re: LSU basketball transfer portal watch

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Currently sitting at #3 in the 24/7 Transfer Portal Rankings.

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Wasn’t our portal ranking last year pretty high?

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I do have concerns about the inability to land big names in the portal. Any rational fan should.

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according to you

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Wasn’t our portal ranking last year pretty high?

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you are both worried the portal classes are poor and pointing out they are not.

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LSU transfer class was ranked 11th last year.

I think it was reasonable to have some concerns about recruiting following this past season. Fortunately, McMahon has been able to bring in (thus far) 3 top 100 transfers (per 247). Of course, it doesn't hurt that 2 of those 3 are from Baton Rouge.

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We had the 11th ranked transfers in part because we had 6 transfers. Overall, the avg ranking last year was 87.67, and 247 shows us with 1 4 star and 5 3 stars. So far 247 shows 3 transfers, all 4 stars, with an average of 92.00. Carlos Stewart doesn't have a transfer score yet.

Just by a numbers game we are better off.

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Mark Adams was not fired from Texas Tech for poor performance. In fact, his job was pretty secure before he put his foot in his mouth.

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His job was far from secure. He had a terrible season and I'm sure the AD used his statement as leverage to make a performance based change...even though the AD did the honorable thing by letting him "resign" instead of being fired. The AD himself said the statement was "isolated and unintentional". But when your program is clearly on the decline from competing for championships the AD will seize any opportunity to make a change.

That's the same thing that happened with Orgeron. He could have had a gaggle of gold-digging skanks hanging out in the press box in 2019 and no one would have batted an eye. But once you start losing, that same action is reason for an immediate change.

Juxtapose that with Greg McDermott at Creighton getting criticized for telling his players to "stay on the plantation" after a loss. Creighton appeased the perpetually outraged virtue signalers by suspending him for a game, but they had ZERO thought of firing him. Why? Because he's one of the better coaches in all of college basketball.

Winning gets you a LOT of leeway as a coach. Losing invites your replacement on even the scantest of bases

The overall point though is while the transfers McMahon is bringing end should provide a reason for optimism next season, his horrible performance this season (dead-last) removed the benefit-of-the-doubt he enjoyed last season. He showed he could get players last year. He's done what appears to be a decent job doing so again this year. Now he has to prove he can produce results with them.

I remember wanting to find room for Wright. Knew he’d be a solid guy

We didn’t have good guard play last year. The Justices both played and shot poorly, Miller couldn’t handle being the focal point, and Hayes and Trai were only average. I don’t think last year’s team was salvageable. Miller and Justice Hill were the lynchpin that we needed, and both failed. The remaining players didn’t have the talent to make up for that. I don't blame CMM for failing under those circumstances. He will have a lot more to work with next year.

Fountain and KJ were our best players, and 3 of our 4 transfers are rated much higher than them. We have added a decent replacement for KJ in Baker, who has a higher transfer rating than KJ. We also added 2 much more highly rated and proven guards than any of last year’s (Cook 95 and Stewart 94), and Wright is only rated an 89, but he is actually the 92nd best transfer. The highest last year were Hayes and Justice Hill with 89 ratings. Hayes is still rated an 89 as the 202nd best transfer, but Justice Hill has fallen outside the top 250 rated players. Justice Williams is also rated an 89 as the 241st best transfer. Cook is the 11th best and Stewart the 23 best, so we should already be better at guard next year, and comparable in the post, and better in the post if we get another good post player. Any other good players we add will be gravy, but the better guard play we should get from the transfers will be huge. None will have to be the focus of the offense. Teams won’t be able to focus all of their attention on one or two players. Last year we only had 1 reliable scorer. Next year Baker, Stewart and Cook can all score a lot. Wright, Fountain, Reed, Ward, Mwani, and Trai won’t have to force their offense. Chest and Williams can be eased in.

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I don't necessarily disagree. But I didn't see two words in your post: Defense and rebounding. LSU was WORSE defensively than they were offensively last season. Rebounding was average, at very best. While improvement offensively is absolutely necessary. The same has to occur on the defensive end as well. Otherwise those 85-65 blowouts will only decrease to 85-75 losses.

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I think Stewart and Wright are good defenders. KJ wasn't a defender anyway. Phillips can be a good defender, and showed promise, but he was a negligible factor last year. Hayes is the biggest loss from a defense standpoint, but Stewart, Mwani and Wright will add a lot to our defense.

We weren't a good rebounding team last year, and as it stands, we won't be good next year either, but we should be comparable, and much better on offense and defense.

Oklahoma State Forward Tyreek Smith just entered the portal. He will be a grad transfer and is from Baton Rouge Louisiana. He is listed at 6’9 217. Wonder if we go after him and bring him home for his final year?

Smith is five fouls.

He's an OK rebounder and he'll block a shot here and there, but he isn't a difference maker.

I'd go so far as to say Corey Chest would give you more than Smith would.

Tchewa or Phillips are better options.

Wondering the same thing. Should still be listed