College basketball coaching carousel

A great coach probably could win more at Illinois, but a mediocre-to-good coach probably could win more at LSU.

 

You can have a really good team at LSU and still play in front of acres of empty seats in an aging arena that can't even claim "historic" charm.

 

It's easy to understand when one takes a look at LSU's AD. That hire was more mysterious hire than Trent Johnson was ...

 

At LSU, I'd imagine you could go to 10 straight Final Fours and still be a distant, distant No. 2 in the minds of most fans and boosters when it comes to relevance.

At Illinois, I think it's just the opposite. They may have unrealistic expectations for their basketball program, but I'd rather have that than to be ignored.

 

TCU, SMU, Big 12, Big East, it's all the same ...

 

But is LSU's upside better than Illinois' upside? I still think if Billy Donovan left Flordia tomorrow, they could slip into irrelevance overnight. Having said that, I'm implying that there is one program in the entire SEC (and that includes Missouri) that is significant enough as a program that its name carries weight beyond the person in charge - Kentucky. Like I said if Donovan leaves, I wonder if Florida could remain significant..

One could sell a coach that LSU has a better chance at emerging as the No. 2 power in the SEC than Illinois does in the Big 10 or Maryland in the ACC.

Having said that, Smart is a long, long shot. BUT Alleva has a history of shooting for the stars. Nikki Caldwell in women's basketball was a big name with little tie to LSU, outside of having played in the SEC. Trent Johnson was much the same. Alleva's MO is to go for big, national names. And LSU has deep, SEC pockets. So we'll see.

Lots of support for Johnnie Jones, the "program" favorite. But to a lot of people, that would be settling.

 

Yes.

For one things kids in LSU's primary recruiting area want to play there. That's not the case at Illinois.

Football may be king but fans will turn out in big numbers if you put a winner on the floor and the expectations are lower than they are at Illinois so you'll get a longer leash.

 

LSU has had little more success recruiting New Orleans in basketball than Illinois has had with Chicago. You have to go back to Randy Livingston to find the last stud from New Orleans metro LSU had. They have missed on DJ Augustine, Greg Monroe, Tweedy Carter, Duane Spencer, Ricardo Gathers this year, Danny Granger - although that's not completely fair, given the level of his recruitment coming out of high school. That's just off the top of my head.

But Baton Rouge has been rather kind to them and it's a pretty good basketball town in the last 10-15 years (Glen Davis, Tyrus Thomas, Marcus Thornton, Tasmin Mitchell, etc.).

 

Define better job.

My impression is that a big-time SEC school places a higher priority on college athletics than anyone other than maybe Ohio State in the Big 10. I think the LSU administration would pay the assistant's better salaries, etc. and generally stroke a coach more than Illinois.

And given the ego of the typical big-time coach that counts for a lot.

 

Brian, your explanation pretty much summed my feelings over Johnson. Never understood why he would leave Palo Alton for Baton Rouge, and now heading to Fort Worth. He must be the best "I know this is the time to leave before they run me out" coach I can ever remember.

 

Maybe someone in NoLa can tell me.......what's a crowd like for an LSU basketball game......

 

Nonexistent.

Anybody go to the SEC tournament? How about the makeup of the crowd for the LSU/Kentucky game? There was an LSU section sort of opposite the team's bench and the rest was in Kentucky blue. And the game was in New Orleans.

Says all you need to know.

LSU has sort of unconditional love for football. The rest is conditional, including baseball. They lead the nation in attendance, but they also never have sustained stretches where they success.

LSU hasn't sustained success in basketball since Dale Brown left. If they can piece together 3-4 consecutive good years, I think support would be back. Under Brady, there were peaks, but a lot of valleys. Under Trent, it was peak, then very low valley and what was looking like a slow climb out of it (almost like the economy).

It's been a long time since they've had three or four consecutive 20-win seasons, so it's been hard to sustain interest to where it becomes habit.