re: #14 Ohio St at #3 LSU Gym Meet Thread/ TIGERS WIN- Score 196.975

I think these are excellent points. Honestly, I kind of have hope after Jay’s press conference - it was clear he was disappointed and said they have to change some things. He also mentioned he could tell they got tight and were somewhat overwhelmed by the atmosphere. So I am willing to give them that. However OU had a great night and we will be facing them (on podium, I believe) next week in a big time meet (along with ucla and Utah). We should be toe to toe with them, but it will take a big step up in execution.

I certainly think the my can do it, the question is will they.

Her floor routine was ridiculous!

I would guess Elena didn’t make any lineups.

As I post I would like to say as a fan of not only gymnastics but LSU, many in these boards dislike post that are critical of the staff and somewhat the gymnast. This goes for the football team that LSU had this year . Fans criticize and critique all sports. I directly compare all teams to OU because they are now. How does this staff have these ladies winning titles year after year? What are they doing that LSU and other top teams aren’t doing year after year ? On a lot of Facebook boards and Reddit a lot of lsu gym fans are delusional on certain aspects of the team and the program. No one is perfect but year after year I question the head coach. Year after year LSU is always the topic of winning a national championship that doesn’t come to fruition. It comes a point in time to be honest about things even if it’s your team or your favorite gymnast.

I think I heard personal reasons

I hope Chase is ok, whatever the reason was for her absence. She’s such a vital part of this team!

I guess the big positive from last night (aside from winning!) is how the girls didn’t fold the tent and quit. They dug deep and came back with a fantastic floor rotation! I hope going forward we don’t put ourselves in the position where we have to come back though. Beam needs work in all aspects, and I hope we can stick more landings on vault and bars. We have so much talent!

I would not fire Jay for fear of losing Garrett and Courtney. Also for Jay himself. Now as much as I loved bugs the gymnast, I’m not sure I love Ashley the coach.

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Beam needs work in all aspects, and I hope we can stick more landings on vault and bars.

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I honestly think that the biggest issue we had with beam last night wasn’t necessarily the skills in the routines themselves but the people on the event. Jeff is usually incredibly solid on that event and this is the most I’ve ever seen her falter which ultimately led to Sierra falling (a personnel issue vs a skills issue meaning she was shaky on that event almost everytime she competed it last year so she wasn’t the right person to be in the lineup first meet up this year.) I would’ve put Annie who has always been incredibly solid on beam, though someone mentioned Twitter that the coaching staff may not have wanted 2 newbies back to back on beam for the first meet of the year which is why they went with Si vs Bryce, KJ or anyone else.

Then you have a freshman up after a fall which puts more pressure on her and her routine. In the case of Konnor, if we changed her second leap, I think she would be calmer going into her series and feel more confident about hitting it everytime, especially since she knows she can hit it. Our back 4 are solid and set on that event IMO as are the skills in their routine. We just need to find the right number 2 to follow Jeff who can be solid ala Myia Hambrick regardless of whether Jeff hits a great solid routine or not.

As for Bugs as a coach, I think for me, last season was a turning point for me in terms of how I’ve seen her ability to coach beam and her mindset going into the event which came after watching/rewatching that one episode of The Climb where she addressed the team on their mental approach to that event at meets. Yes beam was rough having to count a fall tomorrow but I say we let the season play out this year and if it costs us the championship again this year, given the talent, depth, work ethic and drive of this team, then we talk about finding someone else to coach beam.

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Was honestly expecting Konnor to be in the AA from the get go. Not sure if that is in the plans though. That beam routine is just insane.

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Konnor is gonna be basically a 2 or 3 event person this year. She is coming off multiple injuries and years of not competing so this year is a transition year getting into NCAA. Her beam is outstanding, they may need to tweak it down the road. We will see how it is in the coming weeks. She won't vault until next year unless she does an exhibition, we are just too deep here this year, it will allow Konnor to focus on those other events more.

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Definitely was surprised to see Livvy on the floor. That was a solid routine but I'm not sure she stays in the lineup all year, this team is too talented. Happy for her though, she has clearly put in the work. Sierra's floor routine looked a lot better and looks like it could be another year of a nice floor lead off.

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Livy has a solid floor routine, obviously that won't be in the post season lineups over people like Amari and Konnor but its nice to have some depth to give kids a rest. Ballard got into better physical shape this offseason, her tumbling has more pop off the floor now.

Lineups were odd but LSU didn't have Brock who IMO is going to be in the vault lineup come post season.

They have to iron out that 2nd spot in the beam lineup. To me out of all the routines, this spot is the most up in the air but there isn't an excuse not to develop a solid routine here with the talent and depth LSU has.