re: Tired of bashing JJ threads...

Getting Ben Simmons has been JJ's worst nightmare. He has brought undue expectations that JJ can't meet. We're 20 games in and we can't execute with both TQ and BS on floor at same time. TQ has become a coach killer. He's holding BS back because he can't play without the ball. We all now know that BS needs to have the ball in his hands every possession. TQ in the game doesn't allow that to happen. It's JJ's fault for not designing an offense that uses both of their skill sets in harmony. Simple as that

here's how I see it...we run a very freelance offense. there is virtually no movement away from the ball, and we rely on ball screens and 1 on 1. If we are hitting shots then we're in good shape, if not then we lose, but we seem to struggle in the half court against good defensive teams. I watch a lot of college basketball, and coached at the high school level and most teams have several set plays w/the object of getting a shot for your best player. If you watch Duke, or Arizona, or Kansas, when the other team goes on a 6-0 run, the coach is off the bench and immediately calls timeout. This does 2 things it stops the momentum and it allows you to settle your team and call one of those set plays to get your best player a scoring opportunity.

we don't do that. we will leat teams go these long runs of 10,12,14 pts. sometimes we go 4-6 minutes w/o scoring and in those 4-6 minutes our best players don't touch the ball and instead we have reserves off the bench jacking up 3's. In my opinion, that's coaching.

Further more, we have to be the worst team defending the dribble drive. Now that's mainly on the players, but maybe not enough emphasis is being put on this at practice. Also our rotations on help side d are non-existant. Again this is mainly on the players, but whatever they are teaching aint working.
How is it that a bunch of goofy white kids from Wisconsin are always one of the top 5 defensive teams in the country? It isn't athleticisms. Its because those defensive fundamentals are drilled into their heads for 4 and 5 years. They know exactly where everyone is on defense and where there help is going to come from.

Whens the last time we scored on an inbounds play?
When I coached we tried to score on every baseline or sideline inbounds play. Most teams don't work on inbounds defense, so we felt it was an advantage for us and we spent a lot of time on it. This lead to easy buckets w/o much time running of the clock. We had about 5 inbounds plays if the played man, and 7 if they zoned us. None of those plays involved throwing the ball into the back court.

Where has the press gone? When Jonny first got here we pressed, but didn't have the depth to do it for long periods of time. Hell when he finished 9-9 with a tuba player at center, I thought he did an awesome job. But in the last 2 years he's gonna have had 2 1st round pick for sure(martin and simmons) possible 3(quarterman)and a 2nd rounder in mickey. How much more talent do we need to make it past the 1st round of the tournament? This is year 4 and everyone on the roster is he's guys. Whats it gonna take to make a run?

I'll end it there as a know this was a little long

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chipdouglas96

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Quality post.

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People act like Johnny hasn't been coaching for years and is just oblivious to the game of basketball. He knows more basketball than 99 percent of the world, let alone, on the Rant. Dude got hired for a reason and I have to believe it's more than a token hire and a "favor" to Dale and the governor. Yall trippin.

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Jones was a .500 coach at North Tx for 11 years before LSU hired him. During that time he never won a reg. season conf. title or a NCAA tournament game. There was literally no market for him as a HC outside of North Tx and LSU. If he hadn't played and coached during the glory years of LSU basketball he would have NEVER been considered for the HC job.

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He is getting better as a coach

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This is his 16th year as a HC (4th at LSU). We're not talking about some young assistant cutting his teeth as a 1st time HC. LSU shouldn't be in a position where they have to "wait" for a HC to "get better"

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That game let us know that we are heading in the right direction and just need to tweek a few things and at the end of the day, we only go as far as Ben's aggressiveness and assertiveness when it counts, along with Victor staying out of foul trouble, Quatermann being "engaged" in the game and Gray limiting his turnovers when he is in the game. That's not coaching, that's players knowing their roles and performing accordingly.

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No one is going to dispute that this team is much better with Hornsby/Victor in the line up. Also, even the most ardent of Jones haters can't deny that he generally gets his teams ready to compete in the big games against big time opponents. The problem is the wild lack of consistency. Everything that LSU did well against OU could completely go out of the window in the next game and no one would be surprised. It's plagued Jones for the last 3 seasons now. They could just as easily beat OU or UK as they could lose to an SEC bottom feeder or other below-avg team. That leads to LSU being a consistently good, but not great program.

There are still a lot of important games remaining and LSU is very much in the hunt for the SEC title. Jones deserves credit for that. However, right now this team is on the outside of the NCAAT looking in. I'll reserve full judgment until the end of this season. But if LSU fails to make the NCAAT (which like it or not is a real possibility at this point) then Jones will have had (outside of UK, of course) the most NBA talent in the SEC over the last 3 years and led then to 1 NCAAT birth and 0 NCAAT wins. It would be really hard to say he's doing a great job should that prove to be the case

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he shouldnt be the #1 pick...

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Why should he not? You realize the team that drafts him will have him for many years. Professional sports teams don't draft off of college production, they draft off of a player's potential to be a good professional player. There are great college players in every sport that just don't translate into great professional players. So as great as Buddy Hield looks right now, he's a 22 year old playing against 18-22 years olds. Next year he has to play against 20-35 year olds who know what they are doing. Perhaps Simmons projects to be better in the NBA game.

jj came from north texas. he doesn't know how to get the best out of this type of talent. simmons needs to be coached up and more plays designed just for him to increase his aggressiveness. how may other coachs in America would allow simmons to take 7 shots at home against the no. 1 team in country.

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can you think of a recent #1 pick that has had the glaring weaknesses he has?

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He shoots 70% from the free throw line. Bad shooters can't do that. Next year Simmons will have hours at a time to work on his jump shot. Reps, reps, reps, and more reps will create confidence for him.

Can you think of a recent #1 pick with his size, athleticism, touch around the goal, passing and rebounding ability?

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Can you think of a recent #1 pick with his size, athleticism, touch around the goal, passing and rebounding ability?

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all that stuff is great, when he actually does it and not hiding off to the side

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I would argue that only applies to half of the top 15. What about 16 - 25 (or whatever rank LSU is)? Are they all senior driven too?

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I'm gonna give you a chance here...have you gone and broken down the starting lineups for all the teams in the Top 25. Because I have...it's a very long process, but feel free to do it. If you have not, then take my word that 90% of them start at least 3 players who are JR's or SR's.

Finally: LSU has a Senior, Sophomore who didn't play last year, Sophomore, Freshman, Junior. Off the bench we have a JUCO Senior, Freshman, Soph, Soph, occasional Fresh in Sampson.

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He got destroyed on national TV by Vitale and deservedly so.

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What did he say? I was at the game so I didn't hear his commentary.