Hoops Recruiting (2007-2008)

So, this may be early, and probably better suited on the main board as opposed to a recruiting thread, but it's a timely question as folks may have forgotten or not noticed that LSU started HOOPS PRACTICE THIS WEEKEND.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/lsu/9346936.html

Here's my early prognostication given I haven't seen any of these early practices or games. Expect LSU to compete in the SEC West as the third-ish team in a relatively unproven, but deep SEC West. They might sneak up on folks and end up in second place in the west, and go to the tourney with a 9-7 or 10-6 SEC record. That's the hopefully optimistic outlook. The flipside is they struggle a little with the newcomers and have a roughly .500 record or less.

But, I'm cautiously optimistic. The SEC as a whole is down a tad this year, lots of turnover, new coaches, and unproven players. Florida reloads, Kentucky and Arkansas, have new coaches trying to implement different systems. Tennessee will be favored, since they don't lose too much and they get Lofton back. Ole Miss graduates a lot of players, but Miss St. comes back with a fair amount of talent. Bama has had a decent recruiting class to go with R. Steele coming back. So, I expect Bama and Miss St to compete hard in the SEC west, with LSU and Arkansas, the dark horse chasers.

What to expect from LSU this season comes down to how good really are Anthony Randolph, Marcus Thornton and Bo Spencer? These newcomers are talented and well-regarded recruits, but (1) how will Brady integrate his schemes so that they can be adopted quickly given half a team of new players, (2) how will the new players gel with Temple, Mitchell and Martin, and (3) where is the team on-the-court leadership going to come from? As we saw last year, chemistry and player complements on a team are absolutely critical. I actually think the chemistry on this year's team will be better. With Big Baby and Rolle gone, I actually think that some of the "distractions" of last year will allow Tas' Mitchell and Temple to take more of a role leading this team. And, with both of those guys being less "me first" guys, I see them actually letting Marcus Thornton doing more of his thing on the perimeter, and bringing Randolph along slowly but in a meaningful way. If Bo Spencer can really spell Temple at point, that's an added bonus.

If nothing else, LSU will be more fun to watch. A more open offense, different styles of players playing more as a team. I think to when LSU competed with Kentucky last year without Glen--more passing, more hustling--but with a proven outside scorer in M. Thornton, and a more balanced low-post attack with Randolph, Johnson and Q. Thornton. I also think that Brady's staff has something to prove--they need to try harder and smarter--and new Coach Chad Dollar may have something to add.

Watch out for LSU.

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. BE A FAN.

 

I can't wait for maui.

 

I think M. Thornton might have a Lamont Roland type impact for us this type season which would be huge.

 

I'm very eager to see what he can do. M. Thornton is probably a better scorer than Lamont right now, but may not be as good a defender. In any case, with Terry Martin and M. Thornton, I'm VERY interested to see what kind of offense the staff puts out there. I'd love to see the Tigers finally show a more balanced attack. We've got 3 or 4 guys (Tas', Terry M, and Marcus Thornton, perhaps even Bo) who are decent outside shooters on this team (not including Chris Johnson and Randolph). Does Brady go back to more motion offense like the Dupree and C. Temple days? I agree with you that M. Thornton is going to be a very exciting player to watch.

 

The new article on LSUsports.net quotes Brady saying that he was pleased the vets are catching on to his new offense as well as they did.

This almost screams 'fast paced Tigers' to me.

One thing that has always worried me about this season is rebounding and interior D. We lack the height and girth in our players to stop the monstrous 7-footers that some teams, even teams like Auburn, have on their frontcourts.

 

Also, about the Storm discussion, If we had 4 scholarships this class, hey I'd be all for getting Storm.

It's just that I'm kind of hoping for a Monroe/Morgan/Graham class right now.

But then you have to think: Would having Storm help Greg like LSU more?

 

" This almost screams 'fast paced Tigers' to me."


You're gonna be disappointed...

 

Recruiting update from the advocate! A lot of great stuff in this article.

“What Greg decides to do has no effect on Terrance at all,” Oney said. “He actually told me he thought it would be kind of neat if he, Greg Monroe and Storm Warren played with each other.”

Choke's maybe we were wrong and that's not a bad thing, if we could grab the top three players instate that would be off the chain!

For some reason I thought we only had three open scholarships for 08, says in this article that we have four.

“There’s doubt in my mind he likes LSU a whole lot,” Hartwell said.

Morgans AAU coach. Wasn't that big on this guy until TGer'nLHornLand started talking about him, but the more i read the more i see this dude's a beast! If we could land him and GM the sky's the limit.

 

The guy is an absolute monster. His stock has been rising tremendously over the past year. Plus, unlike a lot of guys his height, he is ready to bang around down low from day one.

 

Just saw it too. Pretty good accounting of all of the prospects. Of particular importance is Terrance Henry's coach dispelling the rumors that he's no longer considering LSU....

http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/9377276.html?showAll=y&c=y

It could be exciting and down to the wire on many of these guys. As stated above, it's worth noting that the Advocate reports 4 scholarships available. Unless they know something I don't, I didn't think we had more than 3...