March 17, 2016
GET ARRESTED
ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, our EBay store, sells media guides and programs. Please visit JonFineProductions.com and click on icon to get to the store. Check out a full array of New Orleans Saints media guides and LSU media guides and programs. Close to 500 publications listed with more auctions daily
SPORTSCENTRAL
Good News and Bad News
The Bad News is that there will be no SportsCentral tonight, because the station is off the air. The Good News is that the station is off the air to make improvements that will vastly improve the signal. They hope to be back in business soon, meaning that SportsCentral hopes to be back on next Thursday. Please Pardon Radio Amour’s progress!
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, March 24 (knock on wood): 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral
Radio Amour 91.9 FM, Central
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Saturday, March 19: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, March 21: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S).
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High School
If you are feeling down about LSU basketball, you are not alone. But, don’t allow yourself to get dragged into the doomsday crowd either.
The national media will find another team to bash on next year, as LSU will fall into the background. LSU has never been able to sustain itself as a basketball program to watch nationally like they have in baseball and football. Consequently, this drop after a year in the national spotlight is part of the natural ebb and flow that is the history of LSU basketball. It is not the end of LSU basketball as we know it.
The toughest job next year is for the marketing and promotions department at LSU. LSU fans bought a large number of tickets this year hoping to see something special. It will be very hard to convince LSU fans to come back to the PMAC next year.
This season will also make it more difficult to recruit a “one and done” player like Ben Simmons. The good news is that type of player is not a necessity to get to the top of college basketball. In 2015, Michigan State and Wisconsin made the Final Four without that type of player. Meanwhile in 2014, Wisconsin, Florida, and eventual champion Connecticut succeeded without a one and done player.
As I have stated and restated this year, having the highest profile player does not equal team success. Furthermore, LSU has shown the ability to attract great basketball players. Chris Jackson, Randy Livingston, and others were as highly thought of as Ben Simmons when they came out. In conclusion, LSU’s chances for future success are independent of what happened with Ben Simmons.
As for the NCAA Tournament, the pundits are railing on the selection committee’s performance. I have said for years, that my issue with the process is the ever changing parameters that are not known until after the committee makes their selections. I have a passionate distaste for the idea that a selection committee “sends messages.” In 2016, the committee may have sent a message that you must have a wins against top 50 RPI teams. But, in 2017, the committee will most likely change the message, and then in 2018 the message will change again. The target keeps moving.
I could even live with a changing target if the standard was known and agreed upon before the season. Instead, we get a committee at the end of the year that gets focused on top 50 wins, when most of the country thinks that criteria is fairly inadequate. Here is an idea. Have next year’s committee meet this spring. Have them send the message this spring for next year. Then we can all experience the season under the same understanding of the criteria.
But I digress. You have filled out your bracket by now, but just in case you have a few hours left, I am not going to share some of my bracket. I looked back at my New Year’s article where I predicted Bama to win it all and LSU to have the #3 football recruiting class. While Arizona let me down in my Super Bowl prediction (Matthieu had not been injured yet for the record), I was correct that LSU would fall short of the NCAA Tournament. I bring this up, not to brag, but to set the stage and justification for my Final Four picks.
In that article, I predicted Michigan State, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Virginia in the Final Four. I have a good feeling about those teams, so I will stick with Kansas and Oklahoma. As it turns out, Michigan State and Virginia are in the same bracket. I like Michigan State over Virginia in an epic Elite Eight battle. In the east, I like West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, but I have to go with North Carolina, though I am not confident in the Tar Heels. I am sticking with Michigan State as the national champion.
HEY REF
The headline read “Jones; Skipping postseason was the right call”. I don’t think it was the right or the moral thing to do. The first thing that comes to mind is that almost sacred sentence that goes something like this “it’s not how you get knocked down but how you get up”. I’ve heard just about every coach not only say that but use it as a way to get their team to answer back to adversity.
The NCAA and NIT tournaments are a way of rewarding a team (School) for all the hard work and sacrifices they made during the season. Every school, big and small, would rather play in the NCAA’s tournament than the NIT version. Makes sense since the winner of the NCAA tournament will be crowned National Champions. The NIT tournament, which some claim “simply isn’t considered a prestigious place to play”, when compared to the NCAA’s Big Show shouldn’t have been disrespected by a school that needs to play to get better.
LSU’s and Jones’ decision not to accept an invitation is a slap in the face to the kids that did work hard and should be extending their season if for just one game. While this team didn’t get as far as they’d like packing up the uniforms and not recognizing their accomplishments just stinks. LSU along with Coach Johnny Jones have made the worst decision they could’ve made by turning down those at the NIT that felt LSU would be a plus in their tournament.
Coaches of every sport at every level will tell you that a team only gets better the more they play. The NIT would’ve been a great place to have some of these kids get on the floor in a tournament atmosphere and gain that much needed game experience. If Jones felt his Tiger team was weak and felt they’d expose their weaknesses then look on the bright side of things. I say what better of a place to show a potential recruit that they’ll have a great chance at starting since the need is so dire.
I’m pretty sure every team that plays in either tournament is paid a fee and the teams have their room and board included along with all travel expenses included. In the special session that just concluded we saw the new Governor make threats to cut funding to higher ed. Top that threat with even more, continued threats of yanking dollars from education in the regular session that’s now going on in Baton Rouge, LSU and Coach Johnny Jones lost a chance to help themselves and add to the “kitty” by playing in the NIT Tournament.
I’m sure LSU wouldn’t be paid millions and millions of dollars by accepting to play in the NIT but it would’ve been a great opportunity to help themselves by generating funds, any funds. But I’m leaning more on the lost opportunity for the team. You don’t get better watching games on TV. You only get better by doing and both LSU and their coach, Johnny Jones should be fined for not doing their part.
If as Johnny Jones has been quoted the reason for the season is to get back to the NCAA tournament and you come up short by one game, one point, one rebound, one mistake remember this “if you’d been on the floor and playing in the NIT getting your players that much needed game experience then you might have won that one game, you might have scored that one extra point and so on. To win anything you must eliminated mistakes and the only way to do that is by putting shoes on the floor.
Louisiana is in the mess it’s in because of bad decisions. By calling an end to the basketball season early has to be one of the biggest and probably the worse decision that LSU, its coach and its athletic department has ever made. LSU can’t afford to sit at home because their coach is embarrassed. Remember Coach Jones, it doesn’t matter how you get knocked down, it’s how you get back up.
Till next week..
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS, ON FOX SPORTS RADIO, 1210AM, BATON ROUGE AND ON THE NET AT JonFineProductions.com, IS A JON FINE PRODUCTION.
OUR EBAY STORE, ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, SELLS SPORTS PUBLICATIONS. YOU CAN LINK TO IT BY VISITING JonFineProductions.com.
JON IS PROUD TO WORK AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-LAKE CHARLES
AND AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSCENTRAL ON RADIO AMOUR, 91.9.—BATON ROUGE.