De Ja Vu? hope not......

They will likely struggle some next season, but there is no reason to assume they will struggle in 2010-2011. Look for TJ to land a DYNAMITE recruiting class in 2010 with a couple of guys that can make an impact right away. Also, don't discount the fact that most players show the most improvement between their freshman and sophomore seasons (see Spencer). I expect to see significant improvement from guys like Warren, Bass, Graham, etc next season. Not to mention LSU will have some help down low with two 6'10 guys in Green and Harris and a highly recruited shooting guard in Dotson.

I think Trent needs 2-3 years to make this program shine. I think he will too.


Brady was hired out of Samford, a small school that beat LSU if I'm not mistaken.
I never thought it was a good hire and always thought he coached over his head.
I think the athletisim brought us to the Final 4, not Brady's intricate coaching schemes.


I do agree on a so-so year next year though unles he pulls a rabbit out of his hat.

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i remember in Bradys 2nd/3rd year people gleaming on how we had such a great staff in all sports with Saban-Skip-Brady... Brady was leading us to the sweet 16 despite the probation..... and then Skip retired, Saban stayed strong, and Brady tanked.....

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That is one of the most asinine comments I have seen on this board. Brady tanked??? WOW! Just WOW!

You have no clue.

After the Sweet 16 season in 2000 Stromile Swift went to the NBA with two years eligibility left. Jabari Smith also completed his eligibility.

The full effects of teh draconian sanctions struck the next two seasons. For three years they were limited to only half of the official visits that other programs had. They were limited in the number of signees for three years and they could have only 11 on scholarship as opposed to 13 allowed for other programs.

Then in November of the following season starting center Brad Bridgewater waas lost for teh season to a knee injury. In the first SEC game starting guard and defensive stopper Lamont Roland was also lost to a season ending knee injury. The team polayed the rest of the season with only five scholarship players.

The next season the team improved and made the NIT although still hampered by NCAA sanctions.

Then in 2003 they made the NCAA tournament which began a fantastic climb into national prominence.

In 2004 they were 17-4 and 7-3 SEC after a big road win over Florida when the best player Jaime Lloreda was injured and ultimately lost for the season which resulted in the team faltering annd missing the NCAA tournament .

In 2005 they won the SEC West, took Kentucky to overtime in the SEC tourney semifinal and again made the tournament.

Then in 2006 the rise of the program culminated the fantastic climb to the top by making the Final Four and winning the SEC title.

That is not tanking. If not for Lloreda's injury the team makes the tournament 4 straight season.

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After the Final Four season in 2000
strike 1

2003 they made the NCAA tournament and how did that turn out?
strike 2

In 2005 they won the SEC West, took Kentucky to overtime in the SEC tourney semifinal and again made teh tournament and how'd that turn out?
strike 3 !!!!!


What does it matter whether they lsot in the first round in 2003 and 2005? This was a program rising from the ashes of a moribund condition further devestated by NCAA sanctions.
Billy Donovan and Florida were eliminated in the first or second round five years in a row by much lower seeded teams. Donovan inherited a far better situation than Brady and did not deal with NCAA sanctions.

[quote]I'm not a Brady Basher, and I'm one of the few who agree that the probation really hurt JB's chance to be consistent, but he also recruited so many "at risk" players b/c he wanted to win NOW instead of rebuild and build a PROGRAM..... instead he took chance after chance, lost player after player and never built a foundation

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Don't you realize tht star players were not all jumping at the chance to play at LSU in Brady's early years. Yes, he did have to take some chances, especially while under NCAA sanctions. It was a tremendous accomplishment to recruit the players they did.

Why are the few problem players always teh focus? Why not place attention on players like Brandon Bass who was the SEC Scholar Athlete of the year for all sports?

How about Collis Temple III, Garret Temple, and
Brad Bridgewater all playing their final seasons while in graduate school? How about Ronald Dupree majoring in Engineering? How about Big Baby fighting through personal adversities that might decimate weaker individuals? How about Jermaine Williams leaving the court openly sobbing after his final game? What about Jabari Smith getting rescued from the junk heap and getting a chance to turn his life around at LSU?
We ahve five seniors and 2 resd shirt juniors on this team all recruited by Brady. Talk about them instead of a few bad apples tht every program deals with.

How about Maurice Carter who could have transferred and been immediately eligible after teh NCAA levied sanctions, but chose to stay and have an All SEC season?

What affected consistencey was the early entry to teh NBA by Stromile Swift, Brandon Bass, Tyrus Thomas, and Anthony Randolph, not the few players who caused trouble. How many LSU basketbll players got arrested over the past 10 years? Compare that to the football team.

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teh

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It's spelled THE not teh! Is your keyboard broken or what?

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What affected consistencey was the early entry to teh NBA by Stromile Swift, Brandon Bass, Tyrus Thomas, and Anthony Randolph, not the few players who caused trouble. How many LSU basketbll players got arrested over the past 10 years? Compare that to the football team.

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This is a stupid comparison.

Football team, including walk-ons, will have about 100 players.

Basketball team has about 15 players only.

You can NOT compare the number of players between the teams like that.

(You can compare percentage in this situatation only)

But the bottom line is that the OP was correct. After the sweet-16 season, we thought we have a pretty good HC in basketball. Boy, we were all wrong. And that's why JB is at ASU right now

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This is a stupid comparison.

Football team, including walk-ons, will have about 100 players.

Basketball team has about 15 players only.

You can NOT compare the number of players between the teams like that.

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Over a ten year period the basketball progrm signed about 40 players and the football team signed about 200-225 recruits. I am not claiming the football team was a bunch of thugs. Far from it. Most were high character kids who represented LSU well.

However, there were some high profile arrests of the following football players:

Ryan Perriloux
Claude Wroten
Derrick Odom
Xavier Carter
Larry Foster
Zhamal Thomas
Troy Giddens

Basketball players arrested : Zero

I don't post much, just more of a reader and never was a huge Brady fan and always thought that Tiger20 looked through Brady colored glasses a bit like I used to look through Cholly Mac colored glasses back in the day. Having said that, he makes a solid argument. Under the overall circumstances, Brady probably did as good a job, maybe even better, as any coach who would have been willing to take the LSU job at the time.

With the attrition LSU suffered during the Brady years, leaving early, injury, NCAA sanctions and some that have been attributed directly to Brady, those years could have been much worse. Could they have been better...maybe.

Coach Johnson said it himself, (paraphrasing) without those injuries, I'm not the coach here. Now, I think a lot of that statement is a class guy giving his predecessor some props, but there is some truth in the coach's statement. Am I glad Brady's gone? Yes. Does he deserve some credit? Yes. Does he deserve some blame? Yes. Am I going to cut Coach Johnson some slack if next year the team struggles? Yes.

These statements are just my opinion and like everyone else, I probably hold my opinion in higher regard than I probably should, but for right now, I'll enjoy the ride LSU sports has given me over the past several years and I'll continue to enjoy the basketball team's run and give credit to Coach Johnson for the job he's done getting JB's players to believe in a new system and philosophy and excel in it.

Geaux Tiger!!!!

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FMTigerFan

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Your post is thoughtful, well written, and well-stated. You make valid, objective points and communicate them very effectively, without making personal attacks or coming off as being more knowledgebale than others.

Sadly, I don't think you will fit in too well around here...

tiger20s nothing on xiv.