It doesn't take a coach to see the lack of athleticism on the perimeter (Cannot play man-to man defense or close out shooters in a zone) and the lack of skill in the post. As to coaching and player development, I believe we saw little of that throughout the season. Garrett Green maybe had his best year, but we saw little consistency from the rest of the team. Storm and Malcom just don't play smart. No, they really aren't the same. 11-2 is a far cry from 2-14 and 3-13. If you don't think Les would be outright fired after one losing SEC season, you are kidding yourself. Besides, I defend coaches who are winning against those who worry about things like eloquence and armchair strategy. How many games did you attend this year? Probably few, since you are in Abita/Covington. Same for TGer, cause he's in Austin. I don't mind saying that I can't bear watching this terrible product any longer, and many of us feel the same way. I have absolutely no trust based on the past 3 years that LSU will be able to recruit any difference makers under CTJ. There's no history to indicate such a thing.
Wow. I'll be the first to admit that I was holding out some hope, and this comes as a shock. Frankly, when you consider that a kid, presumably a smart one, is picking a bottom dwelling Big 12 school over LSU, there's a high-level problem. But, frankly, the other perspective on this, is look, sometimes kids just have their reasons for going to a school, and frankly, perhaps there was just something else going on here. Nebraska could have paid him (Nebraska hasn't exactly been recruiting kids of the highest moral fiber), he could have just had a better fit with Sadler, he could have been swayed by everything Bo Spencer said, who knows. But, at the end of the day, I'm also not going to say this is the end. LSU has lost recruits before, and there have frankly been how many thousand posts about why... it goes beyond one man, a coach, etc. Talley and Sadler may prove me wrong, but there have been also recruits LSU has lost that have not moved the earth after going elsewhere.... Noel Johnson commits to Clemson, has a subpar season and now transfers to Auburn comes to mind. To say that there's been no history here of change is to ignore though, some of Brady's classes of recent history. Are you really saying that Trent's 2010 class is no better than say Brady's 2005 or 20066 class? To say that LSU's signing it's first McD AA since Tasmin Mitchell and first out of state McDAA in 18 years, is not evidence of positive things happening? I guess I refuse to say that one kid's decision erases some of the positives of this Trent era. All of this said, we agree on one thing. No more excuses, it's put up or shut up time, and momentum can only be changed with winning. There's certainly a lot of negativity out there about LSU right now (in large part of performance, but also some in the community) and that hopefully changes next year with some winning. We are still recruiting, and we still have players that can share a common vision here with the coach and prove the casual fans wrong.
Deek, pretty good rebuttal, but it does prove one of my major points...that most LSU fans are focused on w-l records. Your major complaint was that the team only won five games in the last two years. I think your mentioning a lack of athleticism was a secondary point...and that's a very subjective observation. You didn't mention anything about how poor of a program Johnson inherited. Sure, his first year, he inherited players that he LED to the elite eight, but after that, he inherited zilch except for a major APR problem. Brady ran the program into the ground. Around 33 players left the team because of conflicts with Brady or because they flunked out. These are players that wanted to come to LSU and play. Brady's responsibility was to make them stay in school. Everyone hates Bobby Knight, but he graduated way over 90% of his players...and Indiana is no slouch U. They graduated because of Bobby Knight's policies and the type of program he ran. You're right about me not going to many games...and I admitted that I'm not the greatest student of the game, but I fail to see how that negates my own insight. My opinion on the Brady regime is also based on personal conversations with Coach Dale Brown. You also didn't mention what type of program he's trying to build. If Trent Johnson wanted to win right away, he'd have recruited a bunch of one and done type players, but to my knowledge he didn't go after a single one because he's taking time to build a program that's sustainable. In time, I think most LSU fans will learn to look past the w-l record just like they learned to appreciate baseball. In my day, the Mike Miley era, no one cared about baseball until the 90's. It took Bertmann a decade to build the type of program that Trent Johnson is building.
Anthony Hickey Jr. Let me just try to tone down SOME of this bad mojo goin' on here. Afterall, we do still have a recruit out there, named Anthony Hickey, Jr., Mr. Basketball of Kentucky, who has LSU in his top 3 and has said that he wants to visit us. Now, before folks start talking about him being too short, not as good as Mr. Stringer, not being offered by Kentucky, let's just be objective. Here is a kid that has hustled his Sr. year and took his team to the state championship. As casual fans out there are quick to cast stones and talk about how Trent doesn't recruit "SEC caliber talent", let's first give the kid his due. He has LSU in his final 3, along with South Carolina, and Dayton. He is entertaining a possible offer from Butler (a school that, uh, played in the Final two years in a row and beat SEC Champion Florida). In addition, he's turning down offers from other SEC schools, named Miss St and Tennessee, as well as offers from good basketball schools Cincy (Big East) and Texas Tech (Billy G), to visit LSU. So, instead of looking at the glass half empty, maybe we should look at it as half full. This is what ESPN has to say about the kid... Strengths: Hickey pushes the ball and plays with a great pace. He advances the ball with sharp passes on the break and scores with a nice mid range pull up and floater. Hickey can stop on a dime and elevate into his jump shot from about 17 feet and in. Hickey has good command of the ball and pounds it strong as he changes speeds and directions. Hickey also applies great ball pressure with his quick feet and active hands and is tough enough to take a charge. Weaknesses: He will take an open three but must become more consistent. At times Hickey can be sped up and get out of control but for the most part he makes good decisions. Bottom Line: It is important to mention that Hickey played an excellent floor game and is the most important player on his team. He also hustles and competes for the entire game. So, for those of us that are paying attention, he's sort of the PG that we need, right? Someone who's quicker on the perimeter, but can score in a different way than launching 3s, and who makes good decisions and competes? Uh, that's what I think a PG should do. So, for all of the negativity out there, I hope Mr. Hickey is paying attention to LSU. I frankly would love to have this guy come in here and work him in the rotation with Stringer, Isaac and Hickey, as possible point guards of the future. Don't get caught up in all of the negativity. LSU still has its fair share of SEC championships, and Trent has had his fair share of successes and NBA talent! :geauxtige
So I was reading dandy don this morning and he mentioned that we lost out on 2 BBall recruits. 1 to Nebraska (Talley) and 1 to OK. Anybody know who that is? Maybe I missed it. Also rivals list SG Cody Glenn as a verbal commit for this year. What's the scoop on him and will he sign?
