LSU on Solid Ground With N. Caldwell...But, Must Recruit

I can agree with all that.

I have to believe that they are going to bring a couple of JUCO's in. Harden was signed in mid-April last year and she proved to be fairly valuable. They need a big bruiser who is mobile and who can rebound. I think the "Caldwell way" is to have a small, fast team that can run and jump and force turnovers. I have no problem with being a guard-oriented team, but SOMEONE has to get some rebounds. Anyone who believes that Youngblood will get significant minutes, IF she is still on the team to begin with, is fooling themselves. She will forever be a 10-minute role-player at best.

Next year is a fairly crucial year, I think. We will get to see if the "Caldwell way" does indeed work. I do agree with others who have said that they thought we would get more "splash" recruits, but I just haven't seen it.

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I have to believe that they are going to bring a couple of JUCO's in. Harden was signed in mid-April last year and she proved to be fairly valuable. They need a big bruiser who is mobile and who can rebound. I think the "Caldwell way" is to have a small, fast team that can run and jump and force turnovers. I have no problem with being a guard-oriented team, but SOMEONE has to get some rebounds. Anyone who believes that Youngblood will get significant minutes, IF she is still on the team to begin with, is fooling themselves. She will forever be a 10-minute role-player at best.

Next year is a fairly crucial year, I think. We will get to see if the "Caldwell way" does indeed work. I do agree with others who have said that they thought we would get more "splash" recruits, but I just haven't seen it.

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My thoughts exactly.
We definitely have to get AT LEAST one big post player via the JUCO route during this offseason. I think we're set at the guard position for at least the next two seasons. It does appear that Youngblood is not gonna be with the team next year. However, I'm a big believer that kids can make a turnaround and improve for their last two seasons so, I haven't completely written her off yet.

I like Scott R and respect him great deal. His article was IMHO a glass if half full one...the half empty side is

3-11 vs top 50 rpi this year,
Worst SEC losing streak in 20 years, First losing record in SEC 15+ years
30-24 in SEC while Van was 29-23 his LAST 3 years (his worst 3 with NO seniors in year 1)
We won this year with 3 she did not recruit, but admit she made them better players.

The regular SEC season was our worst in 15 years and this was her 3rd year...this is a bad sign
BUT two sweet 16's and 3 NCAA's is something she deserves credit for.

Jury still out and even her supporters admit next year may be a tough one- this is her 4th year and we should not accept a "tough" year. I still think she can do very well here but 60-40 she will lose too much in next two years (to me this means not finishing in SEC top 4 and miss NCAA next year) and she will be let go. I still support her making $700K+ as this is the market and I still admit I underestimated how well she did at end of her 1st and second year, but to me like the article says, she needs to recruit enough players to get us in SEC top 3-4 and I dont see her doing that.

Glad to be proven wrong, but cant think even her biggest supporters are "ok" with how we are in SEC, especially after SEC has been shown to be not as strong as thought this year- one final 8. no final four teams.

She needs to get her butt in gear and do some hard big time recruiting. We are down to nothing in player numbers. Just see what happened in the last game. She has not improved the team in my opinion.

Pokey was the GOAT womens BB recruiter.

No coach has yet to bring in the type of talent she was reeling in and that's why the program is just average now

"Pokey was the GOAT womens BB recruiter.

No coach has yet to bring in the type of talent she was reeling in and that's why the program is just average now"


THIS!

And we need a shooting guard besides Harden to compliment her. We need one big plug for the post; hopefully Kalani Brown. We need to let Tank go. And Petersen needs to actually play basketball next year and not that "graceful European player stuff" that Van described her as....

Pokey.....just admit we were wrong to let her go and just bring her back.

She is a good coach but the name of the game in college sports is recruiting. When and if Saban wins anything without having talent advantage I will put coaching ahead of recruiting.

It is mind boggling how she reeled in top classes at UCLA but seems to be struggling here. Yes Moncrief and Ballard were good grabs but we need to bring in a class that has multiple top players. We definitely need shooters. Harden is a good 3 pt shooter, her mid range is wildly inconsistent. Rhodes and Peterson can't seem to make a shot unless its WIDE open. Rhodes needs to develop an outside game, her game in hs was literally all inside the paint. I'm hoping Deemer will change that

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The "Pokey was great" mythology remains, facts about her recruiting..Pokey almost killed our program...She helped recruit some great players for sure, but she also lost us many recruits who did not want to be "hit on" by an asst coach, (Tiffany Jackson to name one with whom we almost certainly would have won at least two NC's),

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She also recruited all the players from the most successful run in program history so.......

While the entire affair hurt the program hiring Van for mostly PR purposes hurt more.

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BUT, Pokey was let go in late March and left a team with 9 seniors, two juniors and two underclassmen. She had signed two players in early signing (Hightower and Phillips). In other words she was going to the next season with FOUR players who ever saw a college court. She had NOT recruited well the last 2+ years and the team was going to be waaaay down after the next year no matter what.

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Obviously but the team would still have been in a better place with had a better coach and recruiter leading the program.

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The "Pokey was great" mythology remains, facts about her recruiting..Pokey almost killed our program...She helped recruit some great players for sure, but she also lost us many recruits who did not want to be "hit on" by an asst coach, (Tiffany Jackson to name one with whom we almost certainly would have won at least two NC's),

BUT, Pokey was let go in late March and left a team with 9 seniors, two juniors and two underclassmen. She had signed two players in early signing (Hightower and Phillips). In other words she was going to the next season with FOUR players who ever saw a college court. She had NOT recruited well the last 2+ years and the team was going to be waaaay down after the next year no matter what.
Oh, and as a parting shot her "sig other" Coach Stiles from La Tech lineage (who is now an asst coach with Pokey and has been for last 7 years in Russia etc) talked Porsche Philips into leaving for UGA before ever playing for us.

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Can't completely agree with everything here.
When Pokey left, she had a team that had 9 juniors. Also, she was recruiting LaSondra Barrett AND April Sykes (who at the time was the #2 recruit in the nation behind Elena Della Donne)...........who were both heavy leans. In other words, she had another great class coming in. So, let's not trash Pokey on that point. Pokey and her staff were GREAT recruiters.....................the value of which we're really seeing now because we're not getting the same results with the current staff.