ctj's quotes are pretty jaw-dropping, huh? he's not pulling any punches. i hope ctj knows what he's doing.
I hope so too. I like coaches to be direct with the media, but I'm not a fan of effectively calling out players in public.
i say that only b/c i think we win like 4 or 5 SEC games this season. next yr a winning record in the SEC and yes you're right 11-12 could be back to competing for SEC again.
Rather than get into the Brady vs. Trent debate at this stage (don't really need to b/c there are a host of reasons why CTJ has gone over better with players, recruits, administration, fans, etc.), I'll just talk basketball and personnel. To your last point, I do think there is something to be said about Brady's last few recruiting years that do influence Trent's job. To be fair to Brady, yes, Trent inherited a good core of senior players. including Tas' (Trent has on more than one ocassion paid homage to the fact that if Tas' was on Brady's last team, he might not be here). To be fair to Trent, Brady's last few classes, were very "top-heavy" (i.e., outside of maybe one recruit that impacted anything, there were alot of projects). In the Anthony Randolph signing year, you have Storm Warren, who is certainly a contributor, but you also have a fair number of projects--Dennis Harris, for example. Delwan Graham, a highly ranked recruit, but likely someone who didn't fit well for Trent's system, was dismissed and has ended up in JUCO land at Chipola CC. When you look at prior years, Brady did not necessarily recruit "deep" enough to leave Trent with any Juniors or Seniors now to work with. Alex Farrer? Garrett Green? That said, you can call into question whether Trent could have made more of an "impact" recruiting sooner to fill the gap with someone other than Chris Bass. His missed out on Noel Johnson, and arguably a few others, in "happenstance" recruiting opportunities, but then has signed a good, deep class in 2010. You can say he and his staff needed more time to get recruiting in-roads (which now they've arguably done), you can also say "how long did it take J.Cal to sign a top 1 class?". In any case, we have what we have--a 2010 worth looking forward to. So, that brings me to the coaching department. This year has been, IMO, a little bit of a surprise to me. Largely because while I expected us to struggle, I didn't expect as much "turmoil". Now, I think you still have to give the nod to Trent at this stage, b/c the season's young and now we are about to start the real deal (SEC). The positives are, a seemingly undermanned LSU team has managed to win many close games, against a few good teams but mostly weaker OOC teams. The negatives are they've been blown out by good teams and lost a few games that they could have won. At this stage, the losses vs. WSU and Utah are the only ones that really disappoint me, and it disappoints me that seemingly there is a "personnel" issue. Now, these issues are going to happen in today's game, regardless of the coach. Who knows what's really the deal with Bo, but he has been known (ala FR year) to disappear. But, to be 14 games in, and have a key contributor from last year's team be an "issue" is somewhat concerning, and this is when "coaching" and "team psychologist" is at play. That said, if you watch how Trent has handled it, it's been interesting. He did call out Bo after the Utah game, a day later he sort of softened it. Regardless, he's taken responsibility for it, owned up to it, and tonight, Bo goes out and scores well to give the Tigers a much needed win, by a comfortable margin. As Trent has accurately pointed out, this team needs it's key 3 players "right" and I still maintain that if Spencer, Mitchell and Warren are able to play well, this team can surprise. If you look at player development at the end of non-conference play, you can say: (1) I had pointed out in December that Tas needed to get on track--he by most accounts has, (2) You need role players to step up--while there haven't been leaps and bounds here, you do see kids like Dotson, Ludwig, Kinsley making strides. Looking at the boxscore tonight against a McNeese team that has played some decent teams (and only lost to last year's LSU team by 3), you see a better scoring output (and shooting percentage) from Dotson, Kinsley and Green, who all contributed. You also can say that at this juncture, there are certainly chemistry and player development issues still to be resolved as we head into SEC play, but that is always a constant unknown. Things get real interesting real fast now and while I suspect we'll continue to improve in minor ways, it comes down to Tas and Spencer, then Storm and Dotson stepping up, and the rest of the team to support those efforts. Ultimately, can't expect LSU to light the world on fire this year, but you hope to see Trent continue to have his finger on the pulse of the morale of this team, keep things positive and keep the Tigers fighting and focusing on the team (and not themselves), despite losses. I think we can have faith in that, and this is what this season will be judged on. Apart from that, I don't think that it'll be 11-12 years before LSU competes for the SEC title. I think you should be able to judge a college coach's success within a program generally within 5-6 years. If your standard is "competing" for an SEC title (what if LSU ends up, like this year in football, third in the SEC. Is that competing? Or is your standard, top 2?), I'd say that you have to give Trent two more recruitnig classes to really see. 2010 will help alot next year, which I predict will be a year where perhaps, LSU will compete for the SEC West (MSU and Ole Miss are likely to lose players in addition to the fact that LSU will be deeper)--I think while losing Tas will be huge, adding White, along with a host of other good recruits, plus kids like Dotson and Ludwig improving under the tutelage of Johnson, will lead to at least a top 2-3 SEC West finish and a NCAA birth. 