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:
Click to expand...