re: Thoughts, Comments, Concerns with Regards to Basketball (Long)

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Since other posters enjoy calling me out in threads, I figured I would make a thread in which y'all can come at me and save myself time searching.

First off, let's talk about last night. It sucked. I walked in the building at 7:25 and there were 500 people there and 25 students...I knew we were in trouble. The entire arena was dead 98% of the time and the team played that way. Alabama is a hot team, we missed some wide open shots and too many FT's. Victor got fouls, we tried to protect him by going to zone and our zone is awful. It's literally just straight awful. I have NEVER seen a zone that bad in my life. I have no idea what our coaches teach with zone principles, but it is terrible.

Secondly, I would be ok if LSU lost...as long as they played consistent. The road games weren't frustrating because we played hard, ran into foul trouble, tough road environments. But last night? Riley Norris got 16 rebounds...I don't even know what else to say besides Riley Norris got 16 rebounds. 16. Our effort was putrid from the start, and it makes it more upsetting because it was 2 bubble teams going head to head.

Thirdly, when will LSU ever get some breaks from the refs? I'm not remotely blaming the refs for the game, because we were 20/35 from the line, but there were a couple of calls that were game changers and just awful. Obasohan runs into the lane, arm bars Victor and gets an and1 with 10 minutes left. This gives Craig 4 fouls and allows Bama 3 points. The real issue is we suck at FT's. But when you call a foul and Obasohan shoots 2 ft's then you let Simmons shoot FT's...it's not the same. In the 2nd half they took the ball out of the players' hands and made it a FT contest and we will lose that. Sure, that is squarely on the team to shoot better, but it's still a shitty way to play basketball.

Fourthly, I have defended Ben this entire season, I will continue to do so...but it's getting upsetting. Duke beat UNC because their only 2 good players shot 39 shots combined. Brandon Ingram shot 21 (only 7/21...but still). If Ben shot 21 shots, I'm pretty positive he would get roughly 40 points. And I get that it has to be tiring driving to the goal every pay, but Ben NEVER seems tired. He just coasts so much. I keep hoping the light will come on while he's at LSU (in the sense that one game he just shoots 30 times and let's the world know), but I'm afraid that's going to happen in the NBA. We will look back in 10 years and be blown away with who he has become...but we won't see it. It's a shame because 19/12/5 should be good enough, but it's not. So Ben needs to realize it's not and step it up, because he is more than capable.

Fifthly, Johnny Jones is an average coach. He's not terrible, he's not good. He cannot coach a zone defense to save his life, and we always suck at FT's under him. I was in the arena for the downfall of Brady and Trent...we are not CLOSE to that. You have to give the man props for getting us back to being a respectable team. We are vastly underachieving at this point, but the program is not going into the ground. If we don't make the tourney I want him on the hot seat (and we won't be that good next year if everyone leaves so essentially he will be fired in a year), but we are not a powerhouse program. We have made back to back tourneys once in the last 20+ years...why is there such a false impression of basketball around here? Because Shaq and CJ were awesome 25 years ago? We have the 12th highest paid coach in the SEC, yet we finish in the top half of the SEC routinely.

Lastly, I'm sorry...I'm not sorry that I take a positive stand on LSU basketball. LSU has major holes in many facets of their game...but so does EVERYONE. Duke won with basically 5 players last night. Iowa lost at Penn State. Oklahoma lost again on the road. It is a CRAZY basketball season. LSU is far far farrrrr from out of this thing. I'm not gonna feel bad because I take a stance of wanting LSU to succeed and rather be wrong, than sit there and criticize EVERYTHING then come on here bragging about how "right" I was. I am thoroughly convinced there is a large group of posters that watch the games and they somewhat cheer for the other team. They do this just so they can come on here and throw their dicks around. LSU wins against A&M, there were 7 posts about basketball on the front page. I walked out the arena, got to my car, pulled up TD and holy shite...I've never seen so much bashing. Do I take LSU basketball way too seriously? You bet I do, I'm aware of that. I've traveled around the country this year for them, I've put job offers on hold so I can have more freedom and flexibility in my schedule, only to be let down soooo much. Everyone has passions and hobbies, LSU basketball is one of my biggest passions...so you can imagine how supremely disappointed I am on a regular basis.

Overall, I am disappointed with this season and team. I will criticize and be unhappy, but the level some of you bring it to is unheard of. We're supposed to all be LSU fans, but very few actually seem like it. A big part of me wants to stop posting and doing previews...but I realized that you would win, so I'm not. I'm gonna do it for the handful of people that enjoy my previews, and because I like learning about the other teams.

Rant Over...down vote away...I really don't care at this point.

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brotato chip............every word was spot on. I am with you. nice write up. internet trolls are everywhere. most of the haters are trying to make their pathetic existence seem better by finding extreme faults in everything. what a bunch of miserable fricks.