Hoops BBall Recruiting (2006-7)

doesnt sound like the reason glen had the ball---
“I wanted the reigning SEC player of the year with the ball,” Brady said Thursday. “He was making every play. Ordinarily, I would have had a guard where Glen was. But Glen is a good ball handler and a good free throw shooter. All he had to do was stand there and get fouled or dribble away. It was a poor choice.” http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/SPORTS0202/70215032/1001/SPORTS

programs of lsu's caliber (not top 10) always have several scrub players. ok, i guess i dont know this for a fact, but dale always had several of them. cjb has admitted screwing up in not having more pgs, but dont blame it on signing voogd and farrier. voogd will definately end up being a good role player and perhaps farrier too. not every player should be expected to be solid in sec in first two yrs.

 

That is exactly my point. When the center/power forward is the most dependable handling the ball it indicates a problem. That was just one of the games where poor ball decision makers determined the outcome. In the Alabama game Temple threw the ball to a Alabama player leaving us with no chance to win.

 

While I'll admit I am a "fan" and try to stay "positive" I think that objectively the question is do the Brady opponents argue to fire Brady, one year removed from the final four (the holy grail of basketball, where SEC schools rarely go)? And, if you stick with Brady is that being unrealistically "positive"?

I actually was on this board advocating Smoke's firing... but the situation was a little different IMO. You had years of slow slide. Drop in player recruitment quality, drop in attendance, and the straw that finally broke the camel's back was not making post season... in baseball I think I'd argue that's a bigger deal than in basketball. Brady's situation is a little different. He's one year removed from the final four. He's got a chance to sign some pretty decent players next year, after signing a top 15 class this year with another potential NBA player in Anthony Randolph (going into TX and landing their #2 player no less). Also, if you look at the paying attendance figures for PMAC, it's gone up not down (we'll see how the numbers look for next year due to this year, but LSU's not losing money this year vs last).

Yes, he may not make a post season this year, but he's got a young team that will come back next year. I don't think this is a Smoke or DiNardo case. I'll also be the first to say that after next season or the season after that, if there isn't improvement, I'll support going in a new direction. But, I think for example, IF (and I know this is an IF) Brady lands Monroe, another impact guard, or even a few 4 star guys instead of Monroe (which he's slotted to do), you don't think that this team will be better? It's very common in hoops to have "cycles" where a bad year is followed by improving years and then all over again. If we have another bad year next year, then a change needs to be considered.

 

Good article from the Louisville Courier Journal, the same paper that Pat Forde, ESPN, used to write for. I like this guy better:

Sustained success is more difficult than it used to be

[FONT=arial,helvetica] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Times New I2]Eric Crawford[/FONT] ​

» View previous columns
Forty years ago today, this headline led an editorial in the University of Kentucky student newspaper: "Has Rupp choked?"
The paper was taking the Baron to task for kicking junior guard Bob Tallent off the team for talking back in practice. It didn't help that Rupp was in his worst season in Lexington, a 13-13 campaign in which the Wildcats lost seven games at home and went 8-10 in the Southeastern Conference.
I was looking through the files because I've heard so much lately about how far UK basketball (and University of Louisville basketball, for that matter) has fallen from its glory days.
And it has. No argument here. But it's easy to forget that some of the glory days were cloudy.
When Rupp, already a five-time national champion and one year removed from a loss to Texas Western in the NCAA championship game, was asked later in 1967 about the uncharacteristically bad season, he bristled.

