re: A little perspective for the Ben Simmons has the greatest stats in SEC history crowd

Since 1994 (as far back as this website goes), here's a list of players who have averaged 19, 11, and 4: LINK

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LSU fan: ESPN hates us, they just talk BAMA
LSU fan: ESPN won't stop hyping our players ughghhggghhgg

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Moral of the story...fans need to stop basing their joy of watching their favorite teams on the commentary of media outlets, whether they be good or bad.

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Truth is, other than the 1980-81 team which WAS loaded and nationally highly respected, none of LSU greats ever won anything of note. Not Maravich. Not Jackson. Not Shaq. You can now add Simmons to that list.

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Shaq led his team to a SEC Championship. That's nothing to sneeze at.

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LSU went 20-12 and 11-7 in the Sec with a First Round loss in the NCAA's. That's a team that featured a 5th senior in Blanton, and that guy Chris Jackson averaging 30 points per.

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You care to name the other top 8 players on that CJ freshman year team other than Jackson and Blanton? They had about 1/2 the talent as the 2015-16 LSU team. (when comparing helping cast)

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How do their freshman year stats compare

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What does that have anything do do with it? Comparing final years in college is perfectly acceptable,it's not like Simmons will be putting up any additional stats. The game has changed, ppl play more as freshmen.

Ben played this year for Ben. It's hard to be great when your best player has that mindset.

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Simmons? Blanton has better numbers in 3 categories. Simmons has better numbers in 4 categories. The number are pretty damn close.

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Are you trolling?

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Shaq led his team to a SEC Championship. That's nothing to sneeze at.

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Unfortunately, given the narrative that unless you make a deep run in the NCAA's the season is a bust, a regular season conference title means very little in NCAA basketball. It is, truthfully, one of my biggest fears in regards to what people seem hellbent on doing to College Football. Once there's a tourny that means EVERYTHING, by definition it makes everything else less important.

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You care to name the other top 8 players on that CJ freshman year team other than Jackson and Blanton?

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Top 8 is not great, but starting 5 was not too shabby, with Wayne Sims and Verne Singleton plus Lyle Mouton in addition to CJ and Blanton. Remember, that team beat Georgetown AND UNLV that year. Let's not pretend they sucked across the board. They were just streaky at best...sound familiar?

And the year after? You had CJ, Shaq, Roberts, Singleton, Sims, Mo Williamson... First Round loss in the SEC Tourney and Second Roune loss in the NCAA's.

Again...LSU has, sadly, a history of underachieving even when it had top level talent on the court. This is not some Simmons anomaly. Pretending that LSU's former greats brought home anything of substance is simply revisionism. I loved those players and teams...one of my brightest memories being an LSU fan is the run that undersized and underdog 1986 team went on down the stretch to get to the Final Four only to get run my Pervis Ellison and Louisville. But those runs are few and far between, despite LSU having a handful of all time greats.

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The difference between Blanton and Simmons is huge . Simmons has all of the goods and shows no heart. Blanton was a warrior out there especially in 1986. He routinely went up against the big men of Kenucky and Memphis he was outsized by them and yet he won those battles. He beat those guys up, in the case of Georgia Tech in the tourney, he made those dudes quit. Blanton would routinely beat guys up ...his entire LSU career

When did Simmons make guys quit?

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Don't disagree with any of that. Simmons, as of right now, is as soft as a baby's belly. His game, while mature in most cases shows no heart or fire. As a lifetime LSU fan, is was discouraging watching a guy play with so little heart, despite being so talented. this program went for long stretches winning with overachieving guys with nowhere near the raw talent that Simmons' had.

None of that has any bearing on whether it was disingenuous to compare Blanton's 5th Year senior stats to Simmons'. The point that has been largely being made all season was that Simmons was having, statistically speaking, the greatest overall FRESHMAN SEASON in SEC history. To then, out of the blue, compare it to a 5th year senior to attempt to make the point that it wasn't so hot is pharmaceutical grade goal post moving.

For some, that doesn't seem to be an issue. for me it was. I think there are all sorts of ways to call out Simmons' if you need to without resorting to basically having to create a reason.

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Also, the SEC was much much stronger of a conference in BB at that time. 

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no

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The point that has been largely being made all season was that Simmons was having, statistically speaking, the greatest overall FRESHMAN SEASON in SEC history

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Wrong.

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There's no way to know that for sure, and of course even suggesting that makes it sound like an excuse...but between you and me and the internet if I'm passing the ball out you'd be damn sure that if I had the option of passing it to Chris Jackson or Tim Quarterman mothfricking CJ is getting the ball EVERY SINGLE TIME. 

But that's me...

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Well yeah. The only player on our 2015 team that consistently hit open shots was Hornsby. Blakeney got more consistent that the beginning of the season but was hot or cold. TQ just had the worst 2nd half of a season for a promising player ive seen at lsu in a long time. After that 1st Kentucky game i was expecting him to play his way into the 1st round but now no nba gm is gonna touch him in the 1st. He is too inconsistent in shooting and his finishing at the rim is shite for a 6'6 guard.