New Coach - Trent Johnson

LSU appears to have hired Stanford's Trent Johnson as its new basketball coach.  At first blush, this hire does not have a "wow" factor to it.  I don't know much about Trent Johnson, and he wasn't really a guy talked up on the media circuit in the 2 months since John Brady was fired.  However, Les Miles didn't have a wow-factor in his hiring either, and he has turned out great.

When this announcement was made, it introduced more questions than answers.  Why is he leaving Stanford for LSU, a move most would consider a downgrade?  What does he bring to the table?  Is he a recruiter?  Is he a motivator?  Is he an X's and O's guy?  

Some of these questions began to be answered by reading former Stanford great Mark Madsen's blog.  Of course, I try to read Madsen's blog every day, if only to find out if he's going to be in any dance-offs soon.  

Madsen says of Trent Johnson:

"This man deserves the very best because he is a first class individual and one of the best basketball minds in the business."

"Trent Johnson is one of the best communicators in the basketball world."

"He's secured multiple Sweet 16 performaces, a huge recruiting pipeline into Los Angeles, Oakland and throughout the East Coast, as well as one of the best X's and O's coaches in the nation."

That's enough for me for now.

Anthony Randolph To Try The NBA

Yesterday, in a press conference, Anthony Randolph announced he was going to test the NBA draft waters, while leaving himself the option to return if things do not go well.

Projections seem to have him as a lottery pick, which has me perplexed.  Randolph is a very good player, certainly, but I don't see "lottery" in him, because I don't see any star potential there (at the NBA level).  I also don't see a player who elevates the play of those around him.  

Yes, he has the prototypical NBA body style with his good height and lean physique, but he certainly has to gain strength before he hopes to make any kind of an impact in the NBA, where the post game is even more physical than in college.  I don't follow the NBA much, but it is very hard to imagine Randolph going against the likes of Kevin Garnett, Shaq, or Tim Duncan and having any success at all.

It just boggles the mind that LSU could have a lottery pick on its roster and still have a losing season.  He was a good player on a bad team, but he wasn't exactly dominant.  The explanation is that Randolph isn't really a lottery pick.  They say he'll be drafted on potential, but that seems a little odd to me considering Randolph has at least a 1-year apprenticeship ahead of him and probably a 2-year apprenticeship, and then will be eligible for free agency after his third year.  And in what way is his potential higher than, say, Joe Alexander's or Eric Gordon's?

I wonder if those projections are going to start declining before the summer.  Overseas players are starting to really compete with American college players for draft slots, and one can expect 1/4 to 1/2 of all the early draft positions to be taken up by foreign players.  Plus, Randolph will have attended a bunch of camps and workouts by that time, and he will have been put through the paces.

Randolph, as I've said before, should return to LSU.  I know that it's hard to pass up money, but life is about more than money.  LSU is in all likelihood the last basketball team in which Anthony Randolph will be one of the best players.  His future, despite what some projections say, is likely as an NBA role player, watching someone like Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, or Steve Nash keep the ball in his hands most of the game while Randolph (if he's on the court) is trying to stay out of his way.  

That's not a knock on Randolph.  It's just a commentary on how the NBA game is played now.  He'll have a lot more fun and win a lot more glory for himself if he stays at LSU a little while longer and leads us to a nice run somewhere.  I know his wallet says leave, but I feel pretty confident in saying that 10 years from now, he will probably wish he had stayed.

What does this mean for LSU?  Well, assuming Randolph actually goes to the NBA, it means that this was truly a wasted year.  We spent a lost season developing Randolph and setting up a future run with him as a primary weapon, and then he leaves.  If he leaves for the NBA, we would have been better off never having him in the first place.  His legacy at LSU will be zero.  He will have come in and played reasonably well on a bad team and will have left before he accomplished anything.

If Randolph wants to come back, great.  I'd love to have him back.  

Jason Wins

In a result surprising to no one, Jason wins the tourney game.  The final standings are as follows:

1. Jason - 714 points
2. Me - 700 points
3. Daniel - 648 points
4. Poseur - 646 points
5. Rollie - 619 points
6. Jroberts - 540 points
7. Scott - 390 points

In another result surprising very few people, Memphis lost because they didn't hit free throws.

Alright, that's not really fair.  Over the course of the game, they hit 12 of 19 free throws, which is a 63% rate.  That's not terrible.  Not great, but not terrible.  They just missed a bunch down the stretch, and it was one of their best free throw shooters missing them.

For a random thought of the morning, I have two observations about televised sports that I think are interrelated:

1. Television executives reportedly complain about how long sporting events last, and how they go on beyond their scheduled times, and
2. Television stations air seemingly interminable pre-game segments, even for routine events, getting longer as the games get more important.

I truly believe that thanks to the internet and 24 hour sports channels, there isn't a whole lot of need for the networks to catch me up on the news before they start their broadcast of the games.  Yet, they spend a lot of time telling me things that I already know, and that anyone could easily find out if they are really interested, delaying the starts of games and having them run long.

Last night, the broadcast started at 8:00 and the game didn't begin until after 8:30.  This problem is not limited to basketball.  This weekend I watched the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Yankees (yay!) on Fox in an early season match that is ultimately almost irrelevant to the final results of the season.  The pre-game lasted over 20 minutes.

When I watched World Cup games in 2006, I was at first very put-off by the fact that when a game was set to start at 1:00pm, they went to the arena at precisely 1:00pm and the game was set for kickoff.  It was jarring not to have any pregame, but then I got used to it, and ever since I have wondered why soccer is the only sport that does it this way.  

If there is anything that needs to be said to set up the drama of the game, it can usually be said between the action of most major sporting events.  Surely baseball is such a slow-moving sport that you could have an entire slow moving, tear jerking SportsCenteresque human interest story about the survivor of some rare disease between pitches.  

As pregame activities expand, networks bristle at the fact that televised sports take up greater than their allotted time.  Networks like ESPN, ABC, and CBS have lobbied for (and gotten) changes in the rules to shorten college football games, all while clogging up the television set at the top of their broadcasts with extraneous material that delays the start of the game.  If CBS want to shorten their broadcasts, then they should start their 2:30pm football game precisely at 2:30.  If they want to have pre-game, then have a specially set 30 minute pregame show.  I assure you, after the initial jolt, fans will get used to it.  They will even come to like it.

OK, so that random thought actually took up most of this post.  Sue me.

Day Two - Cinderella Gets to Jitterbug

It's not that Day One lacked drama. It's just that aside for about one hour of basketball, it didn't quite deliver. Belmont taking Duke to the limit was dramatic, even if it didn't have a happy ending. Day Two had the happy endings. Just because I'm a firm believer in overanalyzing things, let's jump to way to broad conclusions from each upset. The big boys will have their day in a week, but the first weekend is about the little guy.

LESSON ONE: Stephen Curry is awesome.
Actually, we knew that going in. Curry is one of those guys I am openly rooting for just so I can keep watching him play. He is practically automatic from anywhere on the court. Gonzaga got screwed with this draw.

LESSON TWO: The committee hates and despises mid-majors
Gonzaga v. Davidson. Western Kentucky v. Drake. Butler v. South Alabama. Pretty much every mid-major people were excited to see got matched up with another mid-major power. It's like the draw was designed to get rid of the mid-majors as quickly as possible. But first, we got incredible drama from two of those games. Actually, the WKU game kind of sucked until Drake made a spectacular late run to force overtime, build a lead in OT, only to lose it on a desperation three at the buzzer. How would you rather lose?

LESSON THREE: Clemson was overrated.
Not to call out Clemson, but come on. They beat Duke ad suddenly people act like thy are a great team. They were the fifth best ACC team at best for most of the season, only to benefit from Maryland's late season collapse. They win one game against Duke and suddenly they ar a 5-seed and a popular pick to make noise? Why? That was their first real impressive win all season. Really, they weren't that much better than Villanova.

LESSON FOUR: The SEC stinks.
Tennessee struggled with American but put them away late. Mississippi State, admittedly, looked good against Oregon. Arkansas beat the floundering Hoosiers, which just about any team in the field could have done. End of good news. The SEC took it on the chin in round one , as they really weren't all that great in victory and the defeats piled up. Vanderbilt led the way with an absolute thrashing at the hands of Siena, in a game that was never even competitive. They didn't get upset, they got beat.

LESSON FIVE: Tampa rocks.
Four games, four upsets. UConn and Drake went down in the morning. Then Vandy and Clemson at night. Now, I hate the pod system, but this is something that could only happen because of the pods. Four first round games, all resulting in upsets could only happen in a venue with two 4-13 and two 5-12 games.

LESSON SIX: Let's not get too comfy with Cinderella just yet.
OK, 1st round wins are nice, and there's going to be at least two 12 or 13 seeds in the Sweet Sixteen thanks to Tampa, but let's take a quick step back. Before the tourney, I pointed out there isn't a hell of a lot of difference between teams seeded 5 through 12. The gap is really those top three seed lines. Know how many of the teams seeded 1 through 3 lost? That's right, zero. The decimation of the bracket helps the power teams, and we're still on course for the heavyweights to assert their will. The next two days go a long way towards showing whether this is another Year of the Upset, or whether this was just clearing the way for the top seeds.

Annual NCAA Tourney Fantasy Game

This is the annual GeauxTuscaloosa NCAA Tournament Fantasy Game. The rules are simple.

• Choose one player from each seed level. T.g., one player from a 16-seed, one player from a 15-seed, etc.
• Make sure your team is entered before the first game starts on Thursday. The play-in game does not count, but you can wait until its results are in if you wish.
  
• Count the points scored by your team over the course of the tournament.
• The winner receives $150 million.*
  

16. Deonte Huff, Portland State
15. Garrison Carr, American
14. Sundiata Gaines, Georgia
13. Brandon Johnson, San Diego
12. Courtney Lee, Western Kentucky
11. Ramel Bradley, Kentucky
10. Stephen Curry, Davidson
9. Sonny Weems, Arkansas
8. Jamont Gordon, Mississippi State
7. Joe Alexander, West Virginia
6. OJ Mayo, USC
5. Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
4. Shan Foster, Vandy
3. Brook Lopez, Stanford
2. DJ Augustin, Texas
1. Tyler Hansbrough, UNC

My hardest choices were 8 and 9. I really wanted to pick Jamont Gordon from Mississippi State because I think he's the kind of player who can excel in the tournament, and I think Memphis is very vulnerable, but I didn't like anyone from the 9 seeds other than Leunen from Oregon, and Oregon plays MSU in the first round. I didn't want to play my 8 and 9 seeds against each other, because I wanted the chance to have both of them play a second round game. Not having an option I liked at the 9 seed, I ended up having to change my 8-seed.

Then I decided I didn't like having my 8-seed and 9-seed players both going against SEC competition, so I switched both of them up, returning Jamont Gordon to my team and adding Sonny Weems. This could end up backfiring horribly.

I had to pick Sundiata Gaines just because you have to root for Georgia. It's incredible what they managed to accomplish. I honestly think everyone in the world was rooting for Georgia today with the possible exception of the Arkansas players, and I bet even they had mixed feelings.

Get your teams in before the games start, and I'll keep up with everyone's stats.

*All cash prizes are "virtual", meaning they do not exist. If this is not clear enough, it means there is no cash prize. All that is at stake is pride.

