Hoops Post-Mortem (Part 2 of 2): What’s coming and What to hope for.

Turner has big-time scoring ability. I would like to see him work on getting the arc on his jumpshot higher. His shot is flat and I think that is the cause of his inconsistent shooting.

 

Looks like the Van Chancellor era maybe coming to an end.

LSU will hold a press conference today (March 16) at 3 p.m CT to make an announcement regarding the future of the women’s basketball program. The press conference will take place on the fifth floor of the LSU Athletic Administration Building. Those members of the media that can’t be in attendance can watch and/or listen on www.LSUsports.net/live.

 

It will be interesting to see for sure, who Alleva puts in there. Frankly, having good programs in both mens and womens basketball is a good thing for hoops in general. He seemed to pick decent folks at Duke. But, interestingly, Gail G (who he actually did pick at Duke) has found mixed success at UTexas.

 

For what it's worth...

Wichita State ... NIT and still in it
N. Texas ... NCAA
Coastal Carolina ... NIT and still in it. In fact Wichita State plays CCU in the Semis on March 29th. They may face off against Alabama in the final, if Alabama beats Colorado.

Maybe these teams weren't so bad (or maybe LSU wasn't as bad as we thought for losing close to Wichita State and CCU)?

Also, 9 p.m. CT on March 30th, watch ESPN. Johnny O'Bryant takes the court on the McD AA game for East team.

2011 McDonald's All-Americans - ESPN

Only 7 McD AAs signed by only 4 SEC teams...

Kentucky (4), Florida (1), Georgia (1) and LSU (1).

Seven Future SEC Players Named McDonald

Let's celebrate that! :yelwink2:

 

After being able to watch NCAA tourney games a bit yesterday (and not being able to before), I have to say there is something magical about the tournament. So many interesting things get exposed or revealed in a tournament style playoff with so many teams....

First off, congrats to Kentucky and Florida. In a tourney this year with 11 Big East teams, and "underrepresented" conferences like ACC, SEC, etc., look who's left. SEC 2 teams, ACC 1 team, Big "12" 1 team, Big East 1 team, Pac10 1 team, then some mid-major teams like Butler, VCU. So congrats to the SEC for maybe throwing some egg in the NCAA selection committee's face. And, then, was the SEC really "down" or just not respected? I really think that the SEC is a young, but talented league, and Alabama should have gotten in. But, in any case, Florida survives BYU and Kentucky upsets Ohio State. Perhaps that's something that will help those "bubble SEC" teams next year.

Another thing that continues to mystify me is the concept of "parity" vs "talent"--and the secret to succss. From the lens of the LSU season, it's easy to point to the obvious buzz words about success and failure... LSU wasn't "talented" enough, too much "youth", bad "coaching". Well, what does the final, elite 8 show us? First, I'd make the case that, while many fans don't want to acknowledge it, experience DOES matter. How talented a roster is Butlers? VCUs? How many Mcd AA have they signed? Yet they are there with scrappy, older kids who have received good coaching and stayed within program. On the flipside to that, you have "younger" but certainly pedigreed programs with overall some younger players (i.e., more sophomores and juniors, than seniors)... Arizona, UNC, UConn and Kentucky. Lets be fair, that's basketball royalty, and let's also say that short of LSU pony-ing up 2-3M$ for a coach and the PMAC being filled with real die hard hoops fans, LSU aint in that class. When we were looking to hire Trent, frankly my dream hires would have been Sean Miller out of Xavier or Mike Anderson out of Missouri (but both unavailable at the right price, and both now $2M+ coaches). But, I find it interesting that even with the UK's uber-talented FR Knight hitting the big shot, it's Josh Harrellson, a big lumbering "untalented" SR white 7 footer that slowed down FR super star Sullinger and won that game for UK. Even UNC has some all-world recruits that went through their struggles (not making the tourney last year) in Zeller and Henson who added a uber-talented FROSH in Barnes this year.

Then, you have some teams right there in the middle... Florida I'd say is a litle bit of both, overall good recruits, perhaps not all-world recruits... but 3 seniors, a junior and sophomore, playing well together now after perceived "down years" for Billy D these past years. Kansas, likewise, has some very talented kids, mixed in with 4 year journeymen (who got knocked out by Northern Iowa last year?). Despite the inexactness of the chemistry, talent and luck, there still is a universal element... decent to good mix of talent, good coaching, and experienced players playing well at the right time, leads to success.

