John Brady never had a season like this

John Brady IS THE REASON why we are having a season like this!!!

Trent is stuck cleaning up Brady's mess/sorry a*s recruiting. We all saw this coming and things will be fine in a year or two when Trent gets his guys in there and actually ADDS SOME DEPTH TO THIS TEAM (again...thanks John Brady). We are playing three walk-ons because of Brady's inability to recruit outside a 20 mile radius of BR!!!

I don't ever want to see Brady in BR again!!!

 

as much as I like CTJ and think he will succeed, you cant really blame brady.

its a combination of factors just like anywhere a new coach takes over. would be different if he took over midseason of this year.

most of the blame goes to the current coach no matter how you slice it. thats how it works in coaching-everywhere. he understands this. and basketball is the one sport you can turn around the entire program with 2 or 3 recruits. its his job to get these players.

so, he's going to have to try a different approach in coaching and recruiting because going winless in the sec says something about motivating players more than talent. even crappy teams win an occasional game. this team cant even do that.

 

Hence why I CLEARLY said next year will tell us a lot. Selective memory is a killer.

But TJ and I have the same # of SEC wins this year, no matter what coach's choices you take. That's the bottom line here.

Who's fault is it the team only signed one guy last class? Lord knows they knew they were losing about a half-dozen guys, why didn't they hit the road and sign more players? They have the scholarships.

Basketball is a very "win now" sport and as Kentucky is proving, rebuilding can be done in just a few seasons. If the losing continues much longer, we have to go another route. T'is all. The actual X's and O's, I love TJ, b/c I do think LSU is the best prepared team each game and they do the best they can with the hand they are dealt. I just think the deck of cards TJ is shopping for isn't the best deck, if you get what I am saying.

 

everyone keeps saying wait until next years recruits get here.

that recruiting class is solid and necessary to rebuild...but i think lots of people are going to be disappointed. i call it the russell shepard syndrome.

 

Remind me again of all the LSU fans Russell Shepard has disappointed?

 

was talking about contribution to the team. people always set the bar way too high...and it has already happened with this decent recruiting class.

this is a nice way of saying (as a whole) theyre average at best.

 

Look, I respect the opinions, but I see a post like this and I have to continue to debate or dispell some myths here. First, folks seem to be quick to point out that Brady had some success recruiting 5 star or "NBA" level talent and that is what is needed for success. Let's be clear about who he (or Butch) signed that were of that caliber. Swift, Bass, Tasmin, Glen Davis, ALL of them, with the exception of Anthony Randolph (Dallas TX) were local LA products. For the most part, these "local" signings were clearly within Brady's sights and within the "sphere" of LSU influence (i.e., Temple family). But, to some extent, it was also "good years" for LA talent in terms of "top" talent. To be fair to the debate, Brady had some NBA talent that was NOT 5 star talent (Jabari Smith, Ronald Dupree, Tyrus Thomas come to mind) and he had some top LA talent not even take him seriously (Greg Monroe, DJ Augustin, LaceDarius Dunn, Tweety Carter, etc.). Let's all admit that recruiting is an inexact science, and I suppose if we were following your approach of just trying to sign players that Rivals ranks as high, you'd pass over kids like Darrell Mitchell, Tyrus Thomas, etc.

Second, Brady has IMHO never recruited particularly DEEP classes, and while he did occassionally sign "top" talent in some years, he never balanced out those classes with good enough players to complement those players, or keep role players long enough for them to be good in their junior/senior years (Ben Voogd, Ross Neltner, Magnum Rolle, etc.)

Now, fast forward to Trent's recruiting "style". First, your comments lack true appreciation of Trent's signings. Sure, he signed Ludwig and Derenbecker from Country Day (i.e., "smart" white kids). But, he's also signed Aaron Dotson (top 100) in 2009, Andre Stringer, Jalen Courtney, Ralston Turner and more recently KC Ross Miller in 2010. These are certainly NOT caucasian ballers and they are not all "Stanford" type players. Sorry if I disagree with you, but it actually HELPS to be intelligent in basketball and I don't see the problem with that. :lol: If you look at the ratings as well, Turner, Stringer and Derenbecker are all top 75-90 HS kids, Miller is top 150 according to Rivals (and could be higher), and Courtney is a MS All-State kid. Sure, none of these kids are John Wall... but the number of those kids from LA, MS or AL in the last few years were few and far between.

Lastly, folks underestimate the value in building a consistent hoops program. Not every program can be a UNC or Kentucky and simply go after one and done players. Consider the "Stanford" type of programs at Butler, Vanderbilt, Gonzaga, who make it a point to be top 20 programs year in and year out. That's quite frankly very fine to me. Vanderbilt was right there with Kentucky this past weekend with all of Kentucky's first round draft picks, with their 3 and 4 star recruits.

I don't think you can say that Trent's 0-12 SEC start is due to his "recruiting philosophy". It's due to the fact that the rest of the SEC got a year better, while LSU lost a ton of it's senior leadership and talent. It's also unfortunate that several of LSU's key players this year were hurt or coming off injuries. As was pointed out earlier, Florida, LSU and others have fallen and fallen hard after good seasons in the SEC. I think that name of the game is consistent recruiting to build a consistent winner. And a consistent winner will be much more convincing to that top 30 kid growing up in LA in years to come... and that's when Trent will have a much better chance to land that kid.

 

He had 2 recruiting classes to refill the cupboard up. It's not like we lost 4-5 guys early to the NBA. Everyone knew we needed players asap. Why do we not have virtually any true freshmen out there who were signed last class? Why do we have what seems like 4-5 walkons from walkon tryouts?

I know you're a big fan of the program and I respect that, but you painted the same rainbow colored picture all throughout Brady's stay, too, so I apologize, but I can't be as optimistic about the direction of the program until I see some results.

I'm not knocking the current players. I think they are all great kids, but I cannot question that Brady owned the SEC Freshman of the Year award in his time at LSU. Sure, he might not have developed those players and that ultimately led to his downfall, but I'd still rather see 1-2 Brandon Basses to every 4 Eddie Ludwigs.

From 2003-07, Brady landed 5, five-star players.

TJ in his 2008-10 classes = 0.

I don't see as much consistency there as you do.

 

Damn clair, give the guy a chance. This is his second year. LSU does not recruit itself and changing coaches makes that first year recruiting difficult. Johnson has made a choice to have a strong recruiting class in 2010 at the expense of 2009. It may suck now, but the guy has a record of success. I am honestly surprised and a little disappointed just how bad we are doing, but I still have hope that Johnson can bring us back to the days when the PMAC was packed on a regular basis. That never happened under Brady. Rebuilding from cinders takes more than a day.

Honestly, it sounds like you have a personal thing against coach Johnson.

 

i dont remember when he had full schollies. but i know he didnt when they won the sec and made the s16. so thats at least 3 yrs.

how long should brady have been given? ADs call. i can see it either way. it was clear he would have, at best, continued the rollercoaster ride. id prefer that to 8-8 season every year, but lsu could get a better coach and have a better program. honestly all they needed is a john brady that can manage a roster better.

its brady's fault and the ADs fault and ctj's fault. mostly it comes with the coaching transition and ctj made the difficult decision to take it slow. there is strong reason to think that this team would have gallon and mason-griffin starting (so gallon, warren, tas, bo and mason-griffin) on a 10-6 team.

he signed two and went after more.

its hard to hold the first class against him.

id prefer to see a Sr ludwig than a Fr/So bass.

most of brady's 5stars were from La, and none of the others (rolle, johnson) were early in his time at lsu

how many 5stars have been in La since ctj got here? 0