Out With a Whimper

Any positive momentum gained by the men's basketball program in the closing weeks of the season was dampened yesterday by its ignominious and unceremonious ousting from the SEC Tournament, which also ended the team's season. Let's hope it does not end Anthony Randolph's career.

What's worse, because of the early weekday start time, no one with a regular 9-5 job like myself got to actually see it.

Strangely, for the first time in a while, LSU actually had scoring balance. The swing shifters, the college students, and the unemployable all got to see a balanced scoring attack that saw five Tigers score in double figures, but saw no one take over the game for the Tigers. Randolph and Johnson got their points, but also committed turnovers, and couldn't keep the mediocre Gamecock frontcourt off the scoreboard. Thornton hit for 17, but shot well under 50% from the field, and missed a lot of 3-pointers. Garrett Temple wasn't his usual self, as he fouled out in just 26 minutes and was held scoreless. As a result, South Carolina's good guards ran roughshod over us at times.

So now it's time for the basketball team to regroup for next year, probably under a new coach. I like Butch Pierre, but I think his only real chance of keeping the job was if we made a serious run in the tournament. For all the talk of improved play, which is true, this team was still only barely above .500 with Butch as head coach. He'll catch on somewhere though, and we'll probably see him as a head coach somewhere at some point in his career. He did and admirable job, but I think the basketball team needs an experienced head coach who can bring excitement to the program.

Who is that? Well, the three I keep hearing are Tim Floyd, Anthony Grant, and Mike Davis. Tim Floyd is currently coaching USC, and he has major Louisiana ties. He's also reportedly been interested in coaching the Tigers in the past. I don't know if he'd leave USC at this point, as they seem to have something pretty good going on despite a mediocre season this year.

Anthony Grant is currently at Virginia Commonwealth, and you have to think he'd jump at a chance to coach in a major conference. I can think of no real downside to hiring Grant. His teams have had success at VCU, having gone to the second round of the tournament in his first year. He was a long time assistant under Billy Donovan at Florida, and you have to think he'd love to come back to the SEC as a head coach. There are no guarantees he'd be successful, but he's a legitimate candidate who would bring excitement to the program.

Mike Davis is currently at UAB. He has been a head coach somewhere every year since 2000, and he took his Indiana team to the NCAA tournament finals in his second year. He has had success at UAB, and according to many has made that school the best basketball program in the state, which is a pretty substantial compliment considering UAB is a C-USA school and there are two SEC schools in Alabama. Since his trip to the Finals, however, he has only been to the NCAAs twice and has not advanced past the second round. He has not taken UAB to the NCAAs yet, and may not be able to do so this year after losing early in the conference tournament. His team finished second in C-USA, but Memphis pretty much sucked all the air out of that conference this year.

Players love Mike Davis. When Davis was fired from Indiana to hire Kelvin Sampson (that worked out great for them, didn't it?), one of Indiana's best players, Robert Vaden, transferred to UAB to be with Davis and sat out a year. He's been UAB's best player, and has real pro potential. Instead of going to the NBA, he decided to sit out a year and follow Mike Davis. Davis also got a commitment from one of the best players in the 2009 recruiting class in DeMarcus Cousins, who made it clear he'd go wherever Davis was. Davis, then, is a package deal with a 5-star power forward.

Things to think about.

If I was the one making the decision, I don't know which of the three I would ask first. All have their plusses and minuses. Floyd may not want it, and isn't exactly a charismatic guy. Grant is inexperienced as a head man. Davis is pretty close to the dreaded label "retread". I think we need charisma and excitement, but we could also really use a Demarcus Cousins.

It's Tourney Warm-Up Time

One of the immensely regrettable things about college basketball is how the NCAA tournament, the 64-team behemoth, sucks all the air out of the room. It is truly the end-all, be-all of college basketball, to the exclusion of all else. The point of the regular season and the conference tournaments is to set the field of 64. Success in the pre-tourney season is measured by what kind of a draw you get in the tournament.

I wish that was not the case. While I find the NCAA tournament to be very enjoyable, I believe that winning your conference regular is an important accomplishment. Winning your conference tournament is another important accomplishment. Most people believe that it's only important to win your conference tournament if you need to do so in order to make the tournament.

In order to win the SEC tournament, a team has to win 3 or 4 games in quick succession, fighting fatigue and playing against multiple different styles of game. After your first or perhaps your second game, you no longer have any opportunity to actually prepare for any given opponent, because you won't know who it is in time to do anything about it. You just have to go out there and play. May the best team win.

LSU is one of about 6 teams in the SEC whose season is probably over unless they win the conference tournament. Bama is another. Our opponent South Carolina is another. I know here in Alabama, some people are reportedly high on the Tide's prospect of actually winning it, despite the fact that Bama hasn't won two consecutive SEC games since the 2006-2007 season, and has won only one conference game outside of its home gym in the last two years.

LSU has played much better of late, and I believe we are a dangerous team. We are capable of going out there and beating anyone. We get South Carolina first, and I think we match up well against them. Their best player is their point guard Devan Downey, and we have good on-ball guard defensive play with Garrett Temple. They lack size and physicality near the basket, so they won't be able to muscle Randolph and Johnson away from the goal quite as easily as other teams can. We may have a big mismatch near the goal in this game.

Last time these two teams played, Randolph got 20 points, and Johnson was also in double figures. Temple held Devan Downey in check, allowing him only 6 points on the game.

What South Carolina does very well is shoot the 3-pointer. Zam Frederick can go out there and light it up, which he did against us in scoring 21 points. Of course, we have Marcus Thornton, who can do the same thing.

Where LSU finished the season on a relatively strong note, winning 4 of its last 5 games, South Carolina went the other way, losing 5 of its last 6 and 7 of its last 9.

I think we should win this game, but of course you never know. That 4-game winning streak that ended on Saturday could have taken it all out of us. We shall see. Or rather, we will see the highlights, because I will be at work while this game is going on at noon.

Speaking of poor scheduling, the only really good team playing today is scheduled to start up at 2:15pm, when most people are still working. Could this have been more poorly planned.

But hey, that barnburner between Bama and Florida is in prime time. Good show.

Basketball Woes

I watched much of the women's basketball game last night, the SEC Tournament title game against Tennessee. LSU lost 61-55. The loss was a result of poor offensive execution and poor free throw shooting more than anything. Down the stretch, LSU missed 3 front-ends of one-and-one free throw situations, and went 3 1/2 minutes without scoring a field goal.

It was a very good and very exciting game overall. Except for some brief occasions where Tennessee busted out to a lead of 7 or 8 points, it was a very close game throughout, with many lead changes. We occasionally went through stretches of poor play, and we just happened to go through one right at the end of the game.

On the men's side, we lost our final regular season game against MSU. Mississippi State is a really good team, and it showed. We played well for a while, but once again we had very little diversification of offense, as most of our points were scored by 3 players: Marcus Thornton (38), Chris Johnson (17), and Anthony Randolph (14). The rest of the team combined for 6 points. When Johnson got into foul trouble, the team really fell behind and never recovered.

The SEC Tournament is next for us, beginning at noon on Thursday. I really think we have a shot in this tournament. On the right day, I think we can beat anyone in the conference. Of course, we've also proven we can lose to anyone as well. I guess as long as we don't get Arkansas we have a chance. They seem to be our kryptonite. We would meet them in the semifinals if both teams make it that far.

Honestly though, as long as we win one and stay competitive against Tennessee in round 2, I will be moderately satisfied.

Moving Right Along

Obviously, we cannot keep this up forever. Eventually, this site has to move away from its slap fight with Tigerdroppings. After all, despite what you may have read recently, there are about 350 posts on this blog out of about 355 that do not mention Tigerdroppings at all. This blog is about discussing LSU sports and SEC sports, and those topics have been sadly neglected the last couple of days.

One topic sadly neglected, and not just in recent days, is the play of the LSU women's basketball team, which finished the season undefeated in SEC play and heads to the conference tournament as one of the favorites. Winning the SEC is a huge accomplishment, as we all know that the Tennessee program has been the 500 pound gorilla of this sport. Knocking them off was huge.

First up in the SEC tournament is Ole Miss. Unfortunately the game is at noon today, which means it is pretty much impossible for me to watch it, as I will be at work. And yes, I enjoy watching LSU women's basketball when the games get more important (against Tennessee, or in the tournaments). I am hardly an expert on the topic, but I know we are really good and we have an excellent chance to win this tournament.

I also need to talk about the LSU-Bama basketball game from the other night. I was a little distracted from this topic yesterday, as you may have noticed. Despite being outrebounded dramatically (36 to 24 according to ESPN's boxscore), we won that game on the strength of good shooting, and in particular good free throw shooting. Shooting 41% from 3-point range doesn't hurt either. Clutch shooting and clutch defense are also nice, and we held Bama without a field goal in the last couple of minutes, coming from behind by 1 point to win by 7.

My analysis of this game is handicapped a little by the fact that I did not watch it. It was not on television here. I know that Anthony Randolph, perhaps in another showcase for the NBA, scored a career high.

He and Marcus Thornton again carried the scoring load, getting 56 of our 80 points. I sure hope this kid comes back, and just based on what I've seen I have to be doubtful of the projections that he is a lottery pick. He has the height and length, and he has athleticism (but not Tyrus Thomas-level athleticism). He has moves and overall general skills. He just lacks so much strength, and it showed in his inability to fight Hendrix and Jemison for rebounds. Neither of those guys are as good as the players he'll meet in the NBA.

If he really is a lottery pick, I can't be mad at him for going. That's a lot of money to pass up. I just doubt those projections.

3 In a Row

There was another impressive win for the basketball team yesterday, as the Tigers came back from 16 down to win 71-64 at home against Georgia. LSU had only two scorers in double figures and only got 1 bench point. Obviously, if you watched the game at all, you know how top heavy the team was, getting 36 from Marcus Thornton and 19 from Anthony Randolph. The rest of the team scored 16 points.

We have 5 conference wins now, which means that Butch Pierre has as many wins in conference as Mark Gottfried has, as someone on talk radio pointed out last week.

Gottfried gets a chance to even the score on Wednesday when LSU takes on the Tide in the PMAC. They beat us pretty good in Tuscaloosa earlier this season, but this is a very different team now, and Bama hasn't won a conference game on the road all year.

We are out of the basement and ahead of Georgia, Bama, and Auburn. If we win on Wednesday, we put more distance between us and those teams, and we have the opportunity to pass Ole Miss and South Carolina. That's as far as we can go.

Honestly, my enthusiasm over this strong finish is somewhat dampened by the rumors that Anthony Randolph is likely to go pro at the end of the season. The development of Randolph as a skilled post player, and the prospect that he will get physically stronger are two of the primary reasons for excitement going forward. His alleged plan to end his college career after this season
throws a wet blanket over that enthusiasm.

I know the school of thought that says it's probably best to go pro as soon as you can in basketball, but I really wonder if that is true with Randolph. Randolph is an excellent player, but he has two primary weaknesses that will handicap him dramatically in the NBA. First, he's not strong enough to play back to the basket in the NBA, and he doesn't really have the face-up game to make up for it. This will affect his immediate effectiveness and will make him a "project" in the NBA, hurting his draft stock. Despite his myriad skills, I have to think he's going to make a pretty ordinary NBA'er.

