I'd really love to see our basketball program become elite.

Yes, it will take time. Don't be reactionary.

There has to be attrition. As Trent's players are filtered out, he can get all of his guys in.

We will be what we've always been since the 80's. If we luck up once a decade and get a freak one and done (maybe 2 and done) player (shaq/chris jackson/Tyrus Thomas/etc) we'll put butts in the seats and lose to the ucla's and the other 3 elite basketball teams late in the tourney. If we make it to the final four 3 times in the next 30 years I will be happy. As long as theyre fun to watch Im happy.

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That said, CJJ is bringing in highly touted recruits. That's half the battle. The question yet to be answered is can he get those great players to make something happen on the court when they get here?

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NOT from what we've seen so far. Coaching and Game Management have been atrocious. You can either coach/manage or you can't. That's not going to improve. Talent will have to improve drastically for this program to reach the level where LSU fans expect it to be under Jones. Not much patience in the fan base either. Doesn't take long to turn a college basketball program around.

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NOT from what we've seen so far. Coaching and Game Management have been atrocious. You can either coach/manage or you can't. That's not going to improve. Talent will have to improve drastically for this program to reach the level where LSU fans expect it to be under Jones. Not much patience in the fan base either. Doesn't take long to turn a college basketball program around.

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I agree that some on court decisions have been suspect. There is fair criticism in that dept. However, it's hard to be critical of his recruiting. A top 10 class in his first full year of recruiting. A top 60 player coming in next year along with a JC guy who has the potential to be the next Marcus Thornton type of scorer. Add in a transfer sharp-shooter who isn't eligible this year. Finally, he's got a commitment from a 2015 guy who is a top 5 player. Also, While he likely won't land him, he's at least getting the 2015 #1 player in the country to visit LSU along with the likes of UK, UNC, Duke, etc.

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Will it ever happen in my lifetime? Why can't we emulate baseball in terms of building the program up out of nowhere to be consistantly premier?

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There will be talent coming in. As we've seen this year, sometimes the payoff isn't as immediate as we'd have hoped and I don't think Johnny gets a free pass on that but I do think there were some unrealistic expectations.

But we do have a couple of more paper stars coning in next year and with Johnny's son at U-High we have another Collis Temple-like pipeline to some highly rated schoolboy talent in the years to come.

Let's see what CJJ can do with it. I've not been overwhelmed with his gameplanning and bench coaching to this point but I think it's only fair to give him the chance to adjust to this level and give him the benefit of the doubt for a couple of more years.

Doesn't mean I have to rationalize the play of late, just that there is a bigger picture and that it's fair to let that play out.

Our WBB program was elite

Still very few people cared

Now we are nowhere near as good and pay caldwell more than paul mainieri