Ah, the interesting spin of the ever "faithful" LSU fans and posters! :thumb: What folks like Dandy Don are talking about is Trent "losing" out on Talley (Nebraska) and Sam Grooms, a JUCO 6'1" PG out of Chipola FL, who picked Oklahoma after Kruger offered him after becoming HC. It should be noted that while LSU was in talks with and had visited Grooms a few times, LSU never offered Grooms. There was a story by Tigerbait a few weeks back where Grooms showed some interest in LSU and "would certainly visit" if given the opportunity. But, again, I think Trent and staff had only offered Talley and Hickey, and I'm not sure why they never formally offered Grooms. I suspect it was a combination of Grooms not necessarily being super interested in LSU, him wanting to stay in the ACC, and perhaps him just not exciting the LSU staff as much as Talley and Hickey did. So, while folks are saying that LSU "lost out" on 2 recruits, I think really that's just a certain casual perspective of LSU not being able to ink a couple of guys whose names were floating around. I think this has been covered, but Cody Glenn apparently is a baseball player who signed with LSU is also a decent basketball player. As is Ronald Martin (football). Not sure that either is considering being a two sport athlete at LSU, but neither is likely rated even as high in basketball terms as John Isaac, who is of similar build and position. It's almost like folks are forgetting that we have Isaac, O'Bryant, and Hamilton coming in the door next year! Anthony Hickey would legitimately add a different dimension to this class--when it's all said and done, you've got a good PG (All-Stater from Kentucky), a nice All-State LA combo guard, a McD AA PF/C, and a Big12 Transfer Center.
Anthony Hickey Jr. No update today. As they say, it's been quiet... too quiet. I'm almost afraid to start the dialogue on the subject for fear that we jinx something, but MAN would I like to hear some good news for Trent and team. In part because we need something positive to talk about, and in part because i think sometimes we never know what recruit will pan out--and, there's something that I like about Anthony Hickey Jr. First, he's a point guard who is very quick with the ball, both on defense and offense. While he's a "late bloomer" on most recruiting boards, maybe a 2* moving up to a 3*, he's a Mr. Kentucky, and a All-State tourney MVP. In some ways, he's in that tier of recruit much like a Bo Spencer (a LA All-Stater, who signed with LSU late, MVP of his All State class tourney). And, so, for those that question whether an All-State kid can make an impact as a FROSH, go back and look at Bo Spencer's impact as a FROSH at LSU. Not bad. Second, he's a dual sport athlete... a QB in fact. You can usually count on dual sport PG/QB athletes to be heady, good leadership type players. Charlie Ward comes to mind. When you think about what this team at times lacked, toughness and smarts, ball handling, well, you have to like the void that Hickey could fill. Third, for those that sort of hope LSU can recruit more nationally, develop some in-roads in different parts of the country--this one's for you. You'd like to see Trent's staff do that in SEC country. Hickey in recent articles has talked about Donny G and the job that he's doing recruiting on him. I'd like to see next year that perhaps with some seasoning, guards like Turner and Stringer will show us that Trent and Donny G can develop some guards (guards that they have frankly not had very long with yet). But, things right now are interesting. You never know if the distance might affect a kid and his family. The visit I'm sure was eye-opening. Great because frankly of the schools Anthony is considering (South Carolina and Dayton, maybe Butler), LSU probably feels like the big time. Big Arena, nice shiny practice facility, big Basketball history. Certain things seem to point in LSU's favor. South Carolina has already signed a JUCO PG in its 2011 class and is recruiting another point guard. Distance wise, it's a wash, and South Carolina as a school has it's work cut out for it. Dayton would have been an interesting option, but has it's fair share of uncertainty with their head man going to GA Tech and new unproven coach at the helm. Butler DID offer this kid, but at the same time, Mack who is testing the waters and is likely to come back with the NBA lock out looming, won't have to pull out until May 8th (Local fan reaction: Will Shelvin Mack leave Butler for the NBA? - College Basketball - Rivals.com). When, Hickey has said he will make his decision on May 6th publicly. In addition, Butler already has a higher rated PG in Jackson Aldridge signed in the 2011 class and is on top of that recruiting another PG recently released from a Bradley LOI, Remy Abell (from Kentucky no less!). So, some of the skuttlebutt is that Western Kentucky, a school that Hickey originally was recruited by may be making a strong push for him. Seems like the close to home factor may be making a play... So, this one will be interesting for sure. I hope Hickey will make the play for a bigger conference, larger limelight, and be part of a good squad that will only get better at LSU. But, then, I tend to be the optimist... :yelwink2::geaux: Let me say, though, there are certainly some Tiger fans out there that would welcome you, Mr. Hickey! :thumb:
