It may not even be that if the NCAA cracks down on Calipari in the next few years. There's so much smoke between his recruiting classes and his closet full of skeletons for the NCAA to ignore forever, as much as they want to.
all great posts. Yes, it's football season, but there's something different about this year. A lot of new players, primarily "Trent's" team now. Also young talent (Stringer, Derenbecker, Turner) mixed with older, untested talent (white) and Brady recruits that will show off the developmental coaching of Trent (Harris, Green). A couple of other interesting vantage points. Since when has LSU, during the prior regime, been a perimeter balanced offense with a solid PG recruit. No offense to that system, but it's been a while since LSU had a top 100 PG recruit. Stringer is certainly not without flaws, but he's a legitimate future SEC PG with shooting and handling skills. No more "patch work" at point with the likes of Spencer, Temple, Bright, Darrell Mitchell (again, no offense to them, but not true points). So, is Stringer going to become like Knight (who Trent coached at Stanford)? Also, since when can you say that LSU had several legitimate 3 point shooters? If you take out Thornton of two years ago, didn't we always long for legitimate three point shooters to line up with the likes of big baby, stro' swift? Yes, Darrell Mitchell was a solid shooter and the Temple boys were decent, but Derenbecker, Turner and Stringer can all flat out shoot. The question will be this season, are they going to play like freshmen and let the pressure get to them, or are they going to adjust to the college game and be confident. At the same time, I'm looking forward to Storm and Malcolm. A legitimate truly inside duo. Tas' was an ironman, but not a true threat on the blocks night in and night out, on a team that needed him everywhere. As folks key in on Storm, Malcolm will be getting on the blocks and vice versa. It was so key to have balance on the front line, and we saw what happened when Davis had T-Train, when Swift had Beshara/Smith. I'll be interested in seeing what a year off in LSU's development program has done for Malcolm (b/c you'll see more of the same when Justin Hamilton steps out on the court the following year). all in all, a .500 record in the SEC should be the goal. that was always the goal of Brady and often times just a winning record in the SEC meant a post-season birth. The SEC East is a bear, and as usual, one could say that the SEC west is pretty open. A young team with some confidence could surprise, folks. :geauxtige
