It really made all of the arrogant local talk show callers saying "We have the best frontcourt in the country" look like morons. Hell, with the way we played we'd probably have lost the first round game in the NIT.
Did you read this thread at all? The writer linked at the beginning of this thread. You know, the one that works for that little-known news group. The one that likely knows more about the landscape of college basketball better than any of us. I guess I haven't gotten around to reading your top ten published on espn.com. And you are completely off when you make the assumption that if you have final four talent or elite 8 talent, there are only 3 teams or 7 teams in the country with more talent than you. That's not it at all. Do you think there were any teams that played North Carolina or Illinois that had final four talent? Of course there were, but since they played one of the 2 best teams in the country, they lost. There are probably 10 teams a year with final four talent, maybe more - the rest is up to coaching and game execution which is why I said there is a difference between having final four talent and being a final four team. Your assumptions are simply broad and incorrect.
I think you’re missing the point completely as well. It’s one thing to be irrational and expect to be in the top ten in every sport every year, or expect a championship every year, but it’s another to maintain a level of quality and to compete at a high-level every year. Unlike football, in basketball you don’t have to run the table on the season to win it all, you don’t even have to be near-perfect in the regular season. Take Michigan State for example, they weren’t one of the top seeds, but due to their level of talent, and their coaching, they gave themselves a chance to win the championship. At the same time, you can be the best team in the tournament, play one bad game, and not finish in the top 16. Someone posed the question in another thread of whether or not Pokey is a great coach, a fair question that most people on this board attacked instead of responding to the question. I would say Pokey is a good coach, not a great one yet, but she is still very young and inexperienced compared to most college coaches. With more years of experience, she will very likely be a great coach. Was she out-coached in the final four? Yes. Was her team outplayed? Yes. Is that going to happen to your team and you as a coach when you are consistently competing at the top level? Absolutely. You can be an outstanding coach and be out-coached by Coach K. Where’s the shame in that? There isn’t any. So while Pokey has fallen in the final four two years in a row, if she keeps knocking at the door, she will win one. The same way coaches like Roy Williams and Jim Beoheim (sp?) finally won one. The teams of these coaches, and teams like Illinois this year show us exactly how hard it is to win a championship in any sport, much less college basketball where there is a fairly large number of teams that can win it all every year. But, everything still goes back to one thing, consistency. The key is to be consistently playing at a high level. The talent is going to come and go, but the good coaches are able to maintain that level even in “rebuilding” years, and many times, give themselves a chance to win it all in the rebuilding years. You’ve got to keep plugging away and keep knocking on the door. Unfortunately, the men’s team hasn’t been able to get to that level.
First, I did miss the link, so now I know who the idiot is. It still doesn't change my opinion that LSU did not have elite 8 talent this past year, not with 2 very good players and several very inconsistent players and only a 7 man bench. No way. To word things the way you do would be to say that have the teams in the country have elite 8 talent as about that many are capable of getting on a run and making it that far. In reality, to say a teams has definite elite 8 talent than they should have talent equal to or very near the 8 most talented teams in the country.
Once again, having elite 8 talent, and being an elite 8 team or playing at the level of an elite 8 team, are two very different things. And say what you will, but there are teams every year that make it to the eilite 8 that don't go more than about 6 men deep. Laugh at the writer, I could care less, but his opinion is as independent as you're going to find on this board, and he doesn't exactly write for a podunk newspaper/group.
So basically what you and he are saying is that they have elite 8 through 30 talent because there is a possibly they will end up in the elite 8. That I'll agree with. :hihi:
Nope, junior. If he comes bvack he will be the Nation's most overrated player 2 years in a row, shooting 40%.
Once again, you are not understanding the difference between a team and individuals. Individually, the LSU players when put together on the same team, have the talent equal to an elite 8 caliber team. The problem is, that collectively, as a team under the current head coach, they are not an elite 8 TEAM - yet together as individuals, they have elite 8 talent. I can't describe it any other way and I know that you understand. The fact is that you are skewing my words to try to get favor in an argument. Too bad it still hasn't worked. :bncry:
