re: LSU basketball:Season hanging in the balance?

I agree Nbone. That's why I didn't freak out about a 30 pt asswhipping.
LSU is a perimeter team, at this point, for the most part. We'll live or die based on how MT and BS shoot the ball. Taz does provide some low post scoring, but a good bit of his scoring is also his mid-range jumper.
When we have a night where we don't shoot the ball very good, we'll be in some trouble.
If you couple that with a big, powerful C that we have no one to match up with, your in trouble.

This team will be fine. They will win their share of SEC games and they'll probably throw in a clunker from time to time. In the end, I expect(barring injury) this team will win 10 SEC games and have a good shot at the NCAA Tourney.

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I have really stayed away from making any serious predictions due to LSU’s weak schedule so far.

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This has been my point the whole time. I like some things I've seen, but there's no way people could honestly believe some of the things they said about the team based solely on watching the games this season (before the last few). We had basically played HS teams so far. We did play WSU, and that was a good win. But even they aren't the same team they were last year. Utah was a good test, and unfortunately we failed that test big time.

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2) The disappearance of Chris Johnson

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I've said this since last year...if we have to rely on CJ as our main guy down low, we're in trouble. He shows flashes on offense, but even that has been few and far between this year. And on the defensive end, he can't put a body on anybody. I think the best we can hope for is that he gets a lot of blocks and makes guys nervous.

CJ has been disappointing this year.

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The bench

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Also disappointing. I think we all know that Quintin Thornton is not a great player, but he's coming in and looking like he doesn't know how to play basketball. Listening to the game a couple nights ago, I'm glad I wasn't watching it. Also, I had/have high hopes for Storm Warren, but so far, he isn't really standing out.

Negatives:

Poor perimeter defense. Spencer/Thornton have been playing bad defense on opposing guards. Temple is usually pretty solid, but for the most part, guards are blowing by us like we're standing still. I will say, though, that Thornton at least seems to have improved somewhat over last year (though his defense last year sucked so bad...it was almost impossible for him not to).

Scoring. We are averaging just north of 75 points per game this year, which is not terrible. But that also includes blowouts against creampuff teams earlier in the year. We've failed to score 70 points 5 times in the last 7 games. If we continue to struggle close to the basket and on defense, we're gonna need to step up the scoring to stay in games, which means we'll need to knock down some outside shots. Thornton is a scorer, no doubt. He's streaky at times, but sometimes seems like the only one who wants to shoot the ball. Spencer is solid as well. We're gonna need Tasmin to step up as a leader, but I don't know if that fits him very well. Aside from those three, the scoring kinda falls off. Also, we're shooting just under 46% as a team (90th overall in the country). That needs to improve.

Depth. If ANY starter on this team gets hurt, we are in serious trouble. Our bench is basically nonexistent. Martin is horrible, and it's fine if he never gets any more PT...his time should go to Farrer/Bass/and ever maybe Graham. QThornton is kinda like Darnell Lazare, but worse. He basically gives the starters time to rest, and then they should be put back in the game. Bass is gonna be a solid player, he just needs to get a feel for things a little more, and not be afraid to drive and score/dish. Farrer is actually putting up decent minutes. Though it seems he still has that nervous feel to him sometimes. Storm Warren hasn't been impressive (but he hustles his arse off though).

Offense. At times, we look pretty good on offense and run set plays, but a lot of times, it's the same old "pass it around the outside until the shot clock runs down and we jack up a long shot/three." That needs to change.

Positives:

Bo Spencer. Bo Spencer has been more than impressive this year, both in terms of handling the ball, as well as scoring. Every time he's open for three, it seems like he knocks it down. We're gonna need that badly.

3-point shooting. We're just shy of 40% on the season. That's good for 19th in the country. We'll need to keep that up if we can't get consistent points in the paint. Looks like this may be another year of "live and die by the three."

Tasmin Mitchell's inside game. You can tell Taz has worked a lot on this, and he shows flashes of brilliance in games with his post moves. That's good to see from him, and we're definitely gonna need him to keep that up. Hopefully, Tasmin in the paint will open up chances for CJ to score. Also, we're still gonna need Taz to hit that 20-foot jumper as well. If he can be solid with that, he should have a great year.


As far as TJ goes, I'm still on the fence. I am admittedly a Brady guy, but there was time for a change. And I like TJ, I just would like to see more. Like I said earlier, at times our offense looks terrible (looks the same as what people used to always bitch about when Brady was here). Also, his demeanor on the bench is nonchalant sometimes. I know he cares, but sometimes he needs to get on someone's arse if they're not doing things correctly. But that's just a personal thing with me, I guess, and not so much a "knock" on TJ. I do think he has done well to get Thornton playing better on D, and Spencer playing well (some of it is maturity, but some of it is coaching). I question some of his moves though...like when we're down late in the game, and he pulls all of the starters out. I just don't understand that.

But I think he has the potential to be good here. He just desperately needs to sign a big man. And soon.

