re: Allen Graves - Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year

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Yes last year they had a dude from freaking Baker HS who was a beast and Radford is from McKinley

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The dude from Baker was Dexter Dennis...who played one season as a Grad Transfer at A&M. He was at Wichita St for 4 years prior to that. He was in the 18-19 signing class. You may recall Wade was the HC at LSU then and that class was pretty damn good (Reid, Williams, Smart, Days). There wasn't a spot for Dennis then. Regardless, LSU did recruit him out of the portal before las season. He chose A&M.

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Radford is from McKinley

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He, like Dennis, was in that 18-19 class. He signed with Virginia Tech. He transferred to A&M ahead of the 21-22 season (when Wade was still at LSU)

It's not like A&M is finding these "diamond in the rough" LA kids out of HS. Neither signed with A&M initially. They ended up there as transfers after multiple years in college.

If a low-rated Louisiana player goes elsewhere and makes a bit impact and LSU can get him out of the portal, great! But you aren't going to make a living just signing low-rated HS prospects. Now, more than ever, where teams are preferring older transfers who can immediately make and impact over HS players. Particularly those who may not be ready for 2-3 years.

A&M's coaching staff, including Buzz Williams, have a ton of Louisiana ties. Which is why you see them get more LA players than many other out of state schools. Buzz was someone I was hoping LSU would try to get when Wade was hired. He was at Virginia Tech then and building them towards being a solid program. He was later brought to A&M by a certain AD who is currently at LSU.

That said, the results there have been a little underwhelming. They have been a good team the last 3 seasons, but generally average in SEC play. This year they were picked to finish second in the SEC...and went 9-9. They found their offense late which is why they had a good end of the season. But they've been more inconsistent than they probably should be.

Then again, who knows what next year brings. IF the LSU job opens up there will be a VERY natural connection between Buzz and LSU for several reasons.