Does that make me more hopeful for LSU's team next year? Yes, a little. The SEC should be as a league more respected and older and wiser (Kentucky will lose kids to the NBA (and reload), as will Florida, but you've got young teams like Arkansas, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina who will be better). If you look at all of the teams left in the tourney, they all have balance inside and outside. LSU will "hopefully" have that. And the last thing I'll say, talent and experience leads to the magical "confidence". In a game where a last second shot by Knight beats the #1 overall seed, often this game just comes down to a made basket versus not. And, confidence and toughness is the difference between that going in and not. LSU needs that kid to hit the big shot next year, and when shots go down, it snowballs into winning. Is that Turner, Warren, Dotson, Stringer? Is it Dylan Talley or John Isaac or Johnny O'Bryant, that will give LSU that spark and confidence?

As folks like Dotson, Turner, Stringer, Derenbecker, and folks like Hamilton, Warren, and O'Bryant are sure to be watching the tourney still---THAT is what I hope they'll pay attention to. It's the "togetherness", "toughness", and "confidence" that will be the difference in next year's team, if they are going to turn it around. I continue to hope that they will find these things in the offseason.

 

LSU is really going to have to be aggressive in its marketing and PR to draw fans into the PMAC while we're waiting for that winning attitude to kick in. Hardcore hoops fans may not want to hear it, but you need to attract casual, or "bandwagon" fans for that to happen. Frankly, I wonder how many fans the "royalty" of college basketball would still have if, say, Florida or Duke started posting 4-5 years of <15-win seasons with horrible basketball. When the smoke clears, a lot of those fans will still be there, but many casual fans will not, having moved on to the next big thing to latch onto. Think all those Bulls fans in the 90s and early 00's who disappeared after the Jordan era. We've got a lot of smart folks in the AD who are paid quite well to figure out how to generate interest in the program. The time is now if they're serious about righting the ship.

The flip side of that equation is putting a product on the floor that people will want to watch if you're not posting a stellar record. LSU had nothing close to even resembling that this season. Add to the mix a coach who is decidedly not a very charismatic public ambassador for the program, and you get the attendance and interest problems we have today. It's not all on the fans, or all on the AD, or all on Trent. But everyone's got to be on the same page and aggressively try to resuscitate this program.

 

Students need to get involved. The place rocks when there is a large group of students there and get into the game.

 

The AD begged and pleaded with students to show up, corporate sponsors even bribed us with free pizza, and it didn't work.

But consider also that today's students grew up during the end of the Dale Brown era. Those kids grew up on Brady and how schizophrenic the program was during his tenure, and therefore have a weak connection with LSU basketball. Like Hornland said, LSU is still selling Shaq and Chris Jackson to a generation who never saw them play at LSU. The best they have to look back on is Stro, Big Baby and Tyrus, all of whom had a big impact for just one year at LSU.

It's going to take a program on the rise to attract students. Nobody, including students, wants to watch a turnover circus with lousy shot selection and a half-baked defense game after game. If LSU wins 15 games next season, but is able to go toe to toe the entire game with every team that beats them, that will get the buzz going again. Getting blown out half a dozen times in SEC play isn't going to cut it.

 

All great and valid points. But, my take on all of this is, is it a chicken or egg question? That is, do you hire a coach who generates excitement for a program without actually putting a product on the floor, or do you hire a coach who focuses on winning first. Truthfully, how many coaches are Dale Brown in terms of being a politician? That's frankly rare, and being a "politician" should always be secondary to running a program, recruiting and winning on the court. How much of a "politician" was Skip Bertman before he won the championships? Sure, it's important to be likeable, but I'd contend that fans aren't going to the games to see a coach. Championships and great players breed interest, and of course, final fours and sweet 16s breed interest in hoops. That Pistol Pete, Chris Jackson or Shaq' breed interest. So, Trent can best help his cause by recruiting players that folks want to watch or building a team that wins consistently. In an infancy stage, without a Chris Jackson, it's signing LA POYs, local talent that hopefully have a built in fanbase would help (but then there's also some balancing of talent versus local interest).

Now, I do think that the administration and AD can do its part like you said to encourage interest. Giving away freebies aren't necessarily the way to do that in my opinion. Billboards, the old purple and gold basketballs at local hoops events, radio spots, reaching out to student organizations, well in advance of the season may be something. Get Midnight Madness going, get some interesting match ups on the schedule.

 

Oh I agree 100%. I wasn't laying blame. Just that when things do take off the students should be involved.