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"I won eight coaching awards the season before that, and that's all they give," Rupp said. "I didn't forget that much basketball in a year."
[FONT=arial, geneva]The game has changed[/FONT]
Plenty of today's big-name coaches would second that sentiment. Guys like Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, whose Connecticut team has a losing Big East record and appears NIT-bound despite a top-five recruiting class. When Arizona was losing six out of eight games last month -- including a 28-point home loss to North Carolina -- Hall of Fame coach Lute Olsen (22 consecutive NCAA Tournament trips) began to see his name sprout up in message-board threads, as in, "Lute, it's time to move on," and "Time for Lute to look in the mirror."
Even Duke (reverent silence) has slipped to .500 in conference play. One lonely discussion on a Blue Devils board asked, "Can you call this anything besides bad coaching?" But there was only one thread. Ten Final Fours will earn you some leeway.
One does not. U of L coach Rick Pitino heard it earlier this season, and if the Cards lose another couple of games, he'll hear it again.
And at UK Tubby Smith seems to have exhausted any grace period he might have been offered.
They're talking about "Ten-loss Tubby" again. This week I've heard that the job is "too big" for Smith and that he hasn't delivered to "UK standards."
But it can't be overlooked: The game has changed. Cadillac programs are finding themselves in the body shop more often.
[FONT=arial, geneva]No one is immune[/FONT]
It's tougher today. Rupp didn't have to face a loaded SEC. Only once in his 41 years did an SEC rival make it to the Final Four. In 23 years of coaching while a poll was in place, Rupp had just four seasons with as many top-20 wins (five) as Smith averaged coming into this season. The Cats haven't beaten a ranked team this year. From 1967 through '69 they didn't beat one, either....

reead the rest: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/COLUMNISTS02/702160503/1073

 

I'm not advocating the firing of Brady. Just expressing my confusion as to his recruiting stratedgy. He has some good players, on paper, signed. Hopefully they will live up to expectations and we can take pride in the BB program again. I didn't expect to go deep in the tournament but I did expect to be competitive in the SEC West.

 

Fair enough. So did I.

Yesterday's loss adds a data point. Getting outrebounded by 10--talent or effort? It's frustrating for sure.

 

It's not looking good for LSU with reguards to Greg Monroe:

"My favorite team always was Duke," Monroe said. "They were the team I kind of idolized as a kid. I was a little star-struck when I met Coach K. I've always wanted to play for him. I still do." (Quote from Page 7)

Full article:http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-29/1171782227196460.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

 

For those on the '07 watch, here's another unsigned guard... Chris Blake.

from Mobile AL no less. Got an offer from Tulane as well. Wonder if Butch and Brady have seen this guy. Might be a back up to Marcus Thornton.

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?cid=645525

 

Help on the way?

Tommy Mason-Griffin won't be in Baton Rouge for a while (just finishing his sophomore season), but I did get to see him in action tonight. His team, Houston-Madison, is in the 5A playoffs. They beat Katy-Taylor Saturday night.

Of what little of the game I got to see, he looked pretty good: handled the ball very well, hit a few nice jumpers, and spent most of the last few minutes at the free throw line as Katy-Taylor tried to come back. I missed most of the game (saw just the last 10 minutes) as the Houston Chronicle had the wrong game time in the paper. I got there at 7:00 for a game that started a 6:00. Oh well.

Here's what the Chronicle had to say about him in an article earlier in the week, discussing area underclassmen:

TOMMY MASON-GRIFFIN
School: Madison.
Height/averages: 5-10; 21.3 ppg, 7.5 apg.
Area ranking: No. 1 sophomore.
Hicks' take: "His sculpted body-builder-type frame forces defenders to bounce off him like rubber. That enables him to create more than enough space to get to his desired spots on the court."

:geauxtige

 

Thanks for the news... I do think that recruiting Houston/East Texas is so key for LSU, and I do really like the TMG recruitment. From what I've seen of him on film, he's really unlike many of our guards to date. Sure, he sort of looks and feels like Tack or D.Mitch in stature, but he's a better ball handler than both of them, more of a pure point. He's very muscular and quick, which is a hard combination to guard at point and his strength will make up for his lack of height. The question marks will be how he grows up as a player--how he matures over the next couple of years, how's his court IQ and awareness, and team leadership.

I know some folks are probably a little annoyed with Brady going after a '09 point guard, who won't be here for another couple of years, but actually when you do a search for PGs in the south and southeast, the cupboard is kinda thin. Mostly 3 star guys dot the landscape in '07 and '08, and the 4 and 5 stars are more shooting guards and forwards. Not that I'm defending not signing a PG until '09---I still think Brady needs to try to look at signing a guard this class as a bridge player btwn this team and TMG's '09 class, which will be a big class. If not a true point, a SG that has decent handles and can pass. Not sure if that guy is Marcus Thornton (who's been described more as a scorer but has other skills), but perhaps there are some other guys that the staff know about. The tricky thing is you're recruiting some pretty stout SGs in '08, including Willie Warren and Ray Shipman.

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. KEEP THE FAITH.