Perrilloux Gone

Well, it finally happened.  Here is the link.  Is anyone really surprised?  More thoughts, reaction, etc. later in the weekend.

Updates from the Void

Not much going on in LSU news, but here it is:

• LSU Baseball is struggling through the season, better than before, but still having a tough time getting over the hump. This past weekend’s series against Georgia was emblematic, no game more so than the Sunday finale. Let me tell you, a tie is letting the terrorists win.
• New LSU basketball coach Trent Johnson is apparently trying to retain assistant coaches John Treloar and Butch Pierre. This is especially important in regards to recruiting, especially with J’Mison Morgan, a 6′11″ playa man from Dallas, who originally committed to John Brady, but is apparently wavering but not talking.
• All is quiet on LSU football news.

In other news of note:

• This might be the scariest article of all time, if you are a college football fan.
• If one is not a basketball fan, one should still watch at least 2 of the NBA playoff series. The Cleveland-Washington series should be great because of the sheer physical awesomeness of LeBron James. And the San Antonio-Phoenix series is great because of how much the two teams battle back and forth, and the two contrasting styles of basketball played. Game 1 of both series was riveting tv.
• Off the sports beat, is Bret Michaels the worst reality show host ever? Why doesn’t he just walk into the room full of rock-groupie-wife wannabes and yell “I want action, tonight!”

more later this week as life begins to settle down….

Yet another candidate has gotten the job

Several media sites are reporting that LSU is going to hire Stanford’s Trent Johnson as the new basketball coach.  An announcement could come as early as tomorrow.

Weekend Highs, Weekend Lows

A big weekend for LSU sports, to be sure. Let’s get to the news updates, then I will have some thoughts on the LSU spring game, which I attended on Saturday.

• Late Sunday night, some chick for Tennessee put back in a rebound with .7 seconds left to defeat the Tigresses and keep them winless in 5 consecutive trips to the Final Four. A tough break, but the defense on the last play was awful.
• On Friday evening, LSU announced current Duke AD Joe Alleva as the new LSU Athletics Director. Really don’t know much about him, so I can’t comment on that.
• LSU’s baseball boys took 2 of 3 from Alabama this weekend, in a good series for the Tigers.

And now on to the Spring Game. I have one major thought about it:

Do not read too much into what we saw on Saturday (Story here; stats here). Yes, I was there. Yes, I saw Richard Murphy break off a 70 yard td run, and catch a 53 yard td pass. I saw Demetrius Byrd make two long catches, one for a touchdown. And yes, those were good plays.

But…

Let’s be honest. Those guys were going against mostly second and lower string defensive players. Honestly, they should have busted some long plays. On the purple team - the one comprised of mostly second stringers and lower - the only players I consistently recognized were defensive linemen. And let’s make no mistake - LSU has a ton of horses on the D-line. But the linebackers, many of whom were hurt, were mostly comprised of players who will never see the field on a Saturday in the fall. On Murphy’s long run, he outran at least 3 or 4 players to the edge, linebackers and defensive backs. Murphy is fast, but he won’t outrun the Gator secondary like that. On the long pass he scored on, it was a screen. When he caught the pass, he had two linemen and maybe 2 tacklers within 20 yards of him. He coasted to the end zone. Similar things could be said about the Byrd TD and long catch.

So what did we learn?

Not too much. We learned that Andrew Hatch is more mobile than I thought. We learned that Jarrett Lee can get a little nervous, but when he settles down, appears to have a very good arm. He fluttered a deep pass early in the game, but the pass he threw on Byrd’s TD was beautifully thrown.

Les does not like the spring game. I assume that’s because he would prefer it be a teaching session behind closed doors, like all of his other practices, rather than a public event. For this reason, and to avoid serious injuries, I think he keeps the Spring Game as low key and vanilla as possible. I don’t think there is much that can be taken away from what happened then. New recruits will come in the fall and get a chance to prove that they belong. People will get hurt. People will become academically ineligible.

So take the spring game like this: fun to watch, a nice football fix in the spring, but bearing very little resemblance to what we will see in the fall.

Sneaking in at the Last Minute?

I really have been trying to update, but it has been impossible so far this week. But much has happened, so let’s get right to the news.

• Travis Ford, head basketball coach at UMass, is reportedly ready to take over the LSU job upon completion of the Minutemen’s season against Ohio State tonight in the NIT championship game. According to Randy Rosetta of the Advocate, Dan Parker, head of the search firm overseeing the, um, search, denied the report. Now, according to Scott Rabalais of the Advocate, on February 27th, LSU wasn’t going to hire a search firm. I don’t know what changed in that time, or if I just missed the announcement of the firm’s hiring, but something caused a 180, unless it was just reported wrong, which I guess is a possibility.
• As for the quality of the hire, I have to say that the Travis Ford name doesn’t do much for me. As a head coach, he has not gotten UMass into the tournament, but he did take Eastern Kentucky one time. His biggest connection to LSU seems to be that he was hired for the UMass job by John Lombardi, who is now the LSU System president. Right now, I am still pulling for Anthony Grant to get the job.
• In other news, the Tigresses made their 5th straight Final Four, a feat equaled only by UConn. But whereas UConn won 4 national titles in that span, LSU has yet to reach the Title Game. I have LSU winning the national title this year in my bracket (yes, I do fill out a women’s bracket every year, but that’s a different story), and I hope they are able to break the streak this year. The Tigresses get to face old nemesis Tennessee in the semifinal, but Candace Parker, the Vols best player, may be slowed by a separated shoulder she got in the regional final.
• The LSU AD search has been narrowed to 4 finalists: internal candidates Verge Ausberry and Herb Vincent, Duke AD Joe Alleva and Kentucky Deputy AD Rob Mullens. A decision could come as early as today.
• Guess what? More Perrilloux news. He’s not at practice and rumors are flying around about why. Richard has them all here and here at Geaux Tuscaloosa, and WBRZ reported that his status was ‘unknown’, and as per usual, no one knows anything. Getting close to not caring….
• Also, LSU picked up another recruit, an rb from Texas. Richard has the whole thing on that, too.
• And the baseball boys beat Centenary 6-0.

