the only real hope is that this bunch can defend, rebound and limit turnovers. buts its looking like they cant rebound, so theyll never be able to score enough. without any scorers they need a lot of easy baskets, but 5 offreb vs 14 for USC is the opposite of what needs to happen. similar thing happened against bama. im a bit surprised at whos getting PT. only bo is chucking up 3s and doing pretty poor. probably because they are all contested or 25 footers. dotson has stopped shooting. i guess kinsley is too much of a liability in other areas. im pretty sure CT Jr had nothing to do with the 2000 SEC champ team. tas started on a FF team and on two SEC champ teams (i dont think many others have done that). he'll be way up the list in LSU record because he played so much. he's on pace to be lsu leader in min played, 4th in scoring (ahead of Pettit and Shaq) and 2nd in rebounds.
Dude! We won the SECC last year and have a great recruiting class for next year. The BB program has NOT fallen that far. This is a hiccup. Recruits are still coming here. We may have a crappy season this year and a mediocre season next year, but things are not that bad. Get off the ledge! :dis:
I'm not on the ledge, and things are and have been very poor for the BB team. Last year was a horrible year for the SEC, if you knew anything about basketball you would already know that. In a normal year last years LSU team would have finished somewhere around 3rd in the West. TJ did a great job with what he had and it wasn't much. I think he is a great coach and was a great hire. The job he has in front of him is huge to say the least. LSU has very little talent and has a long way to go. If you think the LSU basketball program is where it needs to be and you are happy, I say great and don't stop taking your meds. LSU needs a tremendous infusion of talent soon. Looking down the bench during yesterdays game I saw that the huge need is still there. If you saw something different great we just disagree, but like I said keep taking the meds.
As long as he recruits the best players in state along with a couple kids from Miss. Alabama or anywhere we will be fine. Look around the country and year in year out schools like Gonzaga, Clemson, Boston College even Vandy have solid programs. There's no reason LSU can't do the same. On another note I saw Derenbecker play a couple of day's ago and was very impressed. He can shoot it from anywhere.
Given your posts and what others have said, I think what I get from you is that your impression of LSU's talent level (and ability to turn things around) is pretty poor. While I understand the perspective when you look at this year's team and this year's results so far, I guess the only thing I'd also add is there is a pretty fine line between bad and good in college basketball and perhaps a wider gap between good and great. Is this team great? Certainly the talent level is is NOT where a Kansas, Texas or Kentucky is. Is this team potentially "good"? I believe yes, if you consider that Tas' is a Parade AA, Storm Warren is a top 120 high school recruit, as is Dotson, and Bo Spencer has shown certainly an ability to be a SEC quality player. Ludwig was a top 3 LA Hschool recruit in arguably a down year for LA recruits last year. BUT, you look beyond that, and you have folks like Harris (potential, but not highly recruited), Bass, and a host of walk-ons. That's lack of depth due to past years' recruiting and largely Brady's last few years, IMO. But the other point I'd make is watch some of the other SEC teams and the fine line between bad and good becomes more apparent. Look at Arkansas--great "basketball school" who has floundered for years. Auburn, Georgia, teams that have never signed "big names" and have largely struggled. These are also teams that can play well and surprise (just not night in and night out). The talent differential between the teams is not always that great, IF you can have a team playing committed team ball and hard. Georgia with Mark Fox at the helm has played Kentucky down to the wire. Tennessee upset Kansas a few night ago (granted, they did that with a depleted, but still talented team). This team has honestly been a mixed bag to me. They play well for 30 minutes against USC on the road and lead for most of the game, then fall a part b/c they can't score in a stretch. They lose close ones against Washington State and Utah. I'd contend that a few of those games go our way, and it's a much different outlook. Sometimes winning begets winning and losing compounds losing. Unfortunately, Trent seems frustrated with the commitment level of "some" of the players and the "leadership" in that regard. I'd contend that the loss of Alex Farrer, believe it or not, is actually now really showing, b/c another senior leader on the floor playing as hard as he can. with the ability to hit an outside shot, and hustling out there might have allowed a more fragile (coming back from surgery) Dotson to develop slower. I think clearly this team has some deficiencies--largely we have a lack of guard depth, it's not a great perimeter shooting team, it's not particularly deep or big, and add to that it's inexperienced. I'm a little at a loss with Bo Spencer--he seems to be struggling with the role of should he be a shooting guard or should he be the point--clearly the pressure of being "the" outside scorer has led him to force the issue at times. The