Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) Agreed, but more news is slowly coming out. Rivals is now following up and has a little bit more about the visit. To me, here's some interesting reactions from Eddie from his LSU visit... "I actually got the offer from LSU two Monday's ago," Ludwig said. "They (LSU coaching staff) had been talking to me for about a week or two really hard and we had been in touch really ever since Coach Johnson was hired. I sent them a tape on me and they watched me play a couple of times in my AAU league. That turned into a visit to the campus and that is where I was officially offered. "I was definitely surprised to say the least that I got the offer from them (LSU). I am happy to get an offer from them, but I was definitely surprised." Having yet to coach a game in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Trent Johnson is somewhat of a mystery still to the LSU faithful; however Ludwig was able to offer some first-hand insight about the leader of the Tiger program. "He is kind of laid back," Ludwig said. "But saying that, he is all business. He is really easy to talk to and he absolutely knows what he wants and knows what he wants to do there (at LSU). What Coach Johnson told me was that he thought me and my game would be a perfect fit in the system that he is going to be running at LSU. That was his big selling point. "I asked him about what he is planning to run and he kind of described it as a controlled fast break. A lot of sets, he wants to push the ball but he wants to run a lot of controlled sets. He wants to run, but he also wants to set up and run the offense." At this point, Ludwig only has offers from primarily LA schools, including Tulane, and UNO, and William & Mary, in addition to LSU. So based upon the quotes, it seems like to me that (1) Eddie was surprised to get an offer from LSU, which maybe is a testament that Brady and Butch wouldn't have offered him, (2) LSU is going after shooters that may not necessarily be the most "athletic" guys but fit within a system, (3) CTJ is never going to "hard sell" anyone, so the counter point to that is we're probably not going to see any commitments falling right away. I have a feeling that this staff will be recruiting some very different sets of players than the Brady bunch. The good news is that Trent has yet to really hit the pavement. Busy recruiting periods will happen in the second and fourth weeks of July. With the full staff in place, I think it'll be an exciting and interesting summer of LSU hoops recruiting.
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) PF Latavious Williams now has an offer from LSU and plans to make a decision around Dec. Says he has offers from LSU, Miss St., Kansas St., Baylor, Oklahoma, and UConn. Will be attending a prep school in NC this year. http://louisianastate.scout.com/a.z?s=107&p=8&c=1&nid=3821262
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) Wow. Honestly, I think he's K-State's to lose. That would be an amazing get for LSU. He's supposed to be able to jump out the gym and has been compared to Tyrus Thomas (but then again, who hasn't been compared to Tyrus recently?). He played with Chris Bass on the Brandon Bass All-Stars AAU team.
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) Read on an Iowa St. board that SF Jemal Farmer has LSU in his Top 6. He is in JUCO right now and I am not sure if he is a '09 or '10 recruit.
