hoop and people around us would join in. He would tell me things that Wooden taught. Then the program went to hell. It is where it is today. I think the present coach will put together a good product.
Gumbo, I think you said it yourself elsewhere, but it bears repeating. Trent has to be able to change the basketball culture around LSU, and of course that's a huge challenge. But it seems like that's exactly what he has in mind. If he can get the team playing at a consistently high level and making deep tournament appearances a regular occurrence, and not just a sporadic, once-in-a-blue-moon thing like we've had in recent years, then attendance and revenue will take care of itself. But right now there's a lot of work that needs to be done to turn this thing around. But if Trent can get a bunch of walk-ons to the point where they can hold their own against far more talented teams, it's a good sign.
Well our paid attendance was over 12000 for the 8 SEC games last year. Actual attendance for those games was probably around 9 or 10 thousand. We had a poor non conference schedule which would explain alot of the no shows.
I think we have the right coach to bring it back. Going to take some time; we have to be patient. In the meantime, it is painful to watch this year, especially given we are still winless in conference play... :geauxtige
I just got back from the game tonight. Being away from Baton Rouge and SEC country for so long, it was my first b-ball game in person since Shaq. I was in Fayetteville on business and my distributor got two tickets from a friend of his. It seemed to me, position for position the Hogs were about 6 inches taller than our guys-they were just completely outmanned. But at least when one Hog fan tried to talk smack I just told him I'd dry my tears on our football and baseball NC's. That shut him up. :lsup::lsup:
i disagree with what you said about Louisiana producing less basketball talent than football talent. look at some of LSU's recent teams, most of the starters were from Baton Rouge alone! Louisiana puts out good basketball players, but until there is a coach/AD that can stand up and sell the program to Louisiana's best, they won't come to LSU. the best of the best will always choose duke, UNC, kansas, or even florida, alabama, tennessee or state or vandy over LSU. i think we all know about our AD's passion for basketball (or at least supposed passion,) and CTJ seems like a guy that could sell a program, but this season will set LSU back even further, IMO. i would like to think that LSU could garner enough talent to NOT finished last in the SEC -- even in rebuilding years. next season had better be a HUGE improvement (which i think it definitely will be,) or people are going to start questioning whether or not LSU is headed in the right direction with johnson. i think coach brady is getting way more than his fair share of blame for this season. he didn't leave LSU in that bad of shape (we won the SEC the year after he left,) it was just his style of recruitment that people like to find fault in. there is nothing wrong with getting a one-and-done player -- all the big schools do it. he relied on it a bit much, but that's how things are. i think if you give a college a commitment to play for them you should have to stay for four seasons (or sit out of pro ball for the remainder.) i think it should be either/or. either you go to school and stay for years, or you try to go pro straight out of high school. fair is fair. you don't see kids dropping out of their business degrees because a fortune 500 company is offering them 5 million a year do you? if they're not ready for the pros out of high school, go play amateur ball overseas or go to college. :wink: btw, my reasoning for staying in college the four years is at least two-fold. one, you committed to the school and two, how many players actually make a life-long career out of professional sports? not many, that's for sure.
No, go to any Louisiana high school and football is #1 and basketball is #2. Baseball is a distant #3. Yeah, if your basketball team isn't great every year in comparison to your football team and baseball team, the band-wagon fans will distance themselves from the basketball team... but that's just the band-wagon fans. The rest of the fans have football #1 and basketball #2, just like everyone in Louisiana, at all levels (pro, NCAA, high school). What games get on TV the most? LSU football #1, LSU basketball #2. Even this year.
where i am from (st. mary, terrebonne, lafourche parish area) football is #1 and baseball is a close #2 at most schools with track even beating out basketball for #3 at some schools. i can see where a smaller school that doesn't field football would appreciate basketball more because that is their "main" fall/winter sport. but baseball is a lot more popular than basketball (at least in my experience) in my area. not to say that basketball is the red-headed stepchild because LA supports its high school athletics pretty well no matter the sport. i just think that you're underestimating baseball's popularity. a lot of it is directly due to LSU's success. a lot of players and assistant coaches have passed through the ranks at LSU and moved on to helping out with high school programs. some of that may be waning a bit since the 90s, but i doubt that.
It would be interesting to know how many baseball season ticket are sold vs. basketball season tickets.
