John Brady never had a season like this

That isn't what he was saying, and Maravich was from the late 60's. The game of basketball has changed slightly since then. What he is trying to say is that going after the guys who are going to stay 4 years is great and all, but there is nothing wrong with going after pure basketball talent, even if it means that kid is only going to do 1 year and then go pro.

 

We've come close several times. We were competitive with Ole Miss, MSU, UT, USCe, Auburn, Washington State, Utah, and quite a few others. Guard play and depth are what is killing us.

The depth issue lies with the way Brady recruited and retained players, and admittedly the slow start Johnson got off to. But this year he is bringing in what is a top ten before the pick up of KC Ross Miller plus Malcolm White, a proven SEC player.

And given the choice between the methodology of a proven program builder like Johnson and someone looking for recruiting stars, I'm gonna side with Coach Johnson.

His 08-09 team was pretty much the same as Brady's 07-08 team. Johnson won the SEC and Brady got fired. Not even a lottery pick could help.

What is encouraging me is Johnson has alot of not so great players like Kinsley, Populist, and Beadie contributing and playing good defense. Project guys like Dennis Harris and Garrett Green are improving every game.

I am very excited about the future of the program with CTJ at the helm.

 

Check out some of the top recruits in some Louisiana high schools and you'll see what Clair is talking about is true. Smarter is not always better or else the Ivy league would be dominating everything.

 

That's because he wasn't the coach after John Brady...

 

2000-2001

13-16 and 3-18 in sec (one w in sec tourney). that is the same. the roster was worse though in a lot of ways. decent 5 but absolutely 0 after that and 0 post presence (beshara and dupree were the post players.) but honestly id rather have no post than no guards.

anyway nothing to see here. there is no reason to think ctj isnt the better coach. and im a brady fan.

 

John Brady had a 74-93 SEC record at LSU. In his 11 seasons, he posted a winning conference record THREE times. I can't understand how people are actually defending him. It should have happened much sooner, IMO.

 

i dont understand how you dont understand. he had severe sanctions, won 2 sec titles, and went to a ff. you extrapolate those #s and its like dale. there was a good argument for letting him go, but i dont understand how some dont appreciate the success he had. the storied and rich arkansas program has not been able to achieve the success lsu had under brady for what?, 13 yrs now?

 

Ha...quite possibly.

It's kind of hard to compare winning in the SEC vs. winning in the Sun Belt. Comparing the conferences is like comparing a mansion to a Section 8 apartment. And SEC basketball is just good. It's not great like in football. But teams like Kentucky, Florida and Arkansas have had periods where they have been pretty dominant teams. And a team like LSU has had stretches where it has been very good too with other teams alternating in and out.

With the Sun Belt, there's not much of anything. The rest of the SEC had a very down year last year and it only got like three teams in the tournament. I think the Sun Belt had just one. So while I'm sure it's not that easy to recruit really good talent to a Sun Belt team, I don't think there's that much good competition either.

Brady was not really a bad coach, it was his personality that did him in (and at times he would coach with a defeated mentality). It was the arguments/transfers/players quitting that started to define his coaching. He did exit very gracefully though. His team has moved up in their division of the conference, but there are still 6 teams with better or equal conference records. So he's basically in the middle right now of that conference.

I do agree that he seemed to get some big fish every once in a while (more than Johnson so far) and I think Johnson needs to go after at least a few of those. He's really only had one real recruiting class though because when he first came in, they didn't have much time and decided to save scholarships for this year. And his upcoming class looks to be good. He needs more Storm Warren types who are athletic, hustle and have lots of potential. If they can coach Warren to cut down on his fouls, he can make a big impact on the future (he's already doing very well for a 2nd year player).

I didn't expect much out of the team this year, but I didn't expect them to be winless in the SEC this far in either. The combo of seven players lost from last year and losing a starter for the season right before the start seems like it's been too much on them. Taz has played great the whole year. Spencer hustles and has some very good games at times, but his 3-pt% and FG% is way down this year and that has probably hurt the most with nobody else shooting from outside much.

I know the program is looking to get away from the good/bad cycle year in and year out. But this is still the program-building stage of the Johnson era. It's not like it's happening five or six years in. I think he'll need to combine those four year guys with one or two big fish to make it what we want it to be.

 

How long do you think Brady should have been given a pass? I recognize his accomplishments, but I think they were outweighed by his failures.

Honest question because I don't know, when did he have the full compliment of scholarships?

 

Coach Johnson has signed a top 10 class for next season before our latest commit and you're complaining about who he chose to sign for next year :rolleye33: Now if you wanted to make the argument for this past season when he only signed one player than you could, but I'll take Coach Johnson's choices over yours any day of the week.