Now, I don't know if I'd go THAT far... a "major" contributor? Maybe. I think first off, Ross transferred b/c we signed Tasmin, who was a Parade AA. I think he was scared of competition, much like Regis Koundjia (who BTW, is averaging less than 14 minutes a game for GW--less than he played at LSU and averaging 4 points a game). So, at some level, Ross wasn't man enough to the task. As for replacing Tasmin, I just think they would have been different complements to the team. I think Tasmin is a better, more mobile, overall swing forward than Ross. The kid's averaging 11.1 points, playing 33+ minutes a game (second highest on the team), and he's hitting close to 30% of his threes. Ross adds a guy who hit over 40% of his threes and was a good passer (less turnovers) and rebounder (not materially different that Tas in this regard) but doesn't give you perimeter defense or ball handling. I think the loss is felt more in the fact that if Tasmin is off a little, or a guy is needed to step out and hit an outside shot (complement to what Tyrus or Darnell can do), Ross might have been a nice fit. If you truly slide Tasmin to SG, with D.Mitch, then I think Ross might have gotten more PT as a small forward with Tyrus and Davis down low. But, here too, Ross probably thought Tack and D.Mitchell would have the guard spots locked up... Needless to say, we can second guess Ross' decision and/or blame Brady, but I just think players in general today just don't pride themselves on loyalty and will go wherever they think they have a chance to play more, or bolster their draft status. Ross, on the Vanderbilt team, will be lucky if he starts next year, and I'll be watching to see if his minutes are materially different than what they were at LSU. I think if his Daddy's the cause for the transfer, I'm not sure he did his son a favor. :geauxtige The unsaid thing about transfers, tho', is that for a player truly trying to make the L, what the transfer allows you to do is sit out a year, stretch your career out a year, and hopefully in that time you mature and get better. I'm sure we'll see D.Mason for us benefiting from that year of practicing with a new team and coaching staff...
I was looking to see if there were any threads about Ross on here at the time that he left and I found this. http://www.tigerforums.com/showthread.php?t=27004
That's cool. Someone will have to show me how to search old threads like that... If this is in fact real, then more power to Ross. If he's going to Vandy for the academics good for him. If he's going to Vandy for better bball opportunities, that's where I disagreed with him in my post. I won't infer anything from the "white" comment. Bottomline is the kid hit 42% of his threes, was instrumental in the win against 'Bama, and WAS (I think) appreciated in Tigertown, and would have been had he stayed. You could argue if he was to be appreciated as a 6'9" (soft) power forward that could hit the outside J, there are plenty of kids like him already at Vandy. At LSU, they could have used him more in that capacity. I wish him luck tho'. However, we can't continue to have this crap THIS offseason. Of the likely suspects for a transfer (that matter)? Perhaps Magnum Rolle, Chris Johnson? My hope is that no matter how the team does, we have less turmoil this off season and our young team stays together mostly in tact (Glen Davis (or even Tyrus--god forbid) needs to stay another year), so that "youth" isn't a crutch next year. If Tack is back in playing form (I know, this is another big if), and D.Mason is the real deal, we will have an even better team next year. No, I'm not looking ahead...
i cant remember. did he go before or after bb left. remember bb had initially said he was staying, so i could see rn leaving in that case. what would have made more sense would be if rn stayed and dl left. looking back on rn's stats last year, he contributed less than i remembered, but seemed to be a good rebounder. my guess is that given more pt he would have contributed significantly (he's certainly better than lazare---although maybe not at 4). and any sort of additional perimeter O LSU can get would be big. this would all be less of a concern if tmitch would become more aggressive on O. or maybe he isnt just ready.
Yeah, DM should have come in a little closer at least and taken the shot. I can't really blame him though because it's a panic-type situation and it's hard to judge the time. I can't really blame the loss on Brady either. We no doubt should have won because I think we played better than them as a whole, but we had turnovers at bad times and our free throw shooting hurt us. Brady sat some of our scoring guys out at bad times so that I can blame him for to an extent. Neltner did deserve more playing time last year. Our offense always flowed better when he was in there because he used backdoor passes instead of forcing shots. And he was a good shooter. That's Brady's fault. The kid wants to play in a real offense. I'm proud of Brady for scheduling good teams on our schedule. It's more exciting and I promise more people know about LSU this year than in previous years already. And see, we can play with these teams. But, we shouldn't be blowing leads in every single game against these teams. Sometimes yeah, but not every time. And it's not because we have a young team. It's our style of basketball. Talent can only do so much. The year we actually had a senior-filled starting lineup (Dupree, Bright, Temple, etc.) we looked terrible until the end of the season. We went on a great run to end the season and we made the NCAA tourney. Then, we got absolutely blasted by Purdue in Round 1 even though nearly everyone picked us to win easy. Everyone said we had more talent, and most important, a senior-filled lineup. Experienced players aren't the answer to all problems. You still need smart coaching behind them. Brady will probably never have that many seniors again. He runs too many of them off and that's why some of you keep dreaming and saying...well, when we have a veteran team...You know why you say that? Because it's the same thing every year. Look at Tim Bush, here's a guy who went to my high school. He was great and led my high school to a state championship win. He goes to LSU, does nothing and gains weight. He transfers to a terrible and problem-filled Baylor team and is on the all-newcomer team for the Big XII. He averages like over 12 pts. a game and is second in the conference in free throw shooting at like 83%. These are guys that should be on our team and helping us keep momentum instead of running out of gas at the end of games. Well, the SEC West shouldn't be too tough this year and LSU should do well in it. We may make the NCAA tournament, etc. But I don't expect anything especially great anymore from a John Brady team. We'll never probably have the depth to really make it far in a tournament. But I hope for the best because Thomas and Davis are awesome and both Mitchells are exciting as well. If any team should do something, this should be the one. P.S. - The mention of Dale Brown reminds me of when LSU Basketball was unbelievably exciting.
