re: After the Brown years and the Brady resurgence, did LSU basketball become unprioritized?

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First off there are a lot of guys like Skylar Mays who go play out of state for their final year, sometimes 2 from Louisiana.

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Every state could say this.

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Secondly we have the 5th overall player in the country from Louisiana this cycle.

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Who moved to Missouri. Again, happens in every state. If a player is moving out of state in HS, pretty doubtful you'll get a 'hometown' advantage when recruiting them.

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3rd we’ve had 5* and 4* kids on the roster every year at LSU for over a decade.

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What does that have to do with your original point about focusing on Louisiana recruits?

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4th Houston has only had 3-4 five * recruits under Sampson since he’s been there and they’re 1st or 2nd in the country in wins over the last several seasons.

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What does that have to do with your original point about focusing on Louisiana recruits?

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5th Louisiana ranks in the top 4-7 in NBA players produced per capita in the nation, we were #2 as of the 2021-22 season.

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We're talking about currently recruiting the state of Louisiana.

Are you seriously going to defend the level of HS basketball talent in Louisiana over the last 4-5 years?

Over the past 4 recruiting cycles, the state of Texas has had 38 4/5 stars. Louisiana - zero. If you want to count guys like Cenac, that'll give you what? 2-5?

Point being, you cannot rely on Louisiana recruits to make LSU basketball a contender. Yes, good players come out occasionally. Used to be much more regular than now though.

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On a side note, I find the NBA incredibly boring right now.

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Agreed, their ratings are down i think close to 15% and mens college basketball was 21% this year from what ive seen. Its just a poor investment right now thats seems to be declining year over year. I can only name you one college basketball player in the whole country and its the Flagg kid from Duke.

Houston's "model" has nothing to do with recruiting Louisiana.

They have had 2 players from Louisiana on their roster the last 4 years. One from the 2019 class (career average 7 pts/game), and one from the 2021 class (career average 4 pts/game).

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How did basketball become so unimportant to LSU?

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ootball has always been number one. But for a very long time basketball was a priority behind football especially prior to the '90s.

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Dale Brown had LSU basketball as a very strong program. Ranked a lot of the time, in the NCAA tourney most of the time (and initially that was with a smaller field), and a legit contender. 1981 Final Four team was a realistic champion hopeful... experienced, most wins, 17-1 in the SEC, All American on the team. Injuries hurt that team.
1986 Final Four team wasn't a season-long powerhouse, but it WAS proof that a Dale Brown team, no matter the regular season record, was a capable and dangerous team able to make a deep run.
Those two teams in combination (along with his entire history) had LSU established as a power.

The Lester Earl sanctions killed that. Bigly.

Brady did rebuild and we became respected again, and that Final Four team he had was great. Would have been nice to keep guys more than 1-2 years, as having Brandon Bass on that team too would likely have pushed us over the top.
I always felt it was weird how they fired Brady a year later, after losing a good bit of talent and then losing Tasmin Mitchell for the year. Seems like we've been in the woods ever since. Will Wade's teams were decent, a bit better regular season record than Johnny Jones' teams (though maybe not any more talented).

Seems like LSU baseball, with Skip's title runs, jumped basketball during the probation, and basketball never came back to the spot it should be in the AD afterwards. Baseball is nice, but you can make a ton more money and national marketing out of basketball. I guess they're just all-in on football. Men's basketball takes a lot more work and investment than any other non-football sport to succeed, and they just won't do the work involved.

Alt26, excellent post and a very accurate, if disappointing/frustrating commentary on the state of the program post-Brady

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, we had no choice, but to cut him loose after making this bonehead decision

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this happened before LSU and the school knew about it. Why does the myth continue that 90% of the bullshite in that report happened before his time here?

Personally, I think part of wade's true undoing was being emboldened a bit too much by outlasting Joe and president dipshit. He started calling out the AD (rightfully so) in pressers about shitty facilities, Woody used the report to oust him and bring in his own guy. I don't believe it was done purely to save football

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I always felt it was weird how they fired Brady a year later, after losing a good bit of talent and then losing Tasmin Mitchell for the year. Seems like we've been in the woods ever since.

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Brady brought almost all of that on himself. And I was a Brady supporter - he was a good coach, especially in game planning defensively.

But, I think he always felt like folks did not respect him because he got the job amid impending sanctions and some thought we settled.

By the end he had alienated almost every one inside and outside of the program, administrators, fans, high school coaches - everyone - he did not have folks backing him at the end because he'd burned a lot of bridges.

I think if you've heard him recount this he admits much of this and seems to have rehabbed his image here significantly. It was not good when he left.

Not going to keep repeating myself about Louisiana guys who move late in HS since you just ignore it but the point is that program was built with unheralded players from this area which we have an abundance of.

Not what I said and again you’re incorrect but you’re intentionally playing dumb, conflating and deflecting so what’s the point in talking to you.