re: State of Basketball Program and I am a Trent Johnson supporter

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We may take our licks but those same licks helped us tremendously on the final 4 run in 06. Obviously that team was better but I think it would show the coaches and players where the team really stood.

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i agree.....we're playing next season in the Charleston Classic and I'll be really interested to see how we line up against some other decent programs

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The field for the fourth annual tournament in addition to the Tigers includes Georgia Tech, Saint Joseph's, Seton Hall, Tulsa, Virginia Commonwealth, Western Kentucky and Baylor.

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Tenn is a lot like LSU. Football school, basketball is secondary.

Pearl took over a pretty bad team, and he hasnt needed ANY time to transition.

He hasnt missed the NCAA tournament in 5 years, and his team is well on their way again this year.


They have been continually ranked. They have been deep into the tournament. They challenge UK when Cal was there.



I cant stand all the excuses made for Johnson. Not that LSU wont become a decent program, but basketball is not a sport where you need 2-3 years to show results. It just isnt.

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Hit the nail on the head with the way I think about it too!

People act as if the "draconian sanctions" was the death penalty.

For the love of God people, it's been what? Almost ten years now since that?

If it takes that long to rebuild a program then somebody ain't doing their job worth a shite. Especially for LSU. I could understand Southern or UL Lafayette or somebody like that, but not LSU with a brand new practice center and nice facilities and a brand name - not to mention a little basketball history and tradition (Shaq and Pistol Pete).

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we won 2 SEC games last year and this year looks pretty bleak, wouldnt you agree?

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last year was awful.....i know this year hasn't looked all that great, but we are 6-2 and i'll hold off judgement until we at least get some conference games going....I'm really interested to see how we do against UVA and Wichita St. outside of the PMAC

dale brown was gone 14 years ago. brady was fired in his 11th and this is TJ's 3rd. I don't know exactly how many wins to expect this year, I do expect them to be greatly improved over last year and we should make NIT at the least.

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I think Florida with their back to back NCs will support that...but Florida is still a football school and unless Florida is a top ranked team in basketball...i dont think they get much support from the fanbase...just like a Texas. That's jmho.

Now Florida isnt even in the AP top 25 and have an 18 pt loss to Oh St at home...are they still filling up their arena? I dont know...im curious.

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The bottom line is that if the team starts winning people will support, and they team does not need support to win. This is year 3 and it's not looking good so far it seems. If this team tanks similar to last year I have to think next season could be do or die. Unlike football, a basketball team can be turned around quick. LSU has to many resources and talent in the area to be a cellar dweller.

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we can still schedule regionally without playing fricking every La school. Play South Alabama, Southern Miss, A&M, Texas Tech, Florida State, Clemson here and there... mix them in with the mighty Southern Jags

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This year is pretty bad but no complaints on the schedule with Xavier, Wazzou, Utah, A&M the last two years. Either way, scheduling is not the issue.

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we won 2 SEC games last year and this year looks pretty bleak, wouldnt you agree?

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do you ever say anything positive? your life sucks

The years to really judge Johnson and the state of the program will be next season and the year after that.

Johnson walked into an immediately good situation here his first year and won with Brady's players that Brady couldn't win with. After that year we all saw what happened last year with a severely undermanned squad thanks to Brady's lack of recruiting his last couple years here. TJ had to basically start from scratch.

TJ put together a decent 2009 class with the little time he had and zero Louisiana talent that year. He got Dotson all the way from Washington and after recovering from injury last year has shaped into a decent starter for us already. Ludwig he got from LA and is our best bench player, about as good as anyone could of done for us that year.

In 2010 he put together a REALLY good class. Stringer and Turner have made big impacts already this year as starters and Derenbecker's potential is very high. Courtney remains to be seen.

For 2011 he landed a great big guy we desperately needed in O'Bryant and has stuck it out with Issac despite other highly rated guys showing interest like Luckett. That says some good things about Issac IMO.

With those 2 coming in next season, especially O'Bryant looking to have a big impact as a freshman, next year is NCAAs or bust. We have the team to get there by then with the core of players getting experience this year.

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here arent many positives regarding last season and so far this season in basketball.

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You're throwing up the meltdown flag 8 games into this season? Pretty early especially considering we have a lot of young players getting experience.

BRING BACK BRADY!!!!