re: Hoops recruiting - Isaiah Briscoe & Antonio Blakeney

Will be interesting to see what comes of Blakeney's LSU visit...he mentioned that LSU has been selling him on the "immediate playing time" angle, which I always have mixed feelings about coaches doing. It seems to give the player a sense of entitlement before he ever suits up for you that automatically creates major potential chemistry problems on the team with the guys who are already there.

Mizzou for its part would have every right to say Blakeney would get immediate PT in our backcourt which is sorely lacking in established shooters/scorers....but I've yet to hear anything about our Mizzou coaches saying that. Kim Anderson our new coach is making it very clear to everyone on the roster that your defense will dictate your playing time. Ultimately that might make it difficult to sign the blue chip scorer Blakeney types for our program under this staff, we'll have to see.

Part of me says LSU has the right idea when going after blue chips, just say whatever it takes to get them signed and then deal with their actual PT later. On the other hand, if you build a program culture saying we are a place that preaches hard nosed defense in order to get PT and if that's not OK with you don't come here, well at least you'll know for sure the guys who do sign with you are gonna buy in and won't be headcases/divas.