one-dimension-ness of certain of players (Bass) and the struggles of certain players (Dotson and Green), IMO, have been the setbacks so far this season. But, clearly this team is also learning the importance of consistently playing with the highest level of energy and commitment to defense that is necessary for this team to overcome their slim margin of error. Let's hope that Trent can continue to work with these guys and coach them up. But, we do have a great recruiting class coming in (and yes, Trent can recruit given time) loaded with three guys who can immediately add scoring punch and guard depth (that's recruiting for need), along with a big down low (Malcolm White). AND, it's all about signing the best LA player or players and adding the best kids from surrounding areas that LSU can get. In what is a smaller class for 2011, let's not forget Trent has already committed (again) the best kid out of LA (John Issac). So, so far, Trent has shown he can do that. We'll be much deeper and less one-dimensional starting next year. The key for long term success is recruiting, I'd agree, and 2012 is another key recruiting milestone for Trent. But I'm thinking we'll be ok and LSU won't be "down" very much longer. :wink:
I do hope you are right. I think you are right. I think Trent is a very good coach & given time & players (he should recruit) LSU will be tough to deal with next year or the year after for sure. I just think he overestimated this years team & we as fans are gonna be stuck with a team that as far as I can tell will be lucky to win 1 or 2 SEC games this year. Mr White who is going to play next year is a transfer from Ole Miss - How many transfers have come to LSU & done well? I look for him to be a good player at best. I hope that in the near future Trent can get some beef inside as this team even including next years recruits is kinda short to be banging with the SEC's best teams. Hopefully Green & Harris will improve greatly for next year. Trent needs time & I can wait, its just hard to watch LSU being smeared across the court on tv a couple of time a week. Mitchell as good a player as he is, it just seems unfair for him to have to endure this his senior year.
Basically, you are saying we just have to have patience and keep the big picture in mind, and I agree with you. This year is clearly going to be a write off year. But, some building blocks will be in place, then another layer will be added next year. Then we will start competing for SEC championships, and an established, consistent program will be developed that will begin to challenge beyond the SEC, IMO. I think we are 2-3 years away from playing consistent, challenging basketball. Just gotta be patient and let the process happen.
Look, I always think there's a little risk. You can't always tell what your gonna' get from a team at the beginning of the season. Some teams disappoint and others surprise. I expected this year to be a rebuilding year for sure, but I didn't expect Spencer to struggle, Dotson to struggle, and Farrer to get hurt. I think Tas' has been himself, Warren is what I expected. Green is also struggling, and Dennis Harris, despite his deficiencies, has perhaps been a bright spot. I don't think that Trent "overestimated" this years team, I just think he didn't get quite the recruiting class he would have liked last year and this year has struggled to find consistent play. As for question marks for next season, I find myself having to temper the anticipation. True enough, Stringer, Turner, Derenbecker and Courtney are good recruits, but are they John Walls, or Avery Bradley, or other like "impact" Freshman? Probably not. But, they will have distinct skills and add depth to a team that needs this ALOT. To be fair to White, he did average almost 10 points a game for Ole Miss last year. At 6'9" and a solid 230+, I do expect a lot from him. You also have to remember that a team's success also depends on the maturation and evolution of OTHER teams. The benefit of next year is that Miss St will lose Varnado, Ole Miss will lose many players, as well Alabama. The other SEC West teams are more experienced and deeper in a year that LSU is particularly young. That will also come into play next year.
We should be in a similar position as Texas. They finished #2 in baseball, #2 in football, and are currently ranked #1 in basketball. Now I don't want to finish second like they often do :grin: but I do believe we have the homegrown talent, facilities, funding, and fans to remain competitive in all three on an annual basis. We also have women's basketball, track & field, softball, gymnastics, etc. that are doing great and often highly ranked but just need to get on track in men's basketball. The PMAC looks great with new seats and additional expansion/renovations are on the way. We just need a spark to get this thing going. We have the coach. Now we just need to keep a few top players home. Many of our top LA players seem to come from low income homes and don't have many family members who attended college. Many seem very eager to leave the state and start anew elsewhere. We need to start developing relationships with kids at a very early age and need a coach/assistant/recruiting who understands and cares for these kids. We need someone to foster a relationship with high school coaches and communities so these kids can realize they have the ability to succeed here in state.
