February 14, 2019
GREAT GIFT IDEA!!
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
This could be a special spring for Tiger fans. LSU basketball fans have been cautiously optimistic waiting to see how LSU would handle this stretch of the schedule. After sweeping Miss. State, Auburn, and Kentucky, LSU basketball fans should allow themselves to get very excited.
Early in the season, LSU won with great guard play. Last week, LSU beat State and Auburn on the backs on Bigby-Williams and Naz Reid inside getting offensive rebounds and finishing around the goal.
Unfortunately, I had a game Tuesday night and missed the Kentucky game, but it is clear LSU used its inside presence once again. This time it was Emmitt Williams providing the spark making all 5 of his 5 attempts.
The great news is LSU still has room to grow. Their defensive activity looks so good at times, but lacks consistency. On offense, they have a tendency to get stagnant. When Waters is making quick decisions and the offense doesn’t get stuck in a rut, LSU is very hard to guard. If Smart and Mays get going again, that would really Waters impossible for defenses to stop.
Before I go on, I know the final play of the game should have been waived off for basket interference. If we want keep score, we are owed about 7 more breaks just like that to make up for what started against Mississippi State and ended against the Rams.
As I mentioned before, LSU fans were cautiously optimistic about this basketball season from the beginning. Turning to LSU baseball, there is no caution in the optimism. This team is loaded.
For those that need an analogy, pretend every player on this year’s football team chose to return to LSU instead of entering their name in the NFL draft. Devin White and Greedy Williams returning would have college football buzzing, and Tiger fans salivating. The comparison isn’t perfect, but is pretty close when considering what worked out for LSU baseball.
Zack Watson, Antoine Duplantis, and Zack Hess were supposed to be in professional baseball right now. Landon Marceaux, who is going to be LSU’s starting Saturday pitcher, is a freshman who should also be in professional baseball. There are many other freshman pitchers who turned down money from MLB to attend LSU. LSU baseball fans are used to shaking their heads when LSU plays Florida, Vanderbilt, and TCU wondering how some of their players turned down MLB to attend college. This year, LSU is that team.
The baseball season is long and certainly we know injuries can happen at the drop of a hat. The biggest weakness is that two of the new catchers are coming off of injuries, so LSU will play the first few weeks primarily with one catcher. No roster is ever perfect, and this is LSU’s major flaw at the moment. Otherwise, LSU appears to check all the boxes.
Speed? Watson, Duplantis, Broussard, Smith, Cabrera, and Hughes all run well.
Power? Cabrera, Watson, and Garza (juco transfer) have that.
Contact hitters to put pressure on the defense? Duplantis, Smith, Broussard, Bianco, and hopefully Hughes will be those types of hitters.
Hitting off the bench? Some new names like DiGiacomo, Dugas, Beloso, and the return of Chris Reid provide depth.
Experience? You can’t beat Hess, Watson, Duplantis, and Smith.
Defense? Smith, Hughes, Broussard, Duplantis, and Watson are great defensively. First base and catcher are the only positions with new players. First base was manned by a pitcher last year (Bain), and the catching has to be better than last year.
Two ace pitchers? Hess and Marceau.
Pitching depth? Walker is back for Sunday. Two freshmen are battling for to be the 4th and 5th starters that are only needed during the SEC Tournament and in the regional if you drop into the losers bracket.
Bullpen/Closer? Todd Peterson will get the first shot at being the closer and hopefully he is able to rekindle the magic from the end of last year. Veterans like Beck, Gilbert, Fontenot, and Hilliard will make better setup men than starters.
Stars? Coach Mainieri expects Cabrera and Hess to be All-Americans. They performed like All-Americans when playing for Team USA last summer. Duplantis, Smith, and Watson should be first or second team All-SEC. Marceau should be a freshman All-American.
Clearly, the pieces are in place. The young pitchers will have some bumps in the road. There will be some injuries. Coach Mainieri will tinker with the lineup all year to keep things fresh and make sure he has the right lineup in June. There will be some midweek losses, and at least one weekend where nothing goes right.
This team will be judged by how it performs in June, though. It is CWS or bust this year, and Coach Mainieri doesn’t shy away from those expectations in the least.
HEY REF
My hat’s off to LSU basketball coach Will Wade and his Tigers. They’ve earned their namesake “Fighting” after Tuesday night’s thrilling 73-71 win at No. 5 Kentucky. As all know I’m not a basketball fan but I am a fan at players, no matter the sport, that give 110% every minute of every game. Maybe this is what we need to try and ease the pain of New Orleans being robbed of a Super Bowl berth after the all too well known “no call”.
Usually when a team changes its head coach that program takes three to five years to turn things around. Wade is working magic and I hope he continues winning. The only downside I can see with winning so soon is the fans who’ve been starving for a winner will now expect a winner each year. But I guess it’s a nice thing to wake up to and I hope the winning continues for many seasons.
Before I move on to my yearly two week “vacation” I want to take a second and bring attention to one of the coaches I admired while I was a youngster. His name was Bud Grant an ex-Canadian Football League coach that took over the NFL’s Purple clad Minnesota Vikings. I enjoy watching YouTube because there are many of those old games I watched as a kid.
Those games show what professional football is really all about. Unlike today’s PERFORMERS with their agents, demands, sponsors and hurt feelings. I never knew there were so many spoiled brats in all of sports much less just in the NFL. Getting back to why I admired Bud Grant; he was a no nonsense coach. His philosophy was a simple one: you were paid to do a job and he expected you to show up each and every day to do that job.
Until today I didn’t know just how strict he ran that franchise. His players told stories of how every aspect of the player’s behavior was gonna be and if you didn’t like it then he’d send you down the road. Jim Marshall one of the all-time best defensive linemen to ever play in the NFL told one story on how Coach Grant demanded and got his players to walk a tight line.
As the story goes it all started on the first day of training camp in Grant’s second year. Grant said he was disgusted at how his players acted on game day as they warmed up in front of all the people that had paid their hard earned money to see PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES. He noticed some players chewing tobacco, spitting on the sidelines, chewing gum, laughing as if on vacation, etc. There wouldn’t be a repeat of that behavior as long as Grant was their coach. He emphasized to his players that they did in fact represent the people of Minnesota and their actions were going to be one of respect for the fans buying tickets.
Marshall explained that every move the players made on game day was practiced and refined before they stepped foot onto the field. And here is where Grant made history in the NFL; the Vikings practiced lining up on the sidelines at attention and with their helmets cradled in their arms at their sides. It didn’t matter if they were to kick off or receive to open the game. Whichever team was on the field they too were at attention during the playing of our National Anthem
I didn’t know that until I watched some of these old timer games on YouTube. If you get a chance take some time out from your day to watch and listen to actual NFL PLAYERS talk about how they respected this country and how fortunate they felt just to be playing professional football. It’s really sad to watch players today kneel down on the flag and disrespect those that sacrificed everything to keep this country free.
Many times as I travel going through airports I’ll see an older veteran and as I reach out to shake his hand and thank him for what he’s done for this country I also apologize to him for the way many people in this country have taken freedom for granted. I also apologize for the many things our government has done in giving away to other countries the things they fought and died for. I also apologize for those in this country that expect everything to be given them as if they’re owed something. Call me old fashioned, I won’t care.
As I get my suitcases ready I’d like to ask everyone to take a trip back in time by watching and listening to these older players and coaches. And if you do then it should cause you to ask “WHY” and “HOW” things have gotten so bad in America in such a short time.
Till I return from a much needed break… … …
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