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What an emotional moment if you bleed purple and gold

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What an emotional moment it was if you bleed purple and gold when Jodie Meeks last second three pointer didn't even draw iron. Cast the memory back to the spring of 1999 when the Tigers were completing their sixth straight losing season with draconian NCAA sanctions looming. It would have been very difficult to envision the coming decade would bring more SEC titles than any other decade in the program's history. Getting the program back to a competitive level seemed a monumental task in itself.

That this program would ascend to a level of participating in a Final Four and Sweet 16 was incomprehensible. Winning three SEC titles in the decade, only one less than Kentucky is testament to what can be achieved.

It is fitting the decade had bookend titles which is a tribute to all of the players who had the faith to join a program which had struggled after so many years of success under Dale Brown.

The titles are also a tribute to John Brady, the architecht of the three title teams who along with Butch Pierre recruited all except one of the players on those title teams. It is also a tribute to Trent Johnson who put the final nails in the structure and got a veteran team to buy into a new system and shake off the frustrations of the past two injury plagued seasons after reaching the Final For.

The vision in the spring of 2009 is a lot bettter than it was in the spring of 1999. While we all want a consistent winner and championship contender that may not happen unless great players stick around for three or for years. The foundation has been laid and if the right things occur Trent Johnson has a chance to coach the most succesful decade ever. Support him and the Tigers no matter what happens and we may have many more emotional moments including raising that long sought national championship banner to the rafters of the PMAC.

Congrats tiger20. You cheapened your own post by undermining it with the same BS you always do. In all that you wrote, the only thing I could focus on was the overwhelming crap that is your hidden agenda. I still don't know what it is you are trying to accomplish in all this.

WOW! There is one mention of John Brady in my entire post and you somehow determine this is a hidden agenda? Reading comprehension lessons beckon for you, my friend.

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For that I am thankful. But he sucked the life right out of it shortly after with a pitiful Sweet Sixteen performance and with it, the stark realization that we would never achieve a level of consistency under a coach whose players wouldn't buy into a garbage system, while those who knew it was garbage left

Instead of rejoicing that a moribund program had ascended to the Sweet 16 after 6 straight losing seasons you elect to focus on one bad game in a season in which there were 28 victories. In your pathetic vision of the world must lie an image of yourself.

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I never realized what TJ was doing to this program until yesterday...when I watched Terry Martin man up against Meeks. A guy who barely gave a half-arse effort under Brady but was rewarded with playing time sat out four games earlier this season while he learned a valuable life lesson. Instead of leaving the team, he dedicated himself to it, and yesterday he was trusted to stop an incredible player when the stopper went out with foul trouble. You saw a player take pride in himself and play great D....a true reflection of his teammates and his head coach.

If Terry Martin was giving less than his best effort then it is on Terry Martin . Any player who has pride in himself should always give 100% every minute regardless of any other circumstances. Sorry I don't buy this crap. He is on scholarship and representing LSU, his parents, coaches, teammmates and anyone else who assisted him to get to the level he is today.