re: 2016-17 LSU Men's Basketball Team (Not that bad?)

quote:

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We have zero depth at C and PF position. Zero.

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LSU hasn't had depth at C and PF since Nam. Seriously. LSU never has post depth.

I think the lineup will be a bit different than the OP.

These players are on the Bubble, not listed because they may start for simple experience sakes:
1) Shortness - Long shot, but if can be a pure PG and distribute the ball, who knows??
2) Darcy Malone - Possibly our scoring Center underneath and for 3's
3) Robinson III - He needs to lose about 35 lbs. or go play football. He is not like Shaq obviously and I can see his weight does take up space but his block out skills and hops are to be desired. We need him to play strong D along with Duop Reath

Small quicker lineup -
PG - Mays / Patterson
SG - Blakney (Major jumps)
SF - Kieran Hayward / Sampson (Major jumps)
PF - Victor / Epps
PF - Sims / Reath

If Epps can be coached up to play Defense better, our big lineup could look like this:
PG - Mays / Patterson
SG - Blakney / Sampson
SF - Sims / Epps
SF - Victor / Epps
PF/C- Reath / Epps

Now as I said we don't know where Malone and Robinson III will fall out as Robinson is just to heavy and Malone is good underneath scorer but not great. If he can become a great post scorer and also shoot 3's, we could have a very dangerous lineup.

Synopsis: I think everyone sees this team and is not excited which seems to be an understatement, but I think Simmons was just a huge distraction and the team was not a team. I see the guys we will have 2016-17 and I see the possibility of a great "Team" not a couple great players running around playing just off their talent. I think the new guys could pump fresh life into this team and we can have at least a strong 8-9 man rotation.

College basketball is about talent, but its about a great team who plays with their hearts and are tough as nails and don't have million dollar deals just waiting on them. Look at Buddy Hield, 4 year starter who is going to get paid finally. That's what we need. Guys who have room to grow and will spend time becoming a team.

However, as probably everyone has had a dream if Martin and Mickey had stayed for this year, Woah!:
Jarell Martin(Scoring with authority, playing D, and getting rebounds)
Jordan Mickey (Blocking Shots, getting rebounds and Scoring of course)
Simmons(Dishing the ball for huge dunks to Mickey and Martin, rebounding, scoring and playing that smart NBA style ball)
Hornsby (Nailing 3's)
Quarterman (Dishing the ball and shooting 3's)

The funny thing is we still would have had Victor and Blakney to rotate in... not shabby themselves

Too many question marks for me to have much if any optimism. JUCO players are always a roll of the dice, reading the Advocate article this morning CJJ didn't sound all that confident Blakeney is coming back and we've got four scholarship upperclassmen in the frontcourt coming back that one has to wonder if any will ever make a significant contribution consistently based on what we've seen to this point.

And let's not forget CJJ. IMHO the culture of the program has become one of increasingly less accountability. That ain't an easy fix. I would love if he could, but hard to see how after the train wreck I just saw that I think was a building of that culture over 4 years.

Projected Head Coach: Johnny Jones

Season Outlook: Fail