Tomorrow will likely just have a very short update or no update, but I am going to the spring game on Saturday, and will post on Sunday or Monday with my thoughts about that.

Back in the USA

And even in the great state of Louisiana….

Right now, I am lodged in a corner of the Vernon Parish public library trying to get an entry in before my 2 year old decides the delights of the children’s room are passe, and that he needs to show us what the definition of loud is….

But here is the LSU news:

• Ryan Perrilloux is no longer suspended.  I haven’t seen when he will return to practice, but he is back with the team.
• The Spring game is Saturday, and your intrepid blogger will be there.  Will post my impressions on what I see by Monday of next week, when I will be in Baton Rouge with easier access to broadband.
• The Tigress basketball team plays UNC tonight, #2 vs. #1.  This should prove to be the first real test for the ladies, and should they pass it, will send them to the Final Four.
• The baseball team salvaged one win at UF this weekend, Jared Bradford pitching a complete game for the win.

Gotta run, the little guy is making the VPPL sound like his own personal echo chamber…more tomorrow.

Pierre Perfect for LSU?

At least, he thinks he is.  Randy Rosetta of the Advocate has written a long story on Butch Pierre, in which Pierre says that he is a ‘perfect fit’ for the LSU job.  At least one significant alumni seems to agree - Collis Temple is backing Pierre.

So what are the good points on Butch?  Well, he is well known as a standout recruiter.  Much of Brady’s success is attributable to kids that Butch Pierre helped bring to LSU.  Also, the team looked better in the 10 games that Pierre coached.  Rosetta writes:

After the change, the Tigers played with renewed vigor and bounce, came within an eyelash of upsetting No. 4-ranked Tennessee and Kentucky, routed Ole Miss at home, claimed road victories at Florida and South Carolina and rallied from 16 points down to beat Georgia.

And what are the drawbacks to Pierre?  He has no head-coaching experience.  And well, the team only went 5-5 during his tenure.  Thought that was an improvement over what had gone before, it could be argued that the team was just starting to jell when Brady was fired.  And the team lost to a weak South Carolina team in the first round of the SEC tournament.

Does he deserve a shot?  Yes, he does.  Probably not at LSU, though.  LSU should have the cachet and the cash to hire someone who is a proven recruiter AND a proven head coach.

Like Anthony Grant, maybe?

In other news:

• The Tigresses are in the Sweet 16.
• LSU’s Baseball boys took two of three from Arkansas, much needed.  And they play NW State tonight.
• The LSU-Arkansas football game will be played the Friday after Thanksgiving again.

Posting likely to be a bit spotty this week.  Tomorrow morning at about 3am CST, 8 am GMT, I will be checking in at Gatwick Airport for a transatlantic flight with a the fambly. Intercontinental flights with 2 year olds are never easy, especially when I get to serve as the pack-mule for all 147 bags that we have.  But I will post as soon as I can should any news break….

Baseball Note and Happy Easter

I didn’t link to this the other day, but LSU did beat Tulane in baseball the other day, ending a 5 game losing streak.

I will be away for the Easter weekend, so enjoy it, and I will be back on Tuesday with baseball news, perhaps a few tourney observations, and other general minutia and rambling….

Why is this Important?

How does one NIT First Round game affect LSU’s basketball team?  See this.  What was the game, you ask?

UAB 80, VCU 77

Anthony Grant, the VCU Ram head coach, the leading candidate according to such august publications as the LA Times, has repeatedly said that he won’t talk to anyone until his season is over.  Well, now his season is over.  Will he talk to LSU?  Probably.  Will we here about it?  Maybe.  Would he be a good hire?  I think so.

Does Mike Davis’ win in this game give him an edge in the LSU coaching race?  I don’t know.  It would be easy, I think, for the LSU administrators (read: Skip Bertman) to fall in love with LSU hiring a Billy Donovan disciple and discount Davis on that basis.

It would also be easy, I think, for Martin son-of-C.M. Newton to influence LSU in the direction of UAB’s Davis.

Bottom line?  I have no idea where this is going.  But the LSU-Newton-Davis connections are hard to ignore.  So is the fact that the news media and Dandydon are both saying that Grant is the leading candidate.

A John Brady Update

He’s taking the head basketball coach job at Arkansas State, if you care.