Just a few more hoops thoughts...

Just have to post a few musings from recent hoops play in the tourney. Some to get folks thinking a little bit about what makes a good college program, the SEC and recruiting philosophies.

First, prior to today, it was really looking like the SEC was going to get some vindication. If you look at the SEC's record against other big "basketball" conferences, we weren't actually doing too bad. UK and Tenn made the SEC the only conference with two Elite 8 entrants, but then Kentucky lost today in trying to win it all. This bodes well for LSU and the SEC next year, when folks try to not respect the conference. You think about how the SEC has done in the NIT as well (MIssissippi going far again).

Second, for those that talk about what Trent needs to do or not do to build a program should just pay close attention to the "cinderella" schools this year. Kansas, gone. UK, gone. Syracuse, gone. The only 1 seed left? Of all of 'em, it's Duke. A team of a bunch of dare I say, white "unathletic" kids (with the exception of a couple kids like Smith), that wanted to play at Duke. Also note that BUTLER is in the Final Four. This is the same team that LSU eked out a win against in the first round last year. They have more or less the same kids, only one year older. They take out the higher seed from a Big conference with stellar D and timely baskets. Hayward, Howard, Mack, none of these kids are top 20 recruits. Just good top 100, top 150 kids playing hard for a smart coach.

Likewise, for all of the folks that thought Calipari was just going to waltz in and take UK to the title with his bevy of top 10 recruits... think again. Granted, any team can have an "off night" and UK certainly didn't help themselves with an abysmal shooting night. But, this goes to show that a decent (and Huggins is not a shabby recruiter in his own right) team, with experience and moxy, can beat a bunch of very talented, but inexperienced kids on many nights. WVU is quite frankly the favorite probably now, right there with Duke to win it. You think about all of the "mid majors" who just surprised teams this year... Northern Iowa. St. Mary's. Cornell. Good teams of upperclassmen who were probably not on anyone's top 100 recruiting lists.

Lastly, this should give some hope to LSU fans thinking about hoops for the long term. If you look at the teams left, you should first notice that a unifying theme, of course is guard play. Butler went "small" to beat both Syracuse and K-State, and their guards hit their shots when needed. Likewise, despite a NBA lottery pick in Cousins, UK could not get untracked with its uber-talented guard tandem of Wall and Bledsoe. Not particularly good "pure shooters", they both struggled against WVU's zone.

With LSU next year, first you say to yourself, that this 2010 class with time could be very good. Good guards (Stringer, Miller & Turner) who can all stroke it. Matt Derebecker, well, quite frankly could be a LA version of Butler's Hayward or even Duke's Singler. Plus we add a very good, serviceable big man in White, which is at times all you need in college. Could over time, Derenbecker, Turner, Stringer, Miller start to look like Butler's or Duke's guard to SF line ups? If they improve year over year, nothing suggests that they couldn't. None of these guys on Butler or Duke's teams were McD AAs (Maybe with the exception of Singler). There is value in getting good recruits (as opposed to one and dones) cultivating them in a program, and having them develop as juniors and seniors in a consistent program.

Trent is on to something folks. Stay tuned. :geauxtige:bball::geauxtige

 

UK looked like they were on drugs or something tonight. It was shocking to me. Not so much that they lost, but the way they looked. They were outplayed, outcoached, outhustled... I couldn't believe how many easy layups and backdoor scores WV had. And the three-point shots were awful (I think they started out 0-17). The free throws were just as bad at about 55%. UK couldn't do anything against the WV D.

But I was shocked at how laid back UK's plan was. They should have pressed a lot earlier (even when WV had their PG in) because WV was nailing three pointers and basically killing UK once they got into their offense. UK only made it close once they started pressing/fouling, but that wasn't until the very end. When you're shooting like UK was shooting, you have to press earlier or try something you might not normally do to score points while slowing down the other team.

As for LSU, all it would take is a few really good shooters and one more big guy to go with Warren in the middle to make a huge leap. The SEC West is basically waiting for a team to take control of it. There are no great teams in the West (just a few decent ones) and it wouldn't be terribly hard to win it with the right additions and strong coaching. We need some shooters though because other than Tas this year, we really didn't have any. If we can get the Spencer from two years ago back (shooting-wise), that would be huge.

 

i generally agree and share the "program building" sentiment.

I also suspect that Aleva is not going to be able to justify an empty PMAC very much longer. Miles is getting tons of fan heat for a 4 loss season and a big, New Years Day bowl game - his first bowl loss ever at LSU. CTJ will not survive very many more apathetic basketball seasons at LSU.

So I hope it doesn't take too much longer to build at least the beginning of the program. I don't think CTJ has too much more time...

 

If you try to run Trent out of town we have the same problem that the Miles-haters seem to want to ignore, but for different reasons: who do you get to replace him that's going to make an immediate huge impact? LSU is virtually unknown as a major basketball program nationally, and there's a very shallow pool of local talent to draw upon to make a Calipari-like splash. Not to mention the stigma of running a coach out of town when he hasn't had the proper time to implement his system.

 

I don't want to run him out of town. I like his emphasis on quality kids and defense. I just can't imagine he'll get another free season anywhere near as horrible as the last one. LSU may not be a Duke or NC or Kentucky, but certainly the powers that be won't accept a program that the students barely show up to watch. Not only embarrasing - it's a preventable drain on the athletic dept coffers.

 

The question still remains about who you replace him with. LSU doesn't have the luxury of picking and choosing 4* and 5* players nationally based on what the program has to offer, and there are very few regionally at the moment. This was something Brady and Butch had exceptional luck with while they were here that Trent hasn't had yet. Also, what star coach is out there that LSU can throw a lot of money at and take big recruits with him? I just don't see who we would get to make this big splash in his first 1-2 years you seem to want in order to draw these huge gates at the PMAC. That leaves the option of building a solid program, with the understanding that a culture of consistent winning will draw the attention of fans, not just for one season every 3 years, but on a consistent year-to-year basis. And if the powers-that-be aren't going to give a coach at least 2-3 seasons to put his system in place, we're going to have coaching musical chairs and more seasons like 2009-10 for many years to come.

And as far as Trent only going after the "smart" kids, that's been debunked pretty thoroughly by gumborue, TGer'nLHornLand, and others. Those players simply aren't there to be had right now.

 

Great question, obviously. And I hope it doesn't need an answer for a LONG time. But I don't think, in this case, the lack of a big name to take his place would deter making a change. He wasn't a big name either. Neither was/is Brady. LSU is a program where you start making a name for yourself...or not.

 

The proof will be in the results, I agree. We should see significant improvement over the next 2 seasons. If we don't, then we should revisit this topic. But for a school like LSU that is realistically limited in terms of the kind of players it can get, a lot of recruiting success also comes down to luck. The first step is to get LA/MS HS players to think that LSU is THE place to play college ball in the area so they won't be so quick to bolt for Kentucky or other SEC schools. If Trent can do that it'll make life a lot easier.

 

Don't worry. Trent Johnson will get the time to develop the program...He will develop the program...He will get recognized nationally for his coaching and recruiting efforts...And he will get offers from more prestigious basketball programs...And we will all cry when he leaves for Kansas or Georgetown (or even Kentucky when Calipari and Ky go on probation :hihi.