One of my few beefs with John Brady, but it is a major one. http://www.nwlouisiana.com/html/86A992C3-7F37-4F14-9844-B318D0B68DAB.shtml "I'm not worried about that," LSU head coach John Brady said about the team's attendance. "We're playing as good as anybody in the league right now and I'm not concerned about that. I'm not concerned about the rankings or the crowd." There you have it folks. Poor basketball crowds? Well, Coach Brady just doesn't give a crap! I'm sorry, but that is pathetic, inexcuseable, and unacceptable. I look at Coach Saban as an example. The LSU Fightin' Tigers football team is the most important team in the most important sport in this state. Huge crowds are practically guaranteed. Yet Coach Saban still goes out of his way to show the fans they matter. He speaks to fan groups around the state during the offseason. He salutes the crowd and speaks to them. He tells them how much their support matters and how much they are needed. Coach Brady, on the other hand, who is actually in a position where sellout crowds are NOT a given and he needs to be out selling the program and winning over fans, makes statements like this. Ex-head football coach at UL-Lafayette Jerry Baldwin once flatly stated that it was not his job to fill the seats or raise money for his program. That was one of the major factors that contributed to his firing. If Coach Brady has a similar attitude, and judging by his words we can only assume he does, it will contribute to his undoing here at LSU, if push ever comes to shove concerning his job. I'm sorry Coach Brady, but you do need to be concerned with attendance. It IS part of your job. It IS your concern. We will support you, but you have got to ask for it and you have got to show us we matter and that you care. If you care about your team, I can assure you; comments like this do nothing but hurt your team.
All Brady needs to do to keep his job is to keep winning, football is the cash cow. However I am not a Brady fan, he is not fan friendly and I have never been a fan of the Bobby Knight coaching style. If Brady wins he stays period and if he continues to win the fans will come back whether they like Brady or not. It'a about LSU Basketball NOT John Brady. I couldn't care less what the coaches name is as long as he wins,unless his name is Knight:cuss: :cuss: :cuss:
I agree that winning is the major ingredient for a coach to keep his job, but Brady is missing the boat on this one. And I think he is good enough to win games to keep his job. If Brady could improve his PR skills, promote his progam and do more marketing (like the ticket deal for the Auburn game) ... LSU Basketball could be something very special. Brady could learn alot from Skip about how to promote his program ... I'm confused as to why he hasn't done so yet!
TigerWins I agree with you that a coach's job is the entire program, not just wins and losses but i also believe that the AD department could do a lot more also, especially with all of Skips experience in building and maintaining the level of interest in baseball. If you hire a coach that isn't great with PR than you need too do more to help the program and maybe have someone in the department working full itme on this and get the players involved more or something. It may not be close to football in revenue producing but all colleges need basketball to be a revenue producer also. Think about an extra 7000 at each game times 17 games = 119,000 x whatever the cost of a ticket is. I tried to find out but my browser won't work the LSU ticket office links for some reason. But I have a feeling that it would be close to $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 and if you don' think that is important to the athletic program then you are wrong.
Based on experience that I saw in Bham when Brady was bball coach at Samford, he took a program that he had to give tickets away to building one that sold the place out consistanty even drawing more than UAB. He did get the students involved there which is important. I truly believe he has his hands full with this team and spends all his energy getting them to gel. I agree that the athletic department needs to get its act in gear. I don't know for certain, but most SEC schools have a liasion from the Athletic Dept to help with marketing etc with the basketball program or a director of basketball operations. Alabama just hired legend Wendall Hudson to do this for their school. Gotfried has said the improvement in communication has been incredible. He said for a period when a game change occured, they had a hard time getting it out. I hate Alabama but they have dedicated some money to their Coleman Mauseleum (25 million), have an incredible spine tingling starting lineup that works the crowd into a frenzy, throws tee shirts into the stands on EACH 3 point play, and plays a good home schedule. They are happy with a coach that has yet to produce with what many call outstanding players. Many Alabama fans say that they wish Gotfried had the intensity that Brady has. He is Mike Dubose in a suit is most comments. Football will always be king at Alabama and LSU, but Alabama has recognized that you can do some fun things to get crowds to their games. I would like to see the Athletic Dept do their part to put more energy in the fan experience at the games. Halftime things are fun for the kids but how bout some things that get the fans excited about the team except for some fake smoke when they run out on the floor. That is so lame.
Cajdav ... It's probably closer to $1.1 mil. We are averaging about 8500 in paid attendance, so that would leave about 5500 X $12 X 17 games = $1,122,000. I agree the AD could do more ... I guess my question is why aren't they doing more? I go back to when Dale and Skip came to LSU ... they took the initiative to sell their program instead of waiting on the AD to do it. I think Brady needs to take a similar approach.
I would agree with you TW but I think in basketball these days that it is not as easy to be a promoter. I think that with the new scholarship requirements, a coach has to spend much more time recruiting for his program. Back when Dale was here, he could sign up to 13 or 15 players and let attrition take its natural course. Now you can only sign 8 players in 2 years. If a player leaves or transfers, you cannot replace them. If a player ops to go to the NBA, it counts against you. Many kids leave for lack of playing time. You can only put 5 on the court at a time and kids want to play and the type recruits we are bringing in, they ALL expect to be starters. I just think times have changed and the time for a head coach to promote has dwindled.
Here is the answer. "A lot of what we wanted to do for basketball didn't get done or even close to it because of football," Gaster said. "It's very sad to say, but it's the truth. There's a lot of stuff we wanted to do this year that we haven't been able to do". They have a guy on payroll to handle promotions. He is either understaffed or incompetent. Brady's job is to coach the team and recruit. Browns Job was to coach the team and recruit. Brown promoted and forgot about recruiting and the program suffered. Now lets see if Brady's system can take us to the top. Brown's almost got us there.
I disagree. Brown didn't stop recruiting till the early 90s. Whatever you may think about Brown, you simply can't deny that he busted his butt in the 70s to build a program by selling it to football fans across this state ... and by recruiting good players. Brady has the same attitude you have ... it's not his job to do anything but coach and recruit. The football coach is the only one who can get away with that ... football sells itself, the other sports have to work really hard at it. That article supports my position that coaches of other sports at LSU cannot sit back and wait for the Athletic Dept to do something ... football is king and everything else takes a backseat! And this love/hate relationship Brady has with the LSU fans does not serve him well in the long run.
Wasn't there a thread the other day critizing Brady about not beinging more Saban like and blocking out the clutter. Brady can't win with some people no matter what. The people who expect, no demand a sweet sixteen this year or else are the same people that haven't been in the P-MAC for the past thirteen years. Is it exciting up tempo offense like USC in football this year. NO but DEFENSE wins championships. Watching this team and Brady's other teams, including his talent challenged first, develop a defensive identy has been fun. For the past few years when a buzz developed people would show for highly ranked opponents and we would lose. People missed some good basketball while waiting for the elite. If you don't want to be a basketball fan or a John Brady fan fine. At least if you are an LSU fan quit trashing the program until Brady has a few years without restrictions. All programs make mistakes but we have had ZERO room for error.
