Brady seemed to carry a chip on his shoulder. While his teams generally were pretty talented he didn't seem to coach them up. In addition, he did not warm up to the media and the fans here. Hence the Brady bashing. I truly think if he decides this is where he wants to be long term Trent Johnson will be a tremendous head coach in time. His record speaks for itself.
If you believe that a Top 15 pick stays in school, especially one who by all accounts stayed to himself and wasn't much of a part of the team atmosphere, I've got some beachfront property in Breaux Bridge to sell you.
quite like our baseball program, oh wait.:wave: At LSU, just like every other major institution that is solvent, Football pays the bills because that's where the money is. I dare say there are plenty enough who care about baseball, but revenue from attendance and tv deals aren't nearly enough to run the team for a season. let alone build a brand new park. trust me buddy, the money is definitely there.
LSU has bandwagon basketball fans. $ will only come if they win, winning will only come if there is $. this is not the story at somewhere like arkansas that cares about basketball and has the facilites to show for it, despite not being good for over a decade. this isnt really a knock on lsu, just how it is. thats why its hard and rare for a school to be consistently top 10 in fball and basketball---OhioSt, UF maybe a few others (wisconsin, okla, tx). LSU can do better than it did under brady but its definitely not a sure thing. i dont think CTJ will do any better than brady, depending on your definition. i dont think he'll get two SEC titles and a FF in 10 yrs, but his down years wont be so down.
UF's success flies in the face of this reasoning. No one can tell me with a straight face that Florida was anything but a football school before Billy Donovan was hired. Will basketball ever be the cultural force that football is at LSU? Of course not. But as with anything else in life, success at something comes only after you make a real commitment to it. The team is getting some new facilities and has a new coach with a different outlook on the game. Evidently, someone in authority feels basketball has the potential to be a $ maker, else we would've stuck with Brady till the day he drove the program completely into the ground.
It seems like we have this discussion EVERY year about the same time. Can LSU be a basketball school, will we ever win a NC, can we be UNC or Duke? Honestly, I agree with the above. If places like Florida, Arkansas, Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas, and we could probably name more if we really wanted to, can have Basketball programs find success at "football" or SEC schools, there is no reason why LSU can't. Secondly, Dale Brown. Let's all try to remember that in the 80s, LSU arguably was a better basketball school than football school (2 FFs and good post season play, fan support), and Dale Brown made LSU hoops meaningful. Do the citizens at large of Baton Rouge care more about football than basketball? Of course. BUT, what's your definition of success in hoops? If it's you have to win a NC like LSU has done in football or baseball, that's a tall order. But, if it's make another final four, or be a sweet 16 team year in and year out, compete for the SEC championship, that's certainly doable. At a minimum, it's doable, b/c LSU is in a good recruiting area, and has the resources and right big-college environment to replicate what has been done at the Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, etc. First step is lock down LA recruiting and make sure that LA recruits see LSU as a great destination, b/c not only is it close to home, but CTJ will make them better players and get them to the NBA--that's obviously what CTJ has realized and that is something he has proven he can do. He has yet to do it, but he's trying his hand at it. Second, it's to build a consistent winning program through good coaching. Again, I believe CTJ can do this in a year or two--he's already shown this year, with one bad loss to Utah, but more dominant wins against weak competition and less lapses in overall play, and getting the most out of guys like Spencer, Thornton, Temple--even Q' Thornton. Thirdly, it's to have the administration and community buy into that consistency and support the program with $ and fan support. That's a year to three years away, but the new practice facility already starts that process. I saw how the new mens' practice facilities and locker rooms at Texas transformed Texas' recruiting stature, you see that at Bama (their gym helped them catch up to the LSU and surpassed Auburn in their recruiting in AL and southeast), and of course at Arkansas, where a NC helps, but that NC and support built their arena which keeps it somehow a "basketball" school within the SEC. Give CTJ some time, and I think that CTJ can surpass Brady in overall success. I personally won't be measuring CTJ in terms of FFs, but in quality of play, quality of program and players, consistency, building the basketball brand and keeping it headed in the right direction--some of the things that Brady was not good at. :geauxtige LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL.
UK is the only SEC program that has done what you are talking about. UT's success is way to short to consider it a top program and UF is only because of Donovan. its not SEC but look at Calipari at Memphis. he was the golden boy that went to a basketball school in a recruiting hotbed and it took him 7,8 yrs. its certainly possible for LSU to get there, but given the problems that other schools (including many with more interest and $$$) have had in doing so, it is very very unlikely.
Even as fun and crazy as March Madness gets, NOTHING in sports will ever rival the cultural force that is college football. College football is one of the great things about this country. I truly believe that....even in spite of its biggest flaw otherwise known by the three letter name B.C.S.
