Per WAFB - Trent Johnson New Basketball Coach

and travis ford took the okie st. job.

 

It's been a few days since I heard the press conference and I remember him saying that he definitely wanted Richards on his staff but I don't recall him saying it was as head assistant.

 

OK, just wondering if I had missed something.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think Keith Richard ever coached with Trent. Rather he coached against Trent when Trent was at Nevada and Richard was at La Tech (was there for 9 years, so I don't think he ever could be at Stanford).

There was also talk that Trent would talk to his assistants from Stanford, but it's likely that there would be very few to follow him. This is because there were only three assistants at Stanford--the head assistant coach may be in the running to replace Trent, and two junior guys. One of whom Dan Guerrieni (sp?) was a player with Trent at Nevada and followed him to Stanford. It's likely if anyone comes to Tigertown it would be him.

It may be shakin' out as I predicted. Hopefully Butch stays, we bring in Richard. That leaves Dollar and Treloar to fight for a spot, and maybe competing in there is Guerrieni. No guarantee that Richard will want the spot, so there's still a lot of movement. I'd love to see a guy from the past come into the picture... why not a Ricky Blanton, Randy Livingston (still under NBA contract... I think).

 

CTJ said the first thing he wanted to do was get richard on his staff.

and he knew him from coaching against him when they were both head coaches in the same conference (whatever LaTech and Nevada are in---WAC?)

one helluva move getting butch. but if you have johnson, pierre, richard and dollar (all recruiters) do you have enough coaches?

 

So, according to Dandy Don, WAFB reported last night that Butch was being retained (and decided to stay) at LSU. :thumb: So, if true, I'm a happy camper. As I posted before, the likelihood of Butch staying at LSU with CTJ vs Travis Ford is probably 20-25% higher. And, I'm psyched that Butch is staying. He's a guy that could really learn something from Trent, and if LSU is back in the Sweet 16 in a couple of years, Butch really should get a chance to be a HC. But, right now, folks probably have a bad taste of what LSU has done the last couple of years.

As for the coaching team, I think it's fair to say that the "X's and O's" make up of the team changes as follows. First, CTJ is actually widely regarded as a pretty good X's and O's guy (and a decent recruiter)--and let's not forget that he coached in some pretty "heady" systems--Rice, Utah, Stanford . I don't know about Richard, but from what I read the guy has a high basketball IQ, was an ok recruiter, and actually probably was more "coach" and less "recruiter". Butch is known as a recruiter, but let's give him some credit, he was 5-5 in the home stretch with this team and lost some close ones. Chad Dollar's stuff remains to be seen, but clearly he's known so far for his recruiting. That may leave Treloar out of the picture. There may be room for 5 guys, but that feels like a lot. Treloar is known for his hands on pre-game coaching and his break down/strategy, but it's between him and Richard it seems for that spot.

As for having too many "recruiters"--I thought you were the one that said you wanted a staff of recruiters :hihi:?! Clearly, the first and foremost way to get in the NC hunt is to recruit. Let's not make any bones about it. There's a reason why Kansas and Memphis were in the finals. They both had about 3 (or more) starters that could play in the NBA. LSU is averaging about 1-1.5 NBAers per squad right now, and that needs to be 2-3. That's how I look at it. Once the talent base is back to what it needs to be, you bring a tactician or a X's and O's guy to get you over the hump.

:geauxtige LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL (AGAIN). BE A FAN.