re: LSU Women's basketball 69-78 CMU Final LSU loses in round 1

I do not think that you are wrong but I think their is an issue with Nikki recruiting kids from Louisiana and I believed it all started with the issues with Coco Baker and Youngblood, both dismissed. She is not from Louisiana and I feel she did not establish a good relationship with the high school coaches plus girl's basketball has been down in Louisiana since she has been there. The only player that you could build a program around was Brown and we all know why she went to Baylor. Ursin fits Nikki's system, she is super athletic but not a great shooter but she didn't play much AAU, which is where coaches do most of their recruiting. I find it ironic that they get Deemer from Ursuline but can't drive down the road to get Weber and Mitchell. I don't think she needed Mitchell because she has Pointer, Richard-Harris, and 2019 is stacked with PGs in Louisiana so there was no need. She could have used Weber on the wing but she did tear her ACL during her junior season, which could also have affected them recruiting her. Whatever the case, teams in the SEC that are at the top have had McDonald's All-Americans from their state that has stayed home and helped build the program like Seimone did for LSU in the early 2000's. (Welsh, Coates, Wilson at USC), Vivians at State, Cunningham at Mizzou. All of these are important factors to why LSU is struggling. The state has been down in girl's basketball. Now a philosophy that I think she should stop doing is recruiting players from the same team and taking the lesser player thinking it will get the higher recruit. Norton and Rellah Booth both played in Jacksonville together, Mitchell played with Asia Durr on the same AAU team, Richard-Harris with some girls she missed out on from Houston. She seems to make the top prospects top 10 but it falls apart at the end of the recruiting process.

Realistic expectations for this program: Top 4 finish each year in the SEC
Sweet 16 appearance consistently or every other year, Top 25 recruiting class each year, Improved 3 point shooting (makes and percentage, 84 with less than 30% accuracy is not good), Improved FT shooting (anything below 70 is not good), Improved Basketball IQ, Improved Foot work (all of the post players), Discipline and toughness, a Designated Recruiting Coordinator (and he/she needs to be young because who holds that title now, Butts or DeMoss).

I love DeMoss but she's been back in Louisiana for less than 5 years, she does not know all of the HS coaches these days as before and she wasn't even the recruiting coordinator at Tech with Tyler. So if she is that at LSU, it's gonna take some time that we do not have.

quote:

---

Realistic expectations for this program: Top 4 finish each year in the SEC
Sweet 16 appearance consistently or every other year, Top 25 recruiting class each year, Improved 3 point shooting (makes and percentage, 84 with less than 30% accuracy is not good), Improved FT shooting (anything below 70 is not good), Improved Basketball IQ, Improved Foot work (all of the post players), Discipline and toughness, a Designated Recruiting Coordinator (and he/she needs to be young because who holds that title now, Butts or DeMoss).

---

We are in year what 7? If we need all of that and have to repeat these standards then why not just clean house?

That is a lot of problems

Seems that way to me, you don't recruit a 5'5 and under player unless she is a program changer similar to Morgan William and at this moment, Richard-Harris is not that type of player. Maybe year 3 in development will improve her game but yes, Monet Jones, played on the same AAU program as Richard-Harris and one of the 2018 signees from Texas was on the radar for LSU.

And you can't pull in the top talent in Texas because Baylor is there and Texas has been scooping up everyone since Aston took over, even though she isn't a great X's and O's coach. George Washington, her assistant, was a AAU coach in Texas plus you add in Tina Thompson, and of course your recruiting will improve. They also had Travis Mays before he left for SMU, LSU's former assistant under Van, who helped signed the last big/good class for LSU (Barrett, et.)

quote:

---

Now the cupboard isn't bare but it would still be 3 years with Top 25 recruiting to turn this program around.

---

And at the moment I have zero confidence to think this staff can do that. Nikki doesn't have another top prospect who is a family member either. They have not proven it in 7 years. Even with Demoss on staff they missed badly for 2018 but people expect 2019 and 2020 to be any different?

If we gave a shite about winning championships, they would throw money at Kim Mulkey.

-And at the moment I have zero confidence to think this staff can do that. Nikki doesn't have another top prospect who is a family member either. They have not proven it in 7 years. Even with Demoss on staff they missed badly for 2018 but people expect 2019 and 2020 to be any different?


I'm starting to believe this as well. If she does not pull in either of the Young's (the one from Evangel or the one from Loranger who plays for DFW Elite, who has plenty of prospects who have had home visits with top programs the last two weeks but I see LSU is no where to be found).

I guess they were busy preparing for CMU and see how well that turned out. How many home visits have they done last week between the SEC Tourney and the NCAA 1st rounds.

-If we gave a shite about winning championships, they would throw money at Kim Mulkey.


She would never leave Waco to come to BR and turn this program around even if she still has resentment towards Tech. Plus, as much as this board complains about salaries, do you think they would let her live if she made more money than Will Wade and Orgeron because that is what it would take for her to even think about it.

Who else is looking at the Young from Loranger? I’m sure her interest with us is done her and some former WBB manger got into it on Twitter a few weeks ago. Also her dad played at LSU and later transferred.

-Who else is looking at the Young from Loranger?

I know she has an Alabama offer and interest from MS State, not sure about anyone else. If this staff is heavily recruiting her, what a former WBB manager says should be irrelevant if they have built a solid relationship with her unless what the manager said is a reflection of this staff.

All week Really? I didn't wait, I slept and worked :)