re: How did we get to this point with the basketball program????

quote:

---

My main issue is with Malcolm White... who I knew little of but trusted a lot of people here who said he would be the super stud in the middle we've been missing for years... and he's a total dud.

---

I said I expected him to average 10-12 and he's prob down from that but the season isn't over. I bet you didn't think we'd go to the final four in 2006 when we lost to Houston and Northern Iowa. I'm not saying we are that sort of team or even a tourny team but definitely think we can be .500 in the league.

quote:

---

don't be retarded. these guys can play and you know it. that's like saying Brees just contributed to a losing cause in 2008 because we went 7-9. It takes more than a handful of guys

---

eh... basketball is not football. one player can take a team from solid to great... even championship worthy. obviously we don't have anyone THAT great... but i know these guys are talented... why should we accept losses to Nicholls and Wichita State as "growing pains." That's abject failure in my mind.

Yeah, like I said, I'm not going to be a prick and sit here and demand the guy get fired.

I've been disappointed thus far (and I had fairly tame expectations)... I mostly just hate to see us lose to inferior teams regularly... and we've lost to some stinkers the last couple of years.

You know LSU basketball far better than I, so I'll trust your opinion.

I hope Trent gets it going, because he's a great dude and I like him.

I have the utmost confidence in TJ. I think that this season we'll continue to struggle as long as our production in the post doesn't improve and we don't rebound better, as well as defend. And while I don't think this team will be a serious contender in the SEC this year, I think that we will be one of the best teams in the conference next year.

A lot of people on this board thought that this would be an overnight building of a program. But my question is, what program have they been watching for the last twenty-five years? LSU, in my lifetime, has had ONE player that is 1 and Done. Anthony Randolph. And in that season, we won like 13 games and were really bad. It didn't provide us with longevity, it didn't provide us with a run in the tournament, and it wasn't something that has happened to us often enough for people to actually have an expectation that it should happen all the time. It takes more to build a team and a program than these types of players unless you are getting multiple 1 and Done guys each year or have a solid program that could use a 1 and Done to supplement the existing team. Could a guy like O'Bryant give us that? Maybe. But he could also be a guy that is here for two years, and improves here.

I keep using the Scotty Hopson reference but it's really true. Programs are built on those types of players, and we have some young guys like that on this team. If we could show an ounce of patience, which some posters were able to do with John fricking Brady of all people, certainly they can show it with a coach that is better liked by the players, takes accountability for the program, and has actually won at other schools that weren't fricking directional Samford.

Well neither were actually 1 and Done. Tyrus needed a year to gain some weight and grow into his body. When people generally discuss 1 and Done players they're referring to a top 5/10 player in the country coming out that goes to a school and lives up to the billing. Tyrus was a 2 star no name player that played at the Sports Academy, I believe, with big Collis and the rest of the crew. He was at McKinley and was a mile from the PMAC. We got lucky, straight up. He became a great player for us. Stromile Swift played sparingly in the first year and was also not a one and done, whether you think it's splitting hairs or not.

The same posters on this thread using Tyrus Thomas as an example of our great recruiting under Brady would be the same guys that would be villifying any other coach that had just signed a 2 star nobody out of high school. You already hear it with Isaac, and the only reason nobody has him ranked is because he was hurt last year. Pickering is currently undefeated and the top ranked team in 2A. They recently beat Barbe for anyone that wants to forget about Glen Davis and Temple at U-High and wants to diminish the classification. Isaac is the leading scorer on the team and best player.

Citing Tyrus Thomas is typical of posters on this board that would be the same ones bitching about signing a guy like Tyrus Thomas.

This is not directed at you Cable Guy. Just general feeling based on this thread.

arent you the one that constantly over the last year has said Isaac wont have an offer? or is that Hotep?

I questioned it based on his injury and the lack of news about his recovery.

When news came out that he was 100 percent recovered, I quit questioning it.

Trent said on signing day that, had he been healthy his junior year and went to all the AAU events, he would be a Top 50 type player, which is a borderline 5-star player.

There is absolutely NO excuse for losing to a State school. None. And we almost did it twice. I was highly optimistic after Trent's first season, but we have been going downhill ever since. I agree with others on here that we should give him through next year. However, if there is no SIGNIFICANT improvement he needs to go. And when we hire another coach, we need to quit settling for mediocrity.