I don't think 20 wins is out of the question with this team, but it's gonna require us to get hot for a few games in a row. But if that can happen, and we can maybe squeeze a game out of the SECT, then who knows...if the league is very average across the board, maybe that will be good enough to get us in.

Coco, your were one of the ones I was talking about back when I referred to a few years ago. Along with Stro and a few others.

You can never judge a team too early. There is no doubt this team has some serious issues that will hinder it.
CJ, for instance, is a SF playing C. He has a decent stroke and can help with "help side" defense. But, manned up on a bigger man he's in trouble. Not just because of his lack of girth, but because he doesn't play "NASTY" to begin with.
Taz on the other hand is undersized, but you can see him get physical against bigger guys and have some success.
Hell, going back many years think back to Ricky Blanton(who in some ways reminds me of Taz). RB was severly undersized, but he was "nasty" when he needed to be. Bigger guys didn't just back him down at will. I just don't know that CJ has it in him. I wish G.Green wouldn't have gotten hurt. By what little he played last year, he sure seemed to have a little nastiness in him that would have really helped. I think that's why TJ was high on him before the injury.

One of the biggest keys to this team going forward may end up being how the young players on the bench progress. With what we have, Farrer has to be somewhat productive. IMO, he's really limited athletically but he does do some good things. Like I mentioned, I think he's more of a SLC type player. But, we need that at least.
Bass, Warren, and Graham have to grow up before our eyes and start giving us SOME pt production. It doesn't have to be a ton, but it has to be enough that it's not killing the team when our starters come out.

Agreed. Though I think even if CJ played nasty, he'd still be in trouble. He just simply doesn't have the frame to body up against big men. I was really hoping to see him start bulking up this season, but he didn't. This is now year three of him in the program, and he doesn't look like he's gained ten pounds in that time (I know he was 190 when he got here, and is now listed at 210, but you just can't see it).

It sucks too, cuz I really thought this team would do well, or even compete at the very least. But against the only 2 teams that are really good this year (A&M and Utah), we've sucked (though the A&M game was at least decent until the end). I hope Washington State can rattle off some wins, but as of now, it doesn't look like it.

I just worry about this team. Not to harp on Brady, but at least when he was here, you knew we were gonna play good defense. Sometimes it looks like we are confused on D and can't stay in front of people. If I had to hear Hawthorne/Kevin say one more time the other night that Brown just drove past our guards and made an uncontested layup, I was gonna punch something. Hell, at one point in the Washington State game, TJ benched Spencer because he couldn't do shite on D against that guard (Rochestie).

Another thing that pisses me off is rebounding. You know who our best rebounder (in terms of hustling for them) is? Marcus Thornton. CJ gets pushed around half the time, and watch QThornton...most of the time he doesn't even leave his feet for the ball. It's ridiculous.

I really hope this team can get hot in February and end the season .500 or better. I just don't know if we can based on how we're playing right now. I mean, we're struggling to beat teams like Nicholls, McNeese, and ULL for frick's sake.

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He can't turn around 10+ years of what Brady did to our program over night.


John Brady left the program in much better shape than when he took over.

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People like him are just so infused with hatred for Brady that they can't take a step back and evaluate things with a level head. It's best to just ignore them and maybe they'll go away.

Somebody earlier in the thread nailed it perfectly...Brady is a good coach. He just sucks at the marketing aspect of it (which is definitely part of it).

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Was there not any text when your first opened the thread?

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Yeah, but I generally don't have time to read 10,000 word essays by rantards.

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Yeah, but I generally don't have time to read 10,000 word essays by rantards.

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So, if you post on the rant, you are deemed a "ranter". I try to be somewhat objective unlike a lot of other people on this site. I'm not sure what I have done to you in the past to make you feel this way?

I agree that Brady accomplished some good things. He had real success winning with 5 guys born and raised in Louisiana who were laid at his doorstep.

And, ya'll act like Brady's lack of marketing the program wasn't a program killer. Not only did he alienate a majority of the fans, he alienated many of his own players. Is he a decent coach? Yeah. But, the attitude towards the LSU basketball program from fans and recruits alike has taken a huge hit because of John Brady. It is going to take awhile for players and fans alike to buy into what a new coach says.

That's all I meant.

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I agree that Brady accomplished some good things. He had real success winning with 5 guys born and raised in Louisiana who were laid at his doorstep.

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You do realize that all LA kids don't come to LSU, right?

I love how people criticize Brady for getting local kids. It's fricking laughable.

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It is going to take awhile for players and fans alike to buy into what a new coach says.

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No it won't. LSU basketball fans will watch a winner. If we were undefeated right now, you'd see more and more people in the stands. shite, look at 99-00 for Brady. That was back before people hated him...beginning of the season, the PMAC was empty. By the time the Tennessee game came, people were camping out and the place was packed.

LA basketball fans are a fickle bunch. All it takes is a winner.