Second, he has no apparent passion for the game. He has not shown to be a fierce competitor. This is something that I think another year or two of college can actually correct. Heck it's probably one of the few things college basketball teaches well. The NBA has a reputation for being not a very fun league, and if his passion is lacking now, one wonders what it would be when he's playing 5 minutes a game for the first year or two of his career.

I hope he decides to come back for another year or more. He's a young kid and the NBA can wait. This is probably the last time in his life he'll be a key player on a basketball team, and he should enjoy it while it lasts.

Another Basketball Win

The basketball team beat South Carolina 62-55 last night, lifting the Tigers out of the cellar, now occupied by the hapless Georgia Bulldogs. We can put some other teams in our dust and put some distance on Georgia when we play them on Saturday.

The keys to the game against South Carolina: free throws and rebounds. We were 14 of 14 in free throws. Incidentally, there wasn't a missed free throw all night, as South Carolina went 7 for 7. We outscored South Carolina by 7 from the line and didn't give away any points there. We out-rebounded South Carolina 37-25 according to ESPN's boxscore. According to Tigerbait's recap, the margin was 44-28 on the boards. Either way, we got a lot of rebounds, and that makes a big difference in a close game.

We won, amazingly, without shooting well from 3-point range and while committing 14 turnovers compared to the Gamecocks' four, but made up for it with dominating inside presence. Our forwards outscored USC's forwards 35-20, including Anthony Randolph continuing to dominate with 20 points.

I maintain that this is a team that can put it all together and do some things. It's too much to ask for a run to win the SEC tournament, but I do believe that if they play up to their abilities they will be a very tough out in the tourney. If we keep winning, we will build that momentum for the 2008-2009 season, when we look like we could be a very good team.

The 2008-2009 season will see us finally add a big body to the team who can out-muscle people. J'Mison Morgan is a highly regarded center prospect at 6'10" and 275 pounds and figures to be one of those guys who will come in and play immediately and be able to keep us from being out-muscled in the lane, which has been our most consistent problem this year, and in previous years whenever Big Baby Davis wasn't on the court. We've had a remarkable run of tall, skinny forwards lately, and players like Patrick Patterson have simply tossed them around like they were small children.

And let's not forget the biggest addition to next year's team: Tasmin Mitchell, who will replace Alex Farrer in the starting lineup and give us a very formidable starting five. What's more, for the first time in quite some time we will have a pretty solid bench with Alex Farrer, J'Mison Morgan, Terry Martin, Quentin Thornton, Garrett Green, and the other incoming freshmen. We could actually go 10 deep with solid players. I don't know when the last time that happened was.

Yes, we are below .500 this year, and will likely stay that way, but the future looks bright for this team.

There's also been a lot of football news in the last couple of days, but I felt like talking basketball today. We'll get into all the other stuff in the coming days.

Another Good Day in LSU Athletics

After such a good Friday, we followed it up with an even better Saturday. The baseball team won 5-4 in its second game against Indiana. The basketball team won by 20 against Ole Miss. The football team picked up two more commitments on Junior Day.

I watched the basketball game on TV, and I was pretty darn impressed with this team. The consistency isn't there, but it's clear this team has some ability. Randolph and Johnson dominated the game defensively, disrupting shots and contributing heavily to Ole Miss shooting an abysmal 27% from the field. Ole Miss scored a season-low 49 points (previous season-low was 67 points).

The offense played well, particularly early in the game when Thornton was burning up the nets from outside staking us to a big lead. When he went cold, Ole Miss started coming back, but never got closer then 6 down. Midway through the 2nd half, we turned up the defense and fed the inside and built the lead up to 28 before putting in all the subs with 1:30 to go in the game.

Like I said before, I just want this team to build some momentum going into next season. This win is a nice step in that direction. The stretch run includes only one more game against a team that currently has more than 4 wins. If we can win games against South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, we will climb out of the conference basement and salvage a little bit of pride from this season.

In football, the big commitment yesterday was that of Janzen Jackson, a defensive back from Carencro listed at 6'1" and 185# with 4.43 speed. If he's really that tall, and really that fast, and really has hips of a cornerback, this kid is a S-T-U-D. Let me just admit that I am no expert at evaluating talent, but sometimes a kid's videos stand out so much in some respect that you have to take notice. Janzen Jackson is listed as a cornerback, but his videos show him making hard tackles and providing run support like a strong safety. He'll be an absurdly physical cornerback if that really is his future. If he has the swivel hips and the height and the closing speed of a corner, he will be hard to keep off the field early in his career. He's also a coach's son, much like current redshirt freshman defensive back Phelon Jones, and Carencro players usually come to LSU with good coaching under their belts already. The listed measurements are often unreliable, but I sure hope this kid is as tall and fast as advertised.

If you have access, be sure to watch his videos. You will be impressed. He is generally regarded as the best defensive back in the state.

The second commitment of the day was offensive guard/defensive tackle Josh Downs of Bastrop. He's listed at 6'2" and 275# and comes from one of the most important football factories in Louisiana. His commitment caused some consternation among the message board posters who, for one reason or another, think he is unworthy. The reasons for this break down into two different categories. First, as a defensive tackle, the message board posters consider him to be less of a player than in-state tackles Chris Davenport and Darrington Sentimore and out-of-state tackle Jamarkus McFarland (great LSU name, by the way). Second, word came out that running back/linebacker Montrell Conner wanted to commit but his commitment was not yet accepted.

It's hard to explain to someone unfamiliar with all of this exactly why it matters that Montrell Conner's commitment wasn't accepted. Honestly, I don't think I understand why it matters myself. As for why it wasn't accepted, it is apparently because either a) he wants to be a running back while the coaches only want him at linebacker or b) because they don't yet know whether he's a running back or linebacker. Montrell Conner is a Rivals100 guy, but you should take it as a given that the coaches know more than Rivals does, and I have it on good authority that most major college coaches consider the ratings services to be laughably inaccurate in many cases.