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) Very interesting. This is definitely a big deal, if things go LSU's way. Scout has this kid listed as a 1-star, but Rivals has him as a 5-star and a top 50 guy in their 150 list. Let's hope that the staff can make some headway with him and that Bass's influence will be felt. Not a ton to add to this thread at this point, but a few things in the news worth adding to the thread. First, not sure that this was highly publicized on this site, but a Rivals' reporter wrote a whole "what might have been" article on Butch Pierre and some the recruits that LSU might have had had Pierre would have been named HC rather than Trent. http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=820451 I'm not necessarily one to say that this article has a lot of merit, b/c I think that Trent is a proven winner and HC commodity. But, it's an interesting debate b/c of what happened with certain kids after the fallout. At the same time, it's clear that this new staff is going to appeal to different kinds of players and as time goes on these "different philosophical differences" will begin to play out. What kind of system will Trent run vs what Butch wanted to run? Butch moves to join Ford, a guy who will probably throw out a more free-flowing high scoring offense. Versus Trent who will win based upon a tougher, more disciplined game on both ends of the court. Again, things will be interesting in July as this is when the meat of the recruiting in the fall starts. It'll be interesting to see what kids Trent and staff gravitate to, and which kids make that commitment to LSU now. Second, and of more positive note, today was the groundbreaking for LSU's new hoops practice facility. This $14 M facility should not be underestimated as a huge recruiting tool for LSU. You've got to think that this helps, especially since it seemed as though LSU was behind other SEC schools in this respect. Should be a nice boost to Trent and Van's recruiting efforts... http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=1504890&DB_OEM_ID=5200 Along with this, here are some interesting Trent quotes as part of the dedication... "The facilities here are exceptional. The thing I appreciate the most about it is the commitment of the people here and the appreciation that they have for LSU. One of the things that we’re going to do on the men’s basketball side is that we are going to make sure that the players we recruit understand this commitment and this passion. I was visiting with Ricky Blanton and Rudy Macklin, and they were sharing stories with me of how they used to play in the old ‘dungeon’ (current practice facility). They would play 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 and boy, would I have liked to witness some of those battles. “We are going to get more Ricky Blantons. We are going to get more Rudy Macklins in our basketball program. What I mean by that is they may not be as talented or as gifted, but they are going to be as committed, they are going to play as hard and they are going to have a passion for the LSU institution. For me, it’s an exciting day, but also, it’s a day that we starting working on the men’s basketball program. I’ve been a head coach now for nine years; this is going to be my 10th year. I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had the resources, the facilities and the commitment from people as a fan base that I have here at LSU. I think the guys here on my basketball staff who are all present now have never been in that same situation, so we are extremely excited and extremely thankful for everything that everyone has done to make this happen." A little different feel and passion I think than CJB would have thrown out there, eh? :yelwink2: :geauxtige LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. BE A PART OF THE TRENT JOHNSON ERA.
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) So, seems like 2010 is the year that CTJ and staff wanted to get a jump on, but the question remains, what do we do with 2009 recruiting. If you want to know the LA kids playing AAU ball with the Louisiana Select team, here's a little interesting thread on alot of LA recruits... of all places, it's on a LA Tech board. Some pretty decent feedback actually (and a shame we don't have this stuff on the Tiger board :redface. But, this kid Tremail White and Roosevelt Johnson seem like kids we should be looking into. And, Ludwig seems like a must have in 2009. And, doesn't look like Kourtney Roberson is a done deal either. http://www.latechbbb.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51938
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) there's local and then there's national. More shifts in Rivals150 for Class of 2009, but not a lot of it that affects LSU. According to Rivals the same names in the top150 are still considering LSU (but none have LSU as their leaders)...Keith Gallon, Karron Johnson, Terrance Shannon. http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?SID=910&Year=2009&ra_key=1642 This will be an interesting class and we'll see what CTJ's staff pulls out of their bag. Hopefully it starts with Eddie Ludwig.
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) Interesting find there. The stories I've seen about Roberson (on Scout.com), however, don't mention LSU at all so and have some pretty positive comments about his feeling for TAMU and commitment there. So unless something happens on both sides of the equation, i.e. TAMU drops the ball some way and CTJ manages to really catch his attention, it doesn't sound like there's any real chance. There's been a good bit of coverage lately about CTJ getting on some of the 2010 recruits, but 2009 is a year where we have a big need so the currently slim looking class is a concern. After this season we have the 5 SRs leaving, and it's not at all out of the realm of possibility that Tas could blow up this year and enter what's currently supposed to be a relatively weak NBA draft. That would leave us with Bo Spencer, Alex Farrer, Garrett Green, the incoming 4 frosh, plus Brandon Mitchell and whoever else is in the 2009 class. A JUCO or two would seem to make sense to get over that hump, though it looks like 80-90% of the decent JUCOs are committed already. So at this point it looks like there is a dip in the road ahead - which we can of course just blame on Brady :grin: - but I do like the course I see CTJ plotting, overall.
Re: Hoops Recruiting (2009) Hey man, dont worry, its still early when it comes to recruiting for the 09 class, hopefully we can get Ludwig to commit to get us started.
