Hoops BBall Recruiting (2006-7)

Marcus Thornton, please.

 

Brady's future at LSU could hinge on what he does vis-a-vis the next recruiting class. He had certainly better get forward Greg Monre.

 

He's on a team that hasn't won a single game? How bad are they?

 

Dandy Don has indicated that some lists him to be the top forwards in the nation.

 

Greg Monroe's team is 33-3.

 

So, just because there are arm-chair, hindsight recruiting gurus out there (like myself) that love to second guess the fact that our inability to recruit guards is this team's downfall this year, I got to thinking. Should LSU sign one other player this spring, and if so who? Clearly we all know the staff has Marcus Thornton, a 6-3 TX Juco SG in its sights. But, I can see folks probably in hindsight fashion, if we sign him and he's not the next coming of the guard we all need, saying that Brady didn't try to recruit real guards.

Right now according to Rivals, there are just a few unsigned guards worth mentioning at this point. Jai Lucas, which our staff did bumble b/c they were committed to Tack. Cliff Tucker (#85, 6-4 El Paso guard:http://lsu.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=43851&Sport=2) and Ronnie Moss (#149, 6-2 DFW guard: http://lsu.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=47140&Sport=2) in TX--both Rivals 150 guys. Neither list LSU, but Moss is high on Ole Miss of all places--we'd be closer and he could play ball with Anthony Randolph another DFW great. Does the staff make a run at either of these guys?

Outside of the top 150, there are nearby kids Kevin Anderson (3 star GA PG) or Al Graham (3 star MS PG, who at one point LSU was interested in). Or, does the staff make a run at an unsigned LA point guard? Warren Fuselier, Bo Spencer or Josh White fall into that camp. All 2-3 star guys who you question whether they're SEC material (after all Ben Voogd was a 2 star kid from OR, and folks now question that signing)--they don't really have other high major offers.

So, do any of these guys fill that point guard need? And, if you're Brady do you roll the dice on these guys?

 

TGer', I really appreciate your devotion to keeping us updated with info on hoops recruiting. Thanks a bunch for all the info you collect and post here.

Having said that, I do want to quibble with your characterization of fans criticizing Brady's guard dilemma only in hindsight. Of course there is hindsight for some of the criticism over Brady's tenure, but the current situation with not a single guard in the incoming class and especially no PGs, on a team that clearly has a desperate need for one, is absolutely maddening. It's like Brady has a death wish as a coach; he knows the lack of a PG is killing his program but he continues to target only a single PG each year, and usually misses out. The fact that apparently the big target for Tack's scholarship is another 2 just continues the frustration for us fans - this is certainly not hindsight.

I really hope that the Advocate article which implied that Thornton is the main target is off base, and that the staff is working hard to find a PG to bring in next fall. Honestly, it's hard to imagine us being any worse off getting one of the guys on your list than if Tack had stuck around, since even the "new and improved" Minor was no more likely to contribute as much in a positive way as was needed.

 

TGer's problem is that he's too positive.

Trust me, there are still Tiger fans who thought Smoke Laval and Gerry Dinardo shouldn't have been fired.

 

Point well taken. I probably was a little zealous in my description (every now and then that Brady defensiveness comes into play... perhaps it more LSU hoops defense than Brady and a desire for fans to support the program through thick and thin). I realize that there are others like me who saw a downfall in recruiting as an apparent inability to prioritize and sign guards. But, of course, the flip side to that is that LSU has done surprisingly well (final four) with mediocre to ok guard play. So, I think to some extent "hindsight" should probably rephrased to say "convenient complaining" about the guard recruiting which has obviously been heightened this year because of the results. Noone could predict that Tack would be expelled. You probably could say "is Voogd a SEC guard (I had my doubts publicly when he was signed)", but look he's just a sophomore.

No doubt, I love guard play, and I was really lobbying some years ago for Brady to go after Ryan Francis, an unsigned All-State LA guard that ultimately signed with USC. I think Brady has underestimated the importance of guards, b/c we're slower on d on the perimeter--3 point shooting teams hurt us--and we're not particularly good breaking down defenses or penetrating. But, I honestly don't know Brady's "strategy" in recruiting. Presumably it's a brain trust of him, Pierre and Johnson. I don't know if it's recruit the "best available talent", recruit "for need", recruit "local", recruit "national". I imagine, they're trying to figure it out. Remember the early Brady regime was "recruit whatever you could get" b/c of the probation. In the last few years, it probably was "recruit the best players locally". Now, they're clearly looking nationally to establish a name outside of LA. Somewhere in there is also recruiting for Brady's "system". Which is an inside out, set offense, and a dominant man to man defense system. Honestly, it's been easy to attract forwards in this system, b/c look at the talent that LA has produced and look at how they've been highlighted by Brady. AND, in Brady's defense, the whole landscape of college basketball has changed somewhat b/c Big Men are back again. You need big guys to go up against the Greg Odens of the world, so I don't fault him for signing Randolph, Q Thornton and Wright this year. Even if Tack wasn't around, I probably wouldn't have signed Green, and I would have signed a guard, presumably Jai Lucas or a guy like Moss, Biko Paris, or even a Josh White.

Obviously, though, you need balance. But, do you take an all-JUCO SG over a 2 star PG out of high school? That's the difficult recruiting question. I've never seen what M Thornton can do, but he's a scoring machine who has some good perimeter skills. Doesn't seem like a bad signing to me, if you can get him. But, I agree one thing Brady et al have not been able to do is have a "contingency" plan ready. Who else can they sign if they miss out on M Thornton and are they "finesseing" that recruiting dance in the right way. Probably Brady is a no BS kind of recruiter. He's loyal to his guys and doesn't want to play games--so he stuck to DJ, he stuck to Tack, he's probably going to stick to Tommy Mason-Griffin. But, then he's not as good a salesman and then when these kids (who let's be honest--they're also playing the field) leave us in the lurch it's hard to recover. It's not so cut and dry that Brady has "failed" in his pursuit of guards. He's tried. But, clearly now he's got it on the brain. I think he's going to have sign a guy that may be a "reach" and prove that his staff can develop a guard. But, you could say that he's tried that with Voogd.

The flipside to this is all a guard has to do is realize is that LSU is a school that can be a top tier basketball school, and that guard is going to get ALOT of attention if he comes. Temple would have never gotten this much playing time at Oregon or Stanford, some of the teams he was looking at... b/c they have guard oriented teams. A Marcus Thornton could come in and outplay Temple and Martin, if he is a complete guard. As could Brown, Warren or Shipman.

:geauxtige :bball: :champs:

 

How many games has LSU lost this year because they don't have a ball handler to bring the ball up the court at crunch time. There is not one player on this team that exhibits any confidence with the ball in his hands when we are up by one or two in the last minute of the game. How Brady and staff could sign Voogd or Farrer when there are young men on lower division schools that could do the job but were never offered.
Since Dinardo was mentioned, I put the lack of judgement by this staff in regards to recruiting guards on par with Dinardo playing Craig Nall at Wide Receiver when Reed was sitting on the bench. It's embarrassing to think a coach is that short sighted.
Everyone who reads the boards knows I have always been a Brady supporter but there is nothing wrong with admitting the obvious.