LABred08

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Charles Smith won't allow it.

Nothing is allowed to take any spotlight from basketball. Lord forbid a basketball player want to play football, he'd have to miss fall workouts with the basketball team. There have been a number of extremely skilled athletes that were strongly encouraged to not play football. There have also been a number of extremely skilled basketball players zoned for Rapides that somehow end up on campus at Jones Avenue... well before open enrollment was a thing. It's funny how that seemed to happen.

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1. Yes, he is the reason football can't get where they need to go and as long as the principal is positioning his son to succeed him (he's now asst. athletic director), nothing will change.

2. It's less about who's playing and not and much more about the money. Football used to hold its own on the budget, even when we were bad but Smith was always the AD. The neglect to one program over the other was obvious.

3. He's always let kids play more than one sport. There are plenty that played football and baseball too throughout his tenure. What he does do...is not start them or cut minutes, because they aren't there for everything in the summer and fall. Not always, but most of the time.

4. Been a thing said for years that we got kids we shouldn't have, yet, I think we never got sanctioned by LHSAA until 2021 or 22 and that's with the LHSAA having gone through the entire athletic dept previously on multiple occasions. But tell the truth, all the while, it was kids that should have been at Peabody for football, that were at ASH and Tioga before open enrollment. It happened all over Rapides. If the RPSB and LHSAA overlooked it for some, why not others?

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coaching is not the issue

using her bench is the main criticism you can have

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But the bench, is on the coach if you haven't developed it or don't trust it and when you literally don't play kids against good comp, they won't know what that is when they see it. Richard, Del Rosario, Sheppard and Gilbert should have been getting 8-12+ piece against the lower level SEC teams, then in games like this, in the SEC and NCAA tourney they have a better chance if they step in. At this point, they are unprepared to help so you are trying to steal minutes. That is risky and its on coaching.

The only problem I have with the rotation is the insistence on Poa. She brings nothing offensively, is turnover prone on offense and really isn't as good on defense as she looks, the charges just make her look good. I've thought Richard has looked better just about every time I've seen her and Miracle is a better defender, honestly, she is our best defensive guard. If she get her offense going, she'd be the starter at the 1.

They need the posts to step up, they need serious work on off ball defense (too much ball watching and digging down to help for too long) and due to that they have trouble with Princeton style and flex cut offenses. Won't see much of it in SEC play but they need to be ready for it in the tourney. Offensively they can score with anybody. Less fouls and turnovers, they can beat anybody.

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Peabody and from what I understand they were good with it.

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Wouldn't say good with it but we definitely didn't earn it either.

Louisiana K-12 so far behind in education they couldn't get to this on the High School Senior level, let alone before that. Stuff like this is why Louisiana will stay at the bottom of the barrel nationally.

Already said he wouldn't pardon him.

LINK

I think the larger problem is folks want a big name but I think Mulkey and crew learned their lesson last year with that. It needs to be fit, not name. I knew of HVL's talent last year but I was big on Jayda Walker and was really hoping LSU went after her cause she was the right fit, a true pg who could score if need be and she was a huge part of Baylor going deep again this year.

All 3 guards mentioned have their positives and negatives, but none of them actually play the 1 the way Mulkey has traditionally looked for. If that were the case Maddie Scherr wouldve been a great fit aside from only having 1 year left. So if its one or multiple of those 3, we'll still be adjusting someone to the spot in some way, unless the offense changes and I highly doubt that.

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Do you think Flau’jae wouldn’t be able to play pg?

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I was calling for this and HVL to slide to 2 after the first Auburn game. It would have opened everything up. Her ability to drive and kick it to HVL or Williams when the defense gets sucked in. I thought it was a no brainer, have HVL bring it and Flau'jae initiate the O but never happened.

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By "cleaning up some things", you mean like developing an offensive game...she has none at this point. She is too slow to be a really good player. Is "cleaning up some things" becoming quicker also?

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No, when she slowed down and actually worked back to the basket, it was there but there were very few stretches this year she was a focus and did that. Most of her minutes were to come in, rebound and try to put it back because of all the in close misses by the other bigs.

She needs to 1, learn she doesn't need to block everything and sometimes can just make people shoot over her. 2 is to understand her body and how she's going to get called and learn to play with timing with her reach rather than at the apex. That's most of her fouls.

Offensively, she is a better shooter than what Reese was in the midrange and 3 and never got to show it. I think they need to work to develop it so she can use it, she has time on this now with Jersey coming, cause that's what she does.

Lastly, boxing out, she doesn't. She tries to out height folks to boards, works a lot but another big part of her foul trouble.

Smith being back next year helps ALL of this because her game compliments both Del Rosario and Morrow's better that Reese. You could see it in the games Reese missed.