2011 essentially is a "gap" recruiting year. I'm of the mindset that Trent's better off keeping his remaining schollie from 2010 and focusing on adding someone with some real ability to help to go along side John Isaac. Whether that's a JUCO this year, who can either help right away or redshirt, or a HS Freshman big man in 2011 that comes on the scene, remains to be seen--but I want to continue to see good, deep recruiting classes from Trent. 2012 then puts icing on the cake, and you could say, establishes a good 3-4 year track year for recruiting. Where Trent lands with a pretty deep LA class (Gathers, Felix, and others) and a class where up to 5 signees might be inked, will be telling for either his building a dynasty or not. In any case, I'm still remain pretty excited about where our program is headed, which is in the right direction despite what is sure to be an up and down 2009-10 year.:wink:
brady's classes were almost always top-heavy, and, yes, ctj is in a tough spot for a few years because of it. BUT, if i remember correctly, there was a good chance LSU would now have gallon and mason-griffin if they had not let brady go midseason or perhaps if they had hired pierre. those two are definitely contributing as Fr. im not complaining. just want everyone to be clear on the almost inevitable wane in a program from changing coaches. i must make a comparison because it just seems so obvious (although probably on a purely superficial level)--ctj is a lot like brady. but the spencer situation will be a way for ctj to separate himself. seems like brady's players either bought in to his way or didnt and there were no converts. ctj gets half a convert in thornton last year (he was already a pretty decent player) and half a convert in spencer last year but it looks like at best spencer has held steady. big props to ctj if spencer becomes a dependable #1 or #2 option for the team. i disagree. this team would need those three and at least one role player to step up. good teams will pretty consistently be able to take away one or two of the top 3 (especially lsu's top 3 since none of them have any next level attributes--size, quickness, shot). if dotson or ludwig or kinsey can hit several 3s, then maybe---but outside the one game with kinsey it hasnt happened (right?) thats 11-12 as in 2011-12.:lol:
I think these are all fair points. I do think keeping or Brady or Butch as HC, might have kept us Anthony Randolph one more year (50/50), and would have probably kept Tommy Mason Griffin (Oklahoma FR PG). Tiny "Gallon" the 6'9" behemoth who was recently on Sportscenter for breaking a backboard, was more up in the air, and I'm not ready to call him a Brady/Butch recruit. But, the question that you run with any Brady team would have been, how long would these guys have stayed? Would have TMG been effective as a PG? Honestly Randolph was likely a one and one, and TMG hasn't set the world on fire at Oklahoma yet (they are actually kind of a disppointment in the Big 12 so far). Gallon would have been an imposing force. I think what you get with CTJ is the "other" intangibles that made Brady somewhat of a headache. The class, professionalism, player development and retention of players--all seem to be better with Trent in place. You get with that also a very rigid view of what kind of players "fit" the mold of kid he's looking for. Team players first, kids that aren't necessarily just one and done kids but kids that will be patient, play hard and get a degree. So, with that, don't expect immediate turnarounds. Rather, we as fans have to be patient and be aware of the subtle improvements and less "flashy" recruiting classes as the years go on. To some extent, yes, Brady and CTJ had similar philosophies--defend, rebound and other things will take care of themselves. BUT, the things mentioned above separate the two. Tas' came back with Trent at the helm... I would have bet that he wouldn't be here if Brady was here. We wouldn't have seen Bo of '08-09, and likely wouldn't have seen Thornton play defense. Trent has a pretty clear sense of what he wants to do, BUT he also has the sensitivity to communicate and adjust his coaching for the team (and the respect of the players). Brady often would be "stuck" in a rut for 3, 4 or 5 games before really trying something new. Now, as you say, things right now are a little ugly largely b/c shots aren't falling. Bo is shooting sub 30% on his threes, and Dotson is pretty low too. Kinsley (50%) and Tasmin (about 39%) are our best three point shooters. If Dotson and Bo get their shots to fall at even 5-10% more, our offense will very quickly look "prettier". I do agree with you, that a role player stepping up would help. But, I think if you look at some of the games we've lost, we've never had three of our guys firing. In very winnable games, all we needed was good games from Spencer, Tas' and an average game from Warren. The key is balance, having someone who can hit an outside jumpshot to go with Tas' and Warren downlow. ASU, LSU played without Spencer, Utah, Spencer didn't play well. WSU, Warren was ineffective and Bo didn't play great. Can't really say much about UConn, or Xavier--we were just outclassed in talent, depth. Ah, yes. '11-12 makes sense. Honestly, I think that we could surprise in '10-11. I see Dotson improving, White will be a significant addition. A healthier Green and a bigger Harris, hopefully with some experience. If Spencer plays as a mature senior, I also see adding the supporting cast of Stringer, Turner, Derenbecker and Courtney as huge.
I think the point here is that Johnson is winning with Brady's players...producing severe Brady envy among the fanbase.:grin:.
