im skeptical too. brady went to sweet 16 in his 4th year with his players.---and he wasnt handed a 30-2 team. i'd guess there will be fewer bumps in the road but may not beat 2 sec titles , one sweet sixteen and one FF in 10 yrs. i guess im worried about recruiting. but if he can get the big names like brady did (i know, i know---butch did it) the results wont be any worse. its a shame that he just missed out on a #1 national player from La. doesnt happen too often. who was the last one? hot rod?
the thing that makes this dude better than Brady imo is he never had a "bad" year with expectations. He never took a step backwards at Nevada and never took a step backward with Stanford. IT was steady growth both places.
I like his intensity. Watched him in a game or two in the tourney. Should have cut it off before he got the 2nd tech in game but I like the emotion. He looks like the Candy Man
You know, there will always be skepticism, and what I think LSU fans will quickly realize is never underestimate how hard it is to get to a final four. You are right, there's no guarantee of Trent making it to a final four or winning a SEC title for that matter. BUT, and here's the big but, is Trent more "consistent?" I would say yes. Given his history (and I just read his full Stanford bio, http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/johnson_trent00.html), the dude has won through building his program, recruiting but also building up and mentoring his players. His teams have shown consistent growth in winning and stability in that for the most part, you've seen his teams improve every year as the kids have grown up in his system. The other thing I really like, is that he's won a tournament. He's shown a consistent ability to get far in tournaments (won the WAC, nearly won the Pac 10) and beat other good coaches (beat Gonzaga, Michigan State, Marquette) in the tourney. As for his recruiting, this was also a surprise and might make you feel a little bit better Gumbo. The guy has good experience at a lot of different coaching stops and was known for his recruiting (sounds in some ways like a Butch Pierre)... Utah, Washington, Rice, Stanford, Nevada and Stanford again. The Rice thing really stands out for me, b/c he will have a familiarity with Houston--which is such a huge market for us... AND he'll give us intimate knowledge of the West coast, which has only recently become a recruiting area for us (Garrett Green, Alex Farrer, etc.)--mix that in with hopefully retaining some of our current guys, and we've put together a pretty nice recruiting staff. And, some of his recruits along the way would surprise you. Mark Pope, Josh Grant, Kirk Snyder, Casey Jacobsen, Brevin Knight, Nick Frazekas, Mark Madsen, the Collins twins, and more recently the Lopez twins. There's a lots of guys, big men and small men, who have gone on to be all-conference and drafted who were recruited by Johnson. Lastly, the statistics for Johnson's team gives us some real evidence of likely improvement for LSU. First, when you look at his squad, there's depth, and no guys who average more than 32 minutes. He goes deep into his bench which I like. Stanford also led the PAC-10 in scoring average and rebounding, which was surprising to me, and was second in 3pt%, at 42%. After the tourney (and an unfortunately lopsided loss to Texas), the Cardinals were averaging 70+ ppg, at a 1.27 pps. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/teams/stats?teamId=24 I'm liking the hire more and more, and can't wait for the final word today.
The important thing is... will people start going to games? I am looking forward to next season. I will not like having to get out to the PMAC early again to get good seats.
I'm glad so many people seem happy with the hire. It does seem better than I expected, but I didn't have high expectations.
This looks like a good hire but more importantly it looks like an exciting hire. From all indications this guy will attract the attention of fans and recruits alike. His personality will be contagious in the LSU environment. This is the kind of guy we needed at this time.
FYI, I'm 90% sure I saw Trent Johnson on my way to class this morning. He was walking with someone else out of the weight room in Tiger Stadium to a car parked in the PMAC lot.
