Captain Falcon

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Went to State LSU series at the Dude last year. I was pretty shocked at how many empty seats there were in the grandstands. Probably 7K actual attendance for tge Saturday game

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The dude has always had that kind of weirdness about it, and the new one even more so. Cram a ton of people in the outfield and on grass berms or standing room only areas…. Only for the actual chair backs to be 50% capacity for about 90% of home games.

If he is willing to show that he has something to prove still, I think he’s absolutely a good coach. His problem at State seemed to be that he got too comfy after he experienced early success. Took the mentality of “I won a national title, all my critics are morons” and got himself fired 4 years later.

Basketball is historically in one of the best shapes it’s been in program history. State does not exactly have the basketball pedigree to scoff at three straight NCAAT trips. Jans is a good coach. That program is generally doing fine. Room for improvement but to act like things are bad is not accurate.

I suspect Lemonis is gone if they do miss the NCAAT. He should be at least. Following up a national title with no NCAAT in 3 of the following 4 years is not cutting it at all.

Lebby may not be any good, Year 1 was a mess, but he also walked into a really rough roster situation so it may not be fair to fully judge him get. I don’t think they’re going to be very good this year either due to how brutal the schedule is, but if he can show some clear improvement and find a way to steal a game or two and get to about 5-7, I think you take that and hope for bowl eligibility again in Year 3.

Too early to judge this AD, been a mixed bag so far but Lebby is the only major hire he’s made and he’s only a year in

Stylistically his teams could not be more opposite from how Buzz Williams runs things so I am fascinated to see what that looks like.

State got pretty much exactly what I expected. Baylor is a total toss up. And if we win, Duke will throttle us. But I’d love to get the NCAAT losing streak off the books. State’s last tourney win was in 2008 against Oregon (also an 8/9 game).

State is very much running on fumes as we get to the finish line. They’ll be in the tournament, probably in a 7/10 or 8/9 game, but I don’t know how you can watch this team and have any confidence they do anything. One win at most, and I’m not sure they can win 1. Would have to be a great matchup for them.

They cannot shoot the 3 nor can they defend the 3. The whole offense is just “please save us Hubbard” and nobody else on this team scares you as a scorer. They do play hard and can force you into some turnovers… But if you beat the pressure, buddy you will have wide open 3’s against this team for days. I feel like half the league has made double digit 3’s against State. Bama made 22 of them in one game.

I think the possibility of 3 SEC 1 seeds may have died in Athens on Tuesday. It is going to be hard to pry it away from Houston now

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Not an ideal matchup for the Dogs.

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If there is a sliver of optimism, it’s in the fact that Bama shot 15-31 from 3 AND out rebounded State in Starkville and still only won by 4. If State doesn’t miss an open lay in with 30 seconds left, they lead by 1 with the shot clock off and it comes down to getting one stop on Bama’s last possession. Hubbard and Murphy were the only two guys who showed up for that game, need the supporting cast to play well and hope that Bama isn’t red hot from 3 again.

It’s not a good match up for State, I’ll agree there. The most likely result is probably Bama by double digits. I do think there is a path to State winning if they can hit open shots and force turnovers.

Jans is 0-6 against Oats, I don’t see any reason why the streak ends this time. The game in Starkville was a really great game. My suspicion is Bama takes this one fairly easily. Hard to trust State against teams that can score in bunches.

State went 8-10 in a weaker SEC last year and was an 8 seed, not especially close to the bubble. 8-10 in this SEC is a stone cold lock. I think 7-11 would work for several teams.