As for Downs, he is a mystery to me, but I don't mean that in a bad way. He hasn't really been discussed much on the boards or the services in advance of his commitment, and there is very little film on him. I know he has the weight, and I know he comes from a good feeder school. Other than that, I don't know much.

One thing that is becoming clear is that the boards and the services know very little about what the coaches are thinking. After Signing Day, I made a post that included this statement:

Of course, no signing day retrospective is complete without . . . looking ahead to the next recruiting class. Unlike for the 2008 class, the in-state 2009 class is expected to be very studly. Already, wide receiver Reuben Randle, defensive tackle Chris Davenport, athlete DJ Banks, running backs Eddie Lacy and Michael York, and RB/LB Montrell Conner look to be 5-star or high-4-star national prospects that could go wherever they want to go in the country.

In addition to my embarrassing misnaming of Michael Ford, it is becoming apparent that 2 or 3 of the people I mentioned not only won't be 5-star or high-4-star national prospects, but they may not even have offers from LSU, period. DJ Banks' offers are coming from lesser programs. Eddie Lacy's grade problems and legal problems may be scaring the big boys off. Montrell Conner apparently can only go to LSU as a linebacker rather than a running back (if that). So take everything with a grain of salt.

Disappointing Loss in Basketball

I half-expected to beat Kentucky. They are not that great of a team, though they have generally played well lately, excepting that horrible loss to Vandy earlier in the week.

It started well. We took a small lead to halftime after leading for most of the first half. The whole team seemed to play in sync and the team made few mistakes. We could have been ahead by more, except we seemed to miss a few easy shots. It happens, but we still took a lead to halftime.

We struggled early in the second half, letting Kentucky build up a lead before fighting back and briefly taking the lead on our own. It came down the stretch of the game with us down by 3 points with the ball and the shotclock off, but Marcus Thornton forced up a bad shot that pretty much ended our chances.

We didn't play a flawless game, but we played pretty well. Kentucky just played a little bit better. As expected, we didn't really have an answer for Patrick Patterson, who can probably bench press more than Chris Johnson and Anthony Randolph combined. It was, all in all, a well played game by both teams, and my predominant feeling towards the end was that it looked like both teams were having a lot of fun and were pretty much evenly matched.

This is a team with some talent, and that will add more talent next year, especially with the re-addition of Tasmin Mitchell. I don't expect a miracle finish from this team, but I would really like for them to build some momentum going into the offseason. We need these guys to develop some positivity to take to next season, which could be a year where we make some real noise, particularly if we get the right coach in place.

This is a team that sometimes looks very close to being a very good team. But then we get on a run where we don't play defense and don't move the ball effectively on offense, or where Marcus Thornton forces up bad shots unnecessarily, or Johnson and Randolph get out-muscled down low and things go bad from there. I don't really have an answer to these problems, which is why I'm not coaching basketball.

In other news, rumors swirl about Ryan Perrilloux's future with the team. It all seems like bull to me, but Les Miles (fresh off of his Mexican vacation) is having a press conference to discuss it. It seems to me that if Perrilloux was no longer with the team, Miles would have cut his vacation short, but maybe that's just thinking too hard. Stay tuned.

Big Win for Butch Pierre

Congratulations to the Tiger basketball team and to Butch Pierre for the biggest win of the season last night. Granted, Florida is not a national power this year, but they're still a good team, likely headed to the NCAA tournament, and we beat them in their own house by a convincing 85-73 score. Only 6 players scored points, but 5 were in double figures, with 3 getting 19 points or more.

This is a team that isn't going anywhere unless it wins the NCAA tournament, but a lot of people think we're set up to make a run next year with a good recruiting class and the return of Tasmin Mitchell from injury. We'll see. If it's true, whoever comes in to coach this group is inheriting a pretty solid roster.

And yes, we should give Brady credit for that. I called for Brady's firing, but I don't think he's a terrible coach. He had some measure of success, and he leaves the program much stronger than he found it. He just did not have the consistent success we're looking for a college basketball program. For every year he made the NCAA tournament, there was a year he didn't make any post-season tournament. For every great player, there was a recruiting mistake (Voogd) or a disgruntled player leaving the team early. Alright, there was more than one disgruntled player leaving the team early for every great player, but it's just an expression.

I wish Brady luck in life. I hope he finds another job. He was pretty good in Samford, and maybe he can go back to that level. I don't think he's going to get a major college program again, though.

In the meantime, Butch Pierre has gotten the team to play inspired basketball, losing to Tennessee by only two and beating Florida on the road. I don't know if he will get a chance to coach LSU next year, but he still has a future as a major college assistant coach if he wants one. Next we see if he can do it again against Kentucky.

Kentucky gets Commodored

For those of you who are relatively new to this blog, let me inform you that my wife is a fan of Kentucky basketball. She's also a fan of Bama football. No, I've never understood the Kentucky thing. She's from Alabama, so she gets a pass on the Bama football thing.

We Tivo every Kentucky basketball game, mainly so that she knows when it comes on and can watch it. Kentucky started the season pretty roughly, but they have been surging lately, winning 5 straight games, some of them against very good teams. Last night was a hotly anticipated contest with Vandy, a good dynamic team.

It was ugly. I turned it off and went to bed with just under 10:00 left in the game, after Vandy took out all of its starters. Vandy was winning by about 40 at the time. The game ended 93-52. I'm here to tell you it could have been worse. Kentucky had 11 points at halftime, and was losing by 30. The opening minutes of the second half were no better, as Vandy quickly built its lead to 40, and just cruised that point on.

