re: Women's basketball no tourney

Fire Van NOW!!! He has run our program into the ground. The guy has no fire left in him. He's a clown entertainer and couldn't really care less about winning it all. It's past time to go. He inherited a hell of a team and Starkey (not Van in my opinion) took that team to our last final four which was the 5th in a row. Then the decline began and it's gone steadily down hill to this point where we weren't even invited to the NCAA's for the first time since 1998? Unbelievable if they don't fire him immediately!

Despite losing Big 12 record, UT women reach tourney

UT (19-13 overall) finished 7-9 during league play and was 0-11 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25, but still was seeded higher than several other at-large teams.

LINK

This is why Van has a right to be steamed....

The difference is Coach Chatman was an inexperienced coach who made some young coach mistakes BUT did recruit the players on our 5 Final Four teams...Van made a rookie coach mistake in the last Final Four agt TN that if he'd put pressure on the ball, TN wouldn't have had time to get off 2 shots for the winning basket and that year we win the Nat'l Champ...besides that, I'll take going to the Final Four every year and NOT winning to sitting at home watching everyone else play...any day!

..................and tremendous financial support. Which is something we DIDN'T have before Skip Bertman became the AD. Everything is in place for this program to re-assert itself among the elite and, it wouldn't take more than a year. The talent is there and they have talent coming in next season. Talent-wise, this team next year could be a final four contender. There's no doubt in my mind about that.....................especially with the potential we have on the front line!

LSU had a good run with the best talent in the country for 2 or 3 years. Augustus was great most of the time, but like a cold shooting ball hog like Lebron, she was prone to cold games at the worst possible times.

Just like Lebron, LSU back then was all about Augustus shooting 30 times a game. LSU won a ton of those games then, just like Cleveland. However, cold shooting in the final 4 prevented a championship, just as Cleveland did not win a championship either.

LSU teams then were not teams per se. They were more vehicles for SA to score which usually caused LSU to win. It did not however, develop the team nor did it promote a "team" atmosphere.

That LSU didn't get to a final or win a final when big Sylvia was here, was utterly amazing. The woman could have dominated the game much more so than she did, primarily because Augustus was allowed to be the primary offensive threat. Back then, LSU should have gone to Slyvia far more than they did.

That said, Augustus should be given some credit for signing with her home team, and helping raise LSU to new standards. The excitement of being a major part of a resurgent program certainly helped recruiting. So far as Van goes, he certainly knows how to coach but just does not have the personnel that Chatman, who was WAY in over her head, had. Had Van been here back then, LSU might well have won the whole thing.

Lastly, I cannot fathom why LSU would turn down an NIT bid - it just seems unfathomable that they would decline. That some have said LSU didn't want to spend the money this way,is absurd. Surely, LSU doesn't mind spending some of it's warchest from Football on other sports.