LSU Men's Basketball - 2013-14

Fair enough. The reasoning you give is very respectable. I personally tend to be a bit more positive, patient, and forgiving, but I understand what you are saying. Pressure and expectations can have a positive impact on performance and outcomes, too. They are certainly inconsistent, that's for sure. Hopefully they come around in time.

 

I hope so, too. Hard to see where we're headed in less than 2 seasons and with several of Trent's recruits playing crucial rules. All we can do is hope for the best.

 

I haven't watched the team as much as I would like. They will have to play well down the stretch, and then have a good showing in the SEC Tournament to have any prayer of an NCAA bid.

 

I actually have to agree here with DoleMite... not so much the piece about CJJ and his coaching, because I have faith in CJJ as a coach, CEO of a program, and as a program builder, but this whole piece of inconsistency. CJJ absolutely needs to be judged in his "regime" in years 3 and 4 of this tenure, and the future is still super bright. But, I think a loss to Texas A&M is frankly a little bit inexcusable, right now. UGA I think created some match ups for us, and UGA at least is sniffing the top half of the SEC. A&M is not that. Kennedy is a decent coach, but when you can beat Texas Tech, for example, on the road, you should be able to beat A&M, which from a talent perspective is not where LSU is--it's called nothing else but an underachievement. Also, you look at the way you're getting beat. 83 points scored by A&M says plain and simple, the Tigers are not playing good defense. Particularly again, it seems that the way teams are beating us, or keeping up with us, is the three ball--A&M killed us from downtown and that's either defensive rotations or the fact that we play with two sub 6' guards, or both. Our guards did not guard the three point line and our bigs got out-rebounded. I've said it before, intensity seems to be something that is lacking on a night in and night out basis. Sometimes with "talented" players, it's hard to also find that maturity and commitment. Certainly that is a big question mark with Johnny O, maybe at some level, Hickey. I see Mickey and Shavon Coleman, frankly, as the only two guys (maybe Stringer too) who seem outwardly (anyway) to give 110% all of the time. Johnny O disappears at inopportune times (A&M went on a big run when JOB picked up 2 fouls early again), and frankly, he's leaving $$s on the table with games like this. Martin is talented but really searching for a comfort zone, but he has also got to grow up faster.

I see help on the way (particularly, I think we're going to appreciate having Hornsby and Josh Gray in here in a big way next year), and sometimes we make a little too much out of "coaching" when players play the game, but other times we do not. I see our team as more talented than prior years, but some maturity and personnel gaps still exist. With a frontline of O'Bryant, Martin and Mickey, we should have dominated A&M in the paint, but we didn't. Based upon talent and paper, I can only surmise that the players laid an egg (I will caveat all of this with the fact that I couldn't watch the game).

 

Completely agree. I started to post earlier about SColeman. I really appreciate his efforts and tenure as a Tiger. He always plays hard, and seems to be a catalyst when we need one. JMickeys the other fighter, and you could put Hickey in that category, too. I did get to see most of the game. I thought A&M played great against our press. They passed out of it well and got easy baskets. Conversely, we didn't handle well our press not creating turnovers like it did against Bama. That affected our energy and rebounding, IMO. Agree, dolomite makes some good points for sure.

 

Last night was extremely disappointing and, imo, the nail in the coffin as far as a NCAA tourney bid goes unless the Tigers manage to win the SEC tournament. Prior to the season I had high hopes that this was a tourney team and I don't think my expectations were unreasonable. This team has the talent to go to the dance but just didn't perform. They seem to have acquired the Saints roaditis handicap. Jordan Mickey is establishing himself as one of the best, most exciting players LSU has had in quite a while. But for whatever reason, the team seems discombobulated when JOB is benched. We have no presence inside the paint. The team seems to play a decent press defense but as soon as we get back into a game, CJJ goes away from the press. The SEC is weak and this team has some talent but inexplicable losses to RI, A&M, and Bama might be the difference between the NCAA and the NIT. With upcoming games on the road with Arkansas, Kentucky, and Florida I worry the NIT might slip away.

 

If only we played all our games at home. This team looks to be a 500 ball club in SEC play. I would have hoped for more. The bright side is the lack os spotlight may keep Jordan Mickey here one more year. Longshot, but maybe.

 

Agreed. I personally don't think that Mickey should go out after a year, nor does he think he should, but he's no doubt making a name for himself on national all-freshman lists.

Look, I want to be fair to the game of basketball. I am reminded of the Shaq/Dale Brown team that lost to a re-emerging Pitino led UK team when a bunch of 3 point bombers, bombed LSU at home. David does beat Goliath in basketball all of the time, so we shouldn't say that the sky is falling. However, as I noted before, there is either a real maturity/commitment issue needed on the players' parts, some recruiting gaps that need to be filled, or some coaching scheming that needs to be addressed--probably some combination of all of the above. When a team is flat, you fire them up, and if a team is beating your scheme, you re-scheme. Again, didn't watch the game, but seems like perhaps a big combination of some players coming out flat, and our schemes not slowing them down. Although, you don't change the world overnight, contrary to popular opinion.

I personally think that CJJ has focused so much in recruiting on bigs, that we've somewhat forgot that the NCAA game today is still largely based on guard play. We're still largely playing with Trent's recruits on the perimeter... Morgan, Hickey, Stringer, and even Hammink to some degree. And the games we seem to be losing, or teams that give us trouble, seem to be teams with big, mobile guards that can shoot. Quarterman is the only CJJ guard recruit to see the floor, and while the potential is certainly there, his play has been inconsistent. I think frankly, that's why CJJ prioritized going the JUCO route with Gray and Hornsby--he knows he needs mature help sooner rather than later. Even with the future guard commits (and by the way, LSU got a very quiet commitment from U-High sophomore Stan Mays, a local 6-1" PG who is likely going to be a 4 star kind of kid) like Jaylen Patternson and Stan Mays, LSU solely needs that 6'5"/6'6" kind of kid who can just light it up but also lock down the athletic 2s in the league. We sort of took Charles Carmouche for granted last year, as he was a pretty decent player in this respect.

 

not many of you are being honest with yourselves. the recruiting hype is the only real difference between this team and ctj's teams. scheme, motivation and consistency are all issues. lets pray this is only due to insufficient time to coach-up ctj's players and/or freshmen. he has recruited well, but if he doesnt get better results the program could spiral out of control. this team has 3 players that will likely be drafted (eventually) and includes 4 seasoned players. its tempting to look at the roster and ask if cjj cant put this team into the tourney, what does the roster have to look like?

 

that game was post-oneal