re: Lady Tigers 77 #8 Kentucky 72 Final

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alum96, you of all people, who read all this type of threads are questioning my knowledge? You may disagree with me, but you know I follow the sport and know my stuff, yes it is IMO, just as yours is. Fact- NC has never made it past the 2nd round in an NCAA trny, fact she could leave LSU and go to any of 10 or so (saintsfan as always had a very good post, agree with his info) programs or never make top 3 in SEC, I may be wrong and I may be right..time will tell. But make no mistake, getting outsted in round two at home last year and finishing 6-7 in SEC this year does NOT make me any more wrong than you are right. By the way, if we lose in round one-two of sec and round 1-2 of ncaa's at home this year, will you at all be disapointed? I will....because we are used to doing much better over the past 14 years, arent we?

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And therein lies the difference. Let me answer your last question first. No...............I WON'T be disappointed. Why.................? Because, as I've said many times before, THIS IS A REBUILDING YEAR. We just lost SIX SENIORS from a team that went 24-11 last season and played in the SEC tournament championship game. At this point in the season (as opposed to earlier in the season) we have 3 players who are starters that weren't starters last season (one being a freshman). Additionally, those three players did not play significant minutes at all last season (Plaisance 11.7 mpg, McKinney 8.3 mpg, Ballard o mpg). We started the season with ten players and are now down to EIGHT...........and we still just defeated the highest ranked team in the SEC. My question is............why exactly are YOU disappointed with the team thus far? I, along with everyone else in this thread, believe this has been a wonderful coaching job by the staff.

Nikki's never made it past the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament you say? You are right. However, this is her record for her career to this point........

2008 19 wins, 12 losses (first year as a head coach)

2009 25 wins, 9 losses

2010 28 wins, 5 losses

2011 24 wins, 11 losses (FIRST season at LSU)

2012 17 wins, 10 losses (still in progress)

Here's Pat Summitt's record in her first four seasons as a head coach...

16-8
16-11
28-5
27-4

in her fifth season (all at UT) she led the team to a 30-9 record and a third place finish in the AIAW tournament.............of course back then the tournament only had 16 teams.

Here's Kim Mulkey's first four seasons at Baylor.

21-9
27-6
24-11
26-9

Her teams didn't make it past the second round until the FOURTH season she was there. That fourth season they made it to the sweet sixteen but lost. All four seasons were at Baylor. Her fifth season she won the NCAA tournament. After having been at Baylor for FIVE SEASONS.

Geno Auriemma's first four seasons....

12-15 (no tournament)
14-13 (no tournament)
17-11 (no tournament)
24-6 (lost in first rd of NCAA tournament)

In his fifth season UConn went 25-6 and lost in the..........yep, second round. He made is first final four in his sixth season and didn't win his first NCAA tournament until his TENTH SEASON.

secman12, you're telling us you're knowledgeable. But you're certainly not being REASONABLE, when it comes to this great young coach. Listen, Sue Gunter and Pokey Chatman are gone.........they're not coming back to coach this program. This is a new era and we've got to get behind this young coach. We're LUCKY to have gotten her. As I've been saying, give her time. She's not leaving.............even though it sounds like that's what you'd like............and it's clear she has the program pointed in the right direction. Just enjoy the ride this season. This is probably the worst team we're going to see here in quite some time.......................and they've still got a very good chance of finishing with 20 wins........................with only EIGHT PLAYERS finishing the season.

secman12, you do realize this team is in the same position as last years team in the conference. If anything, it speaks of the coaching job of the staff. We had 6 players depart from last years team. The development of of our players from last year to this year is great. We have played short handed all season. Boykin is out for the season. Kenney has been playing injured in someway all season. Baker is nonexistent, so we have about 8 players who can play. We are very young also, I was expecting worse from this years team. To think this team was going to be way better then last years team is absurd, Nc has only brought in ONE recruiting class. Ballard is one of the top players in the SEC. Nc is never leaving LSU unless she fails here, which won't happen.

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By the way, if we lose in round one-two of sec and round 1-2 of ncaa's at home this year, will you at all be disapointed? I will....because we are used to doing much better over the past 14 years, arent we?

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I will jump in here on this...No, I will not be disappointed in a 2nd round loss this year. As I have said in earlier posts, I thought we would struggle to make the tournament this year with the massive loss from last year's team. So, I think making it to the 2nd round would be great this year. I expect us to be about a 10-12 seed, so winning against a 5-7 seed would be an upset. Depends on the match up and type of team we would play, but I would not be disappointed if we lose. I think comparing the past 2 years with the prior 14 is apples and oranges. We made the Final Four runs during a very stable and consistent period of the program with veteran players and strong recruiting from Pokey and Starkey, etc. Even when Sue got sick, the staff stability allowed them to continue without missing a beat. The Pokey fiasco totally changed everything. She left unexpectedly in scandal and the university in a panic hired Van as a band-aid. He was more interested in being on the golf course than in the gym and the decline in talent, booster support, and attendance in general was obvious to anyone who paid any attention. So, we are in a rebuilding mode, I like the freshmen she brought in this year, unfortunately one of them is a head case. She has a great recruiting class next year, with Plaisance, Kenney and Ballard all coming back, a JC player who will step in immediately, the guard from Florida who is supposed to be even better than Ballard, I think things are on the rise.

Here's a great blog from Kent Lowe about both men's and women's games from this past weekend............

The Lowedown

Not one bowling reference in the whole blog...color me disappointed

I don't always totally trust Charlie Creme...he had us in the tournament the whole time a couple of years ago when we ended up not making it.

And I think right now, a #8 seed is a bit high. I have us at 10 or so...

WTG!

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Actually sat next to the female ref on a flight on Sunday night. She was reviewing game video on her laptop and i heard her make a call when we landed. She knew they F'ed up that game. Apparently there were a couple charge calls/no calls that she was upset about.

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The problem with the game was that in the first half, they let EVERYTHING go...there was so much hand-checking by Kentucky's guards on LSU's guards, it wasn't even funny. There was also a lot of physical play...on both sides...that they let go. In the 2nd half, it was obvious the refs decided they had to start calling it tighter.

The female ref also got a bit agitated with a few of the fans on the front row across from the LSU bench who were raising hell...she pointed at the section during a timeout. I think she got caught up in the emotions of the game a little.

Also in the good news category, our RPI shot up to 41 after last week's 2 wins...

LINK