A Stanford fan's take on Trent Johnson

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Yep, Trent can hit the road. No way he turns this team around.

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He did well his first year with Brady's talent, but Johnson cannot recruit!

I never thought I would see a post that someone did well with Brady's talent But I guess you are right.He can't do it, Hopefully the AD will start giving a sh-t about bball, and get a real coach. I bet Van Chancellor could coach this mens team better than Johnson.

LSU is getting worse and worse every year under Johnson. I'm not exactly wanting to see him fired, but job performance is a big deal, right? I don't see how we can justify keeping him.

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I don't see how we can justify keeping him.

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You can justify keeping him because our 3 best players are true FR and we have a McDonald's AA coming in

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I think it's noteworthy that TJ was the Pac 10 coach of the year and went to the Sweet 16 a year after this was written

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If anything, the original post serves to justify KEEPING Johnson. He took a team that was getting its brains beat one year to being in the Round of 16 the next year. I know it looks ugly now, but take your finger off the panic button. Give him til this time next year before you go off the cliff.

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My question about recruiting. Football coaches sell "playing time" to get top recruits to sign.
With fewer scholarships to give in basketball, that would seem to beg the question. Why can't LSU and other SEC teams offer "immediate playing time" to 4 star recruits? Tell them come on down, we got a spot for you.

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I think the current state of affairs between the NCAA and the NBA makes college basketball a huge risk to invest time and effort in. You go get a decent player, and he will be actively encouraged to go pro early. Unless you have a legitimate program, like Duke, UNC, etc, you have little chance to retain talent, so you may look at 25 wins one year, and rebuild the next.

This may be just a bit extreme, but it seems like the entire SEC has taken that viewpoint. Nobody seems to have invested any serious effort into basketball, as long as football is solid at that school. Even Kentucky, which should easily be able to have a perennial top 10 team, is sitting around "bubble" status.

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He did well his first year with Baton Rouge's talent

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Fixed. Don't ever refer to that as Brady's talent

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If anything, the original post serves to justify KEEPING Johnson. He took a team that was getting its brains beat one year to being in the Round of 16 the next year. I know it looks ugly now, but take your finger off the panic button.

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Isn't it this kind of inconsistency that we couldn't stand for in Brady's tenure? Suck for two years, then solid. People throw that Sweet 16 out there like it's some monumental accomplishment.

He didn't bring some unheralded program to the Sweet Sixteen. Stanford was damn solid before he got there.

1994–95 Mike Montgomery 20–9 10–8 5 NCAA Second Round
1995–96 Mike Montgomery 21–8 12–6 3 NCAA Second Round
1996–97 Mike Montgomery 22–8 12–6 2T NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1997–98 Mike Montgomery 30–5 15–3 2 NCAA Final Four
1998–99 Mike Montgomery 26–7 15–3 1 NCAA Second Round
1999–00 Mike Montgomery 27–4 15–3 1T NCAA Second Round
2000–01 Mike Montgomery 31–3 16–2 1 NCAA Elite Eight
2001–02 Mike Montgomery 20–10 12–6 2T NCAA Second Round
2002–03 Mike Montgomery 24–9 14–4 2 NCAA Second Round
2003–04 Mike Montgomery 30–2 17–1 1 NCAA Second Round
2004–05 Trent Johnson 18–13 11–7 3 NCAA First Round
2005–06 Trent Johnson 16–14 11–7 4T NIT Second Round
2006–07 Trent Johnson 18–13 10–8 6 NCAA First Round
2007–08 Trent Johnson 28–8 13–5 2 NCAA Sweet Sixteen

He had to rebuild Stanford after Montgomery left...they lost a lot of talent that year. He has basically had to rebuild here too, after that group he had his first year left. Give the man til the end of next year, and if we see more of the same, I will be on the front line with you trying to usher him out of town.