This team will be hard pressed to beat last year's record. I think TJ is a good coach. His recruiting has been substandard IMO.
I think he has had some recruiting mistakes, but overall I am happy with the guys he has brought in. The 10 class is really playing good ball, and the 11 class addresses some needs. On a side note, it is a shame we are starting SEC play without Ralston Turner, Storm Warren, and Dennis Harris. It will be tough to win five games if those guys aren't back soon. I still say this team is a far cry better than the previous year's team.
On balance, I'd have to agree with supaFan on this one. Objectively, last year's team was 9-6 going into SEC play and then went on a 2-14 slide. This year's team is 8-7 going into SEC play and now who knows what's going to happen. You have to also say we lost one of LSU's all time scorers in Tas' and Bo Spencer and replaced them with a transfer (White) and some freshmen. So realistically, we're deeper, but arguably carrying less "impactful" players. Now, I think it's also unfair to judge the team solely on that, without taking into account the macro view. If you look at the goal as building a consistent winner, you have to say that Trent's goal is to sign 3-4 players each year that build on the prior year's team. I think he does do that with Justin Hamilton, Johnny O'Bryant and John Isaac in 2011 on top of a good class in 2010. I think to call his recruiting "substandard" is again, a matter of perspective. If he signs someone else other than Ludwig, does he get Matt D? Does he say no to a BR kid in Malcolm White that wants to get back to home and is a SEC starter? Does he say no to Chris Bass, who is the brother of a noted LSU alumn in his first year of recruiting? I think it's hard to second guess Trent and say he should have landed Demarcus Cousins, or some other big name early. I suppose we're asking were there better local players or JUCOs that would have fit for LSU. Perhaps there were, but I'm not aware of them. If they win more than 2 games in the SEC, and are trending upwards by the end of the season, I'll view this year as progression. Listening to Trent's radio show this week (which featured our 4 freshmen in interviews), it is troubling that injuries seem to be mounting. Warren has some achilles thing, Ralston has a more serious "stress reaction" in his foot and Dennis, well, he seems to be out more from a "can't get it together" basis--both school work and his conditioning/practice time are not there. [Frankly, for all of the arm-chair recruiters out there, what do you do about something like Dennis? Do you tell him there is no schollie for him next year and recruit someone in the Spring? Do you go after a HS kid or a Juco, if so who?] This doesn't bode well for the Tigers, who now will rely more on Derenbecker, Bass, Ludwig and Courtney. I view this as hopefully getting some of these kids some good PT, and baptism by fire. In any case, I think the positives here are we played Memphis real close, and we played Wichita St close. We've also not jumped on a few teams we could have beat. In a topsy turvey SEC West, I'm expecting (and hoping) that we can get certainly more than 2 wins. No doubt I'm nervous, but I do trust Trent to build through continual improvement and development. At the same time, I think when LSU hired him, they wanted someone who was measured, and operated "in the right way" (whatever you want to take that to mean).
Looking back now, the losses LSU does have aren't as bad as they seem. CCU, UNT, Wichita St, and Nichols St are all favorites in their conferences to get to the NCAA tournament. It wouldn't shock me if at least 3 of them are NCAA teams.
