(Mens) Basketball Wrap-Up Thread

Great article. Sometimes we as sports fans forget the role of college athletics in trying to give these kids another avenue from where they came. A better future. This kid won't ever be remember as a number on a Rivals list or as the kid that took his team to the Final Four, but he's now got a degree, and will be remembered in his community.

Feel good stories like this abound, and I hope as folks watch the tourney this year, without LSU, that they appreciate the little teams with little known players.

As for coaching talent and Trent, who knows. It's fair to say that there will be a good number of players that LSU loses out on that go on to do good things. No way for LSU to get every player. The key for Trent is make sure that LSU is considered by every good player that grows up in LA, at least. It's on a broader level, raising the image of LSU. I think Dale Brown was a master at this. He had class, and Trent does as well, in more of an understated, serious way. As I think about the Markel Browns, Brian Williams, Langston Galloways of the world, the key is are they taking LSU more seriously? I hope so.

All this said, the name of the game is recruiting, and it's interesting to me how Trent has built his coaching staff of essentially his former Stanford guys, plus Brent Scott (Rice) and Keith Richard. I have yet to see Brent Scott really turn a guy to LSU, although he's been "active". He clearly now has a connection with Gathers. Likewise, not sure how strong of a recruiter Richard is, but his experience would suggest that he knows LA. So far though, this staff hasn't appeared to "dominate" their signings with LA players--perhaps it's more casting a wide net and establishing ties throughout the south. This staff is a little understated, appreciated as a good technical staff, but, certainly not the Butch Pierre types. Perhaps that's a good thing, and they're building relationships from the ground up in LA. So far, the results haven't been too bad--building ties in LA, MS, AL and TX.

I still have my pipedream of Randy Livingston coming back, or better yet, someone like Shaq' coming back into the fold as an assistant. You'd love to see someone, like a Frank Wilson, for the hoops team. Someone who knows the LA recruiting scene inside and out, and yet brings NBA credibility to LSU.

Turns out Randy is now an assistant coach on a NBA D-League team in Maine... I think his lack of college degree may have had something to do with not coaching in college?

Maine Red Claws Name Randy Livingston and Mike Procopio as AssistantCoaches - Minor League Sports Business - MLN - The Raw Feed - Baseball, hockey, basketball, football, lacrosse, auto racing, and soccer news from more than 800 teams.

In another LSU connection, guess who plays on that Maine Red Claws team? None other than FF participant, Darnell Lazare... LSU needs to keep those ties to the NBA alive and well.

Maine Red Claws - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

All true. And, I've been known to be an LSU optimist.

http://lsu.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1063356

Interestingly, Tigerbait had a take on it, which was to look at what the Tigers did in 2002 and 2008 in the "post-downfall" years. In 2002, the Tigers went to the NIT under Brady and in 2008, Brady got canned. In 2002, it was early enough in Brady's tenure that LSU was still dealing with sanctions, and they had surpassed expectation by going to the Sweet 16 two years before, and Brady was starting to recruit, with some big LA targets in his sights. In 2008, different story.

I think as we look forward to 2010-11, similarly, Trent gets some cred for the SEC Championship, but more importantly, I would emphasize look at the subtle things... how are his peers, recruits, players, HS coaches, AAU coaches viewing him as a coach. How is the community viewing him? What does the recruiting outlook look like? I'd give him a better grade for his recruiting for his 2010-11 class, and generally a better grade for coaching and class.

Will his results in 2010-11 though speak for themselves? I don't know. Part of me wants to say, look at the talent of this 2010 signing class and it's probably better than what Brady brought in in 2002. I think a NIT appearance is a must, and a NCAA tourney appearance is the goal. Given that the SEC only got 4 teams in this year (and NO SEC West team at all, which is a little bit of a travesty itself), making the tourney next year for a SEC West team is not going to be easy. Trent will have to balance signing up to play a decent non-conference schedule AND win at least 9 games in the SEC with playing with still, a lot of youth.

But, you can't underestimate that there will be better overall depth and experience in this squad. I look to the improvements that Storm made this year to last, the improveement that Ludwig made from end of season to beginning, and the fact that Harris was a RS Frosh and seemed to better understand his role by the end of the season. Those three, plus the improved health/play of Dotson (key) and Spencer (safe to say he has to play better and can't play worse), I think are more important than necessarily getting a ton of production from the Freshmen. That said, when you take away Mitchell's and the Walk-ons' minutes, plus reduce Bo's minutes to take pressure off him and give more perimeter minutes to new kids, there are going to be decent minutes for the new kids, and practices are going to be alot better and deeper. I think whoever sees the floor is likely to be pretty decent, and so that makes me feel better.

Looking forward to the what's next. :wink: opcorn: :geauxtige:bball::bball:.

 

Even though the previous poster classified this as ignorant... :rolleye33:

I don't understand how anyone can deny that Brady's recruiting (and the culture he set with the team in terms of who he recruited and how he filled the roster) had a great deal to do with the heinous roster this year.

Alex Farrer would not have made much difference this year.

BL: CTJ just isn't a big enough name to come into LSU and immediately fill the coffers with talent. He's gonna have to have time to work it hard. I personally like that he's evidently trying to build a program (vice just a season) but it's painful to watch in the early stages. I don't think next year is going to be all that easy to watch either. But the Tigers should be much better in 2012.

 

I went to school with Renard for a year. I've never seen anyone work harder.