I think Vandy could possibly be criticized for not calling off the dogs early, but until they built up the lead to 40, I could do nothing but think of how that Kentucky team came back from 31 down against LSU about ten years ago. I know this year's team isn't nearly as dynamic on offense as that Kentucky team (which hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer), but I can't blame Vandy for having that on their minds. They finally fully called off the dogs 3/4 of the way into the game.

The good news is that despite the large margin, it only counts as one loss. The bad news is that Kentucky is a bubble team, and the selection committee will be mindful of two embarrassing losses when making their selections: the early season loss to Gardner-Webb and the late-season blowout to Vanderbilt.

Granted, Vandy is a very good team, and they were playing at home. This is definitely not the football Vandy, who is a traditional doormat. The basketball Vandy has a pretty good history of playing quality basketball and has some very good players. There's no shame in losing to Vandy. And while you don't ever want to get beat quite like that, it's not like you can't recover from it and move on.

The NCAA tournament may well be out of reach, unless Kentucky can win the SEC tournament, but the way they were playing before last night, they could very well be a threat to win the tournament. Luckily for us, we get them next. It should be a fun day in the GeauxTuscaloosa household.

Where Can the Basketball Program Go?

I talked briefly to my brother on the phone yesterday about the state of the basketball program following the firing of John Brady. Not surprisingly, coaches around the SEC don't like the mid-season firing because, well, it means their own jobs are less secure. Granted, Billy Donovan and Bruce Pearl right now are about the most secure coaches in the country, but that just means they can probably survive two bad seasons in a row and still be given a shot to turn it around in a 3rd year.

Anyway, back to the conversation with my brother. He was pretty pessimistic about the future of the program because it does not get the fan support it used to get, and he cannot imagine the program taking a significant step forward without more fan support.

I think the fans will come out to support a good team. This is common throughout sports. Fans don't come out in droves to support teams mired in mediocrity. Nor should they. One of the reasons the Chicago Cubs have been bad for so long is because the fans keep showing up. If fans keep paying top dollar for tickets even though the team is bad, what incentive is there for management to spend more money to make the team good?

But I digress. The late 1970s to the early 1990s proved that the LSU community will support a winning basketball program. In that time, LSU was a consistent conference challenger and a consistent tournament team. We weren't exactly a national power, and I don't think we ever can be that, though I think we can occasionally be a national power for a year.

I think the basketball program can return to that level. We were at that level for about 15 years, and we've been below that level for another 15. I think with the right coach, and with improved facilities, we can do a better job of locking up Louisiana high school talent, and do a better job of making it into a cohesive team.

I look forward to the day the LSU basketball program is consistently in the top half of the conference and consistently in the tournament. I think the search committee should look for someone who can infuse the program with excitement a la a Bruce Pearl. I don't know who that is, but I think Pearl's success at Tennessee (a program certainly no more equipped than LSU is to have sustained success) has provided the blue print of how to resurrect a basketball program at a football school.

Basketball Woes

On a day when the LSU basketball team hit 21 of 22 free throws and made 9 three pointers, we lost by 9 to one of the worst teams in the league and trailed pretty much the whole way. The culprit that night was poor shooting and poor defense in stretches.

Anthony Randolph hit 4 of 14 shots, missing a lot from relatively close to the basket. More than anything, he appeared to be physically outmatched by the stronger Bama inside players, and they bodied him out good shooting position.

I thought the re-addition of Chris Johnson to the lineup would change the on-court dynamic of the team, but he was pretty much invisible on both sides of the court most of the game. He actually scored 13 points, but it had to be the quietest 13 points ever scored by a 6'11" player. He didn't do anything to really alter how the game was played.

One of the announcers discussed the possibility that Brady would lose his job at the end of the season, and thought it was a terrible idea because, "He just went to the Final Four two years ago." Very true. He went to the Final Four two years ago, but they also showed his standing in cumulative wins on the list of current SEC coaches. He was, as I recall, #2 on the list with 190-something wins. The problem is that he is in his 11th season, and 190 wins in 11 seasons averages out to 17 per season, a very mediocre record, especially considering the putrid out-of-conference schedules we had during some of those years.

Yes, I know we had serious probation problems during part of that, and that it was no fault of Brady's. It was during some of those years, however, that we really padded our record with pre-conference-season patsies.

Really, we've only had two memorably good years in the Brady era. In 2000, Brady took Jabari Smith and Stromile Swift to the Sweet 16. It was a nice little run, and could well have gone better if we'd gotten a break or two. In 2006, he took Big Baby and Tyrus Thomas to the Final 4. Well done.

There were a couple other good teams. The year before we went to the Final Four, we won the Western Division with a team led by Brandon Bass, and went to the NCAA Tournament, losing in the first round. In 2003, he appeared to have a pretty good team, led in part by Jaimie Lloreda, but that team imploded on and off the court before quickly bowing out of the NCAA tournament.

Those two good seasons and two other tournament appearances are balanced out by 4 seasons (soon to be 5) of actual losing records, and Brady's record is 19 games below .500 in the conference. Nineteen games! And getting worse.

He's never provided LSU with any sustained success. Only once have we made the NCAA tournament two consecutive seasons. In the middle of Brady's stretch, we had 5 consecutive winning seasons, but much of that was padded with weak out of conference schedules, and we missed the NCAA tournament twice in that stretch. When we missed the NCAA tournament, we didn't exactly make waves in the NIT, losing in the first and second round in our two trips there.

Yes, I think it's really time for Brady to go. He's had his chance. He's proven what he can do. He's shown us what a Brady-coached program looks like, and it's pretty mediocre. Let's move on.

