LSU beats Georgia is seaon finale (basketball)

islstl

Nice little win to head into 2011.

Goodbye Tasmin.

You did LSU proud.

Wish you all the best in the NBA.

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lp

The team seemed to play better towards the end of the year so I guess that is encouraging.
Maybe we can get a win in the sec tourney.

islstl

In a couple of years, we will all be very happy basketball fans.

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gumborue

possible, but UT crushed MSU on the road Sat. not looking good.

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"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself"--Alan Greenspan

gumborue

anyone catch that zinger by larry conley? when the play by play guy said tas was 6 for 19 larry said it sounded like one of maravich's stat lines. then the other guy finished his sentence saying that trey tompkins was 6-21 and larry said nothing. so a zinger against tas and pistol.

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"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself"--Alan Greenspan

LSUDeek

With the victory, LSU's 2-14 SEC record equals that of John Brady's worst team:

LSU - Season Statistics

Trent Johnson did it despite having a much less talented team than the 2001 team and NOT having 5 players averaging double figures.

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The current administration is an advocate of wealth redistribution.

gumborue

well someone has to score.

__________________
"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself"--Alan Greenspan

clair

And scholarships? Did LSU have 'em all back then?

I wouldn't know with either team, being the Tigers have about 3-4 walk-ons who see significant PT now.

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gumborue

00-01 team
beshara-only Sr
bright-So
temple-So
dupree-So
williams-only Jr

roland (but lost for most of the season)
bridgewater (out for season).

this team had no beef or height in the post and absolutely nothing on the bench. dupree was a year away from being good. guard-wing heavy. put really no point guard.

09-10 team

mitchell-only Sr
spencer-only Jr
warren-So
bass-So
harris-So
green-So
ludwig-Fr

farrer (out for season)
wont count walkons, but kinsley and populist made the team better.

so there is clearly more depth (7 vs 5), some beef in the post (warren) and height (green, harris). this team lacks guard play, but spencer is a better scorer than anyone on the 00-01 team.

experience is a push.

i dont see how anyone can say the 00-01 team was more talented.

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"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself"--Alan Greenspan

LaSalleAve

how nuts would it be if LSU ran the table in the SEC tourney.

gumborue

unless there were upsets in every round of lsu's future oppt it would be the biggest upset i can think of. i guess right under miracle on ice.

__________________
"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself"--Alan Greenspan

TGer'nLHornLand

Interesting debate.... one of which team did less with more?

Talent wise, it's debatable. You look at that '01 team and truthfully, Torris Bright was an All-LA type recruit who proved he could play his FROSH year. Dupree would play in the NBA. Temple was a solid contributor and Beshara was decent. This year, you could argue that Tas', Warren, Spencer made an SEC caliber line up, and I'd probably agree with you.

what I'd say, however, is that experience was not a push, and most of all what hurt this team in my opinion was injuries. Injuries that led to less practice time and inefficiency for the players. Truth be told, Harris, Ludwig, Green, Dotson were in essence FROSH, despite your listing them as SOPHs. The number of game time minutes for them was remote and Green, Harris, Spencer, and Dotson all had serious injuries that kept them from being 100%.

Again, sort of arguing which team was worse despite themselves, but i'd actually make the case that Trent actually coached these guys up towards the end, with walk ons getting significant minutes. I'd be curious to see what the margin of victory/loss was from the two teams, and the minutes that these sophomores got their FROSH years.

gumborue

the lsusports.net cumulative stats for that year only goes to Nov but by looking at box scores it looks like temple and dupree averaged about 15 min/game their Fr seasons. so, ok, i'll give a slight experience edge to 00-01, but i wouldnt think that would override depth. 09-10 team had 7 major contributors and 3 other significant contributors (green, kinsley, populist). 00-01 had 5 + 1 (charlie thompson). id also say the 09-10 team had an advantage of having more appropriate pieces, or really, that the 00-01 team was handicapped because every player was a 2/3 hybrid. they were all 6'4"-6'8" and thin.

losing roland and bridgewater that year was bigger than losing farrer and the minimal time lost for green and spencer. bridgewater left the team with no true post player and roland was best on the team for assists, 3pt and steals.

season pt differential ----00-01 +3 ppg, 09-10 -5ppg

in conf pt differntial ----00-01 -9 ppg, 09-10 -11ppg

__________________
"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself"--Alan Greenspan

TGer'nLHornLand

Again, interesting debate. From the looks of the scoring differential, the '01 team scored better, but then in conference stunk it up almost as bad as this year's team. I'll note that Brady though had a penchant for scheduling cupcakes in the non-conference, so that doesn't entirely surprise me. LSU had to play the likes of UConn, WKU, WSU and Utah this year in the non-conference.

All that said, I will say this on the depth vs. quality issue. I'll take a good, balanced starting five still over a unbalanced say deep 7. I'm not sure I'd call this team "deep" when you consider Trent played more guys by necessity (b/c starters like Chris Bass or Garrett Green weren't delivering so you go to bench players). You still ultimately have an issue with Bo and Tas really being the only scorers on the floor, and noone else with the ability to really step up (at least this year, due to injuries/limited experience). At least the '01 team had a little bit more quality across the starting five, and Beshara was 6'9" I think and those teams back then rebounded fairly well b/c of their overall length.

Again, not sure I like debating in futility... but, it's an interesting testament to basketball sometimes and the ups and downs of teams. Sometimes good coaching can really only take you so far, if you don't have the horses. Sometimes, if you have the horses, coaching makes all the difference.

When you consider again the "falls" from grace that we've seen this year, look at UNC. Ironic that the two teams in the tourney that played each other (ACC champs vs. SEC champs, who played the NC the closest) fell from grace. I'd say Trent actually did a better coaching job this year than Roy, who has 3 potential first rounders on his team...