For those who have wanted to fire Trent Johnson for the last two years, a dose of reality. A little history first for you younger guys. LSU was NEVER a basketball power before Dale Brown. Oh there were the Bob Petit years and the Pete Maravich years where we got some attention because we had two of the greatest players to ever play the game. Those were two exceptions in a sea of mediocrity.

Even then LSU never went to the NCAA tournament during the Maravich years. The best we got was the NIT his senior year.

I love Dale Brown. He single handedly made basketball popular in Louisiana. Everyone remembers his middle years of success and his latter years of scandal and failure but hardly anyone remembers his early years and how long it took him to field a winner. Here is his record during those years.

Season Overall SEC Rank
1972-1973 LSU 14-10 9-9 5th
1973-1974 LSU 12-14 6-12 8th
1974-1975 LSU 10-16 6-12 7th
1975-1976 LSU 12-14 5-13 9th
1976-1977 LSU 15-12 8-10 5th
1977-1978 LSU 18-9 12-6 3rd
1978-1979 LSU 23-6 14-4 1st NCAA Sweet 16

As you can see it took him six years to have a winning SEC record. And instead of showing improvement he actually went down in SEC wins in the four years following his first season where he broke even.

According to the you have to win in three years crowd and at least have to show improvement, Dale would have been fired after his 4th season.

Here is Trent's record so far.
Season Overall SEC Rank
2008–2009 LSU 27–8 13–3 1st NCAA 2nd Round
2009–2010 LSU 11–20 2–14 6th (West)
2010–2011 LSU 11–20 3–13 6th (West)
LSU: 49–48 18–30

So Trent had immediate success unlike Dale but then fell to lower depths than Dale ever did although his 75-76 five SEC wins came close. What does any of this prove? Not a lot because times, circumstances and the game were a lot different in those days. Maybe it shows it is hard to win if you are an LSU basketball coach.

Just putting a little perspective in all of those fans who expect
instant success from a coach in a highly competitive sport where it is hard to recruit unless you are one of the elite top ten schools.

And in response to one poster who wanted to know why we weren't on the same level as a Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas etc. because they had to have advanced to that level at some point and so could we if we just did the same things. Those programs have been powers in basketball almost since the beginning of the sport. They have had great teams year in and year out for 60 years or so. With all that success and publicity, of course they get the elite players.

How do you compete with that? The same way Dale did it with a lot of hard work, perseverance and yes, a little bit of luck also. What if Dale hadn't run into a 14 year old Shaq on that Army post in Germany? The team might have been a lot worse if he hadn't been here those three years don't you think?

So yes I would love a winner also but being as old an LSU basketball fan as I am I also know how hard it is. Trent has gotten a lot of unfair criticism and some that is right on.

I do think he has tried his best and worked extremely hard. Do I wish he had more of an outgoing personality like Dale and realized that he has to do more to promote the sport here. Yes, most certainly. Do I often not like the way his team plays. You bet! I don't think he does either. How much of that is x and o's coaching and how much the players is open to discussion.

Ultimately a coach is responsible for both. The bottom line is winning as in any sport. But at least give him the rest of this year and next year if it goes better this year. Believe me when I tell you that there isn't a coach available who will come in and have consistent long term success right away. Just doesn't work that way.