The years before Pete Maravich were worse. they went 3-23 his freshman year. Freshmen weren't eligible then and there were 10000 fans in the Cow Palace for the freshman game and 700 after for the varsity. The Jay Macreary years were pretty bad.
I tend to think so too, but the clock is ticking, loudly, on the "young/inexperienced/rebuilding team" excuse.
It will still be night and day. And the year after that and the year after that and the year after that and the year after that and the year after that and the year after that and the year after that....
I don't disagree. Basketball in this part of the country will never be here what it is over there just like football over there will never be like it is here. I do believe Johnson will put together some consistency and compete. With that comes more success. Trips to the NCAA's will be the norm and a run every 3-4 years will be great.
Here's a breakdown of spending from 2009: Division I Schools - By Men's Basketball Expenses (2009) - Basketball State LSU is 38th if your eyes aren't so good. They are pretty much average in terms of spending. You'll find that all of the national champions since 2000 are in the top 10 in spending except Maryland(34) and UConn(16). I'm sure that football is virtually the same, with the top spending schools getting all of the titles. You spend more, you win more. It's nothing new, but it really doesn't matter what coach we have if our facilities are just average.
I would like to add: Look at the years the coaches were hired. For the most part the coaches were established at their schools prior to winning titles. It took Boeheim, Calhoun(2), Donovan(2), Coach K(4), and Gary Williams(Maryland) a decade or longer to win a national championship. The only exceptions are Roy Williams at UNC and Bill Self at Kansas. LSU basketball isn't UNC or Kansas and it never will be. In order to win a national championship, which should be the goal, not an occasional final 4, LSU is going to need stability. If LSU thinks TJ can win a title, keep him and spend more to upgrade everything. If not, spend that money on a coach that can get it done, and still spend more to upgrade everything. My point: If you are so content to hire and fire coaches every 3 or 4 years, LSU basketball will be irrelevant the entire time.
You would think Alleva, of all people, would understand this. It won't speak well of his abilities if his first major hire turns out to be a bust. Trent should have a better product on the court next season, if for no other reason than there's literally nowhere to go but up at this point. But I'm looking for some substantial, significant improvement next year (3rd or better in the West), not finishing 5th ahead of Auburn.
LSU has had 3 basketball coaches in 39 years. Maybe you are confusing it with football, or what a few fans would like to see in football. TJ is not the answer, he was a bad hire. Do dome checking on what Alleva really did at Duke. He became AD 18 years after Coach K had been their coach for nearly 2 decades.
