No surprise. Someone had to go with the Bridgewater signing. http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2013/04/jalen_courtney_to_leave_lsus_b.html
Well that gets us down to 13 for the 13-14 season. So we have: Hickey (Jr.) O'Bryant (Jr.) Stringer (Sr.) Coleman (Sr.) Collins (So.) Hammink (So.) Morgan (So.) Odo (Jr.) Quarterman (Fr.) Martin (Fr.) Mickey (Fr.) Bridgewater (Fr.) Malone (Fr.) That is not a bad line up. That team can make waves come March if Johnny gets half as much out of these guys as he did out of this past seasons team.
We can win next year with this team. Looking over that roster, the first thing I see is that we have a nice combination of upper classmen to create a nice nucleus for the team with an ass-load of young talent. I can't help but wonder what our starting five will look like next season. It's hard to imagine Hickey, O'Bryant, Stringer and Coleman not starting so that really only leaves one other spot and I am assuming that Martin will fill that hole. That said, JJ likes to rotate players so I would think our top 8-10 players will see considerable PT.
I think Coleman may start the first few games, but he is undersized for what we need him to do, and he will eventually be coming off the bench. For the majority of games I think the starting five will be Hickey, Stringer, Martin, O'Bryant, Odo. Morgan, Coleman, and Mickey will also start some games as well. I think there is a strong chance 1-13 all average more than 5 minutes per game. When is the last time you can say that about an LSU team?
gonna need two more scorers. carmouche was the best offensive player and he's gone. and then the two starting guards cant score. thats forgivable for hickey as pg, but not stringer. im hoping morgan can take a lot of stringer's pt. should be fun to watch.
The real problem with Hickey and Stringer is their (lack of) size. Stringer was a 40% 3-pt shooter this season and Hickey was about 32%. Not bad, but they're both too short to work themselves free on the perimeter or take the ball inside with any consistency. I agree, Morgan is going to push Stringer for minutes. Hickey, with his experience and defensive play, is going to be hard for Quarterman to move out of the lineup, unless he comes in and dominates right from the start. IMO, of course.
I'm anxious to I don't think I can remember a single LSU basketball team that went 13 deep. I agree about Coleman. His lack of size will hurt indeed hurt him though he played bigger at times this past year. Plus I think there will be a deeper pool of talent to compete with. I don't know much about Odo right now so I can't really say what I think.