Lots of Interesting Stuff Happened on a Saturday

Senior Bowl

Yesterday's post was about my indecision about watching the Senior Bowl. I'm glad I watched it, because it was a whale of a game. Erik Ainge led the South squad to a last minute game-winning touchdown drive. LSU and the SEC showed well for the most part, especially Ainge at quarterback and Ali Highsmith and Wesley Woodyard at linebacker. Hester acquitted himself nicely as well. Chevis got burned for a sick touchdown pass from Chad Henne to former Tiger Lavell Hawkins, but otherwise played quite well. Doucet apparently left camp with an injury earlier in the week.

In addition to being an obsessive LSU football fan, I am also a casual New Orleans Saints fan, and I was watching this game not only out of LSU- and SEC-pride, but also to look at potential future Saints. It's no secret that the Saints have an explosive offense but a weak defense that lacks playmakers. If I was King of the Saints, I would be looking for the best defensive players available at either defensive tackle, linebacker, or corner. I'm reasonably satisfied with the defensive ends and safeties on the roster, but that's about it.

So, I was looking for defensive playmakers. The one I saw that I liked the most wasUSC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, who may or may not be available when the Saints make their first selection at #10. This guy looked like the real deal to me, a rare playmaker at defensive tackle. The only concern I have about him is that the announcers, who know a lot more than me about these things, said he was a "zero-technique" tackle, meaning he is at his best playing directly opposite the center, which may not be exactly what the Saints need.

Other than Ellis, I really liked Trevor Laws, the defensive tackle from Notre Dame, but I think he is more of a mid-round pick. He looked like he could be a quality mid-round pick though if we haven't picked up a DT before then.

I loved Dominique Rogers-Cromartie, the cornerback from Tennessee State University. He made play after play not only in the passing game, but also in the running game. He's a tall corner, which is always a good thing as well. This is a guy who could be the sort of workout warrior who moves himself into the first round, which would probably put him out of reach of the Saints who would have better corners available at pick #10, but they Saints could seriously use a playmaking corner. If they take a corner in the first round, it would probably be Michael Jenkins from South Florida, or possibly Aqib Talib from Kansas. Either would be good picks, as both are ball hawks and playmakers.

I didn't see a linebacker who I thought would be a worthwhile pick at #10, and the best linebackers will be long gone by the time we pick in the second round, but Wesley Woodyard of Kentucky looks like he can play and could be available in the middle rounds.

LSU Basketball

That was pretty awful last night. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to see this team play, especially since the injury to Chris Johnson, which apparently has made this team completely unviable against SEC competition. The problems I see with this team mainly center around a complete inability to get the ball into a good scoring position. Sometimes, they throw up a bad shot by choice, such as taking a quick 3-pointer with a hand in their faces. Sometimes, they spend 15 seconds passing the ball around 25 feet from the basket and realize the shot clock is down to 10 so they're forced to try to work too quickly from that point and end up taking a wild shot to beat the buzzer.

The result? Really poor field goal shooting. The cause(s)?

Well, earlier in the day, I watched Kentucky beat South Carolina. Despite the loss, the thing that struck me the most about South Carolina is that they have the kind of offensive playmakers that we desperately lack. We don't have a player like Devan Downey, who can can slash to the basket or pull up and hit a 3-pointer and can create turnovers leading to transition points. Heck, right now we don't even have a player like Zam Fredrick, who is a pure shooter. Chris Johnson was a similar sort of player, but now he's hurt and we haven't figured out how to play offense without him.

I see no end to this skid until Johnson comes back from injury, and even then we are an average team at best.

It Was Supposed to Snow Last Night...

...but instead, it's snowing this morning! SNOW! Last night, it sleeted, but this morning, it's snowing. I doubt it sticks to the ground, but it's coming down pretty hard now. I just don't think it's cold enough to last.

This is the first time it's snowed here since I moved to Tuscaloosa in 2002. I got to take the baby outside for it. Her first snowfall of her life. I don't think she fully understood.

Today, we have the LSU-Vandy basketball game. I will watch it until I'm too disgusted to watch more.

There is much happening on the recruiting front, but right now there's nothing really ripe for me to write about. So, short update today.

Basketball in the New Year

First, allow me to apologize for not being more interactive with my commenters. Lately, I have been exercising an unintentional and certainly unplanned "post 'em and leave 'em" strategy. I endeavour to do better. It is also clear that I like the English spellings of many words, like 'endeavour' and 'calibre', neither of which my spell-check likes.

Anyway, on to basketball.

Something stinks in here, and I believe it is the rotting corpse of John Brady's good will and reputation. I am far from a reactionary or a pessimistic, but I do believe the handwriting is on the wall about what kind of a coach John Brady is and what kind of a program we have with him leading it. That is to say, John Brady is an average coach and he builds an average program.

It's a program that will, forever, be occasionally good, usually not, and sometimes painful to watch. It will be a team that brings in some questionable talent, and that loses good players who grow unhappy with him and the system. He will lose out on good in-state talent, get to the tourney 2 of every 5 years, and occasionally tantalize you with the prospect of greater success.

I don't like running coaches off but it's not like we haven't given John Brady a chance. The dude has been our basketball coach longer than Houston Nutt coached Arkansas. He's not among the deans of SEC basketball coaches. Only Billy Donovan has been at his team longer than Brady has. The guy has gotten the opportunity, and has shown that he will never make LSU basketball anything other than average, with occasional success and more frequent failure.

Heck, if we can find someone who could just lock up the top in state talent, we'll be a consistent tournament team, which is all I really expect out of this program. I don't expect us to be like Duke or UCLA or North Carolina. I don't expect us to be consistently in the top 10, or even the top 25. I just want to be occasionally there, and always within sight of it.

I think we need another coach to get there.