Gamecocks show SEC it can be done
Published 6:04 am Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Even as Will Wade’s introductory news conference threatened to morph itself into a full-scale pep rally, the new LSU basketball coach stopped short of promising Final Fours in the Tigers’ future.
But you could almost read between the lines that, yeah, he was thinking about it.
And ?— quit giggling — maybe it’s not so far-fetched.
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Granted, he’s got a long way to go, taking over a program at its lowest possible moment, historically, plagues-of-Egypt bad just last season.
But, in college basketball, especially in the SEC, maybe the new thinking is that, Hey, if South Carolina can do it …
Anybody can.
Suddenly, everybody has hope.
Maybe that’s what Wade was thinking.
No, wait.
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Wade’s revival meeting was a few days before the Gamecocks barged past the bouncers at the velvet ropes, cut the nylon and headed to the Arizona desert for the NCAA mecca.
But it still rings true.
If South Carolina can do it …
Why not … anybody?
Alarms went off. Get serious about the sport.
The Gamecocks hadn’t won so much as a single tournament game — let alone a meaningful one — since 1973.
Now they’re going to the Final Four.
LSU should really be paying attention to this. Take some notes.
There’s no guarantee that Wade is any Frank Martin, like South Carolina got as a head coach.
But if he is … if Wade coaches half as good as he preaches, then it suddenly opens up all kinds of possibilities.
When South Carolina lured Martin in following the 2010-11 season, the Gamecocks had just gone 10-21, 2-14 in the SEC.
This season LSU went 10-21, 2-16 in the SEC.
Probably just a coincidence.
And don’t expect this to be an overnight miracle.
Martin went 14-18, 14-20 and 17-16 before breaking through at 25-9 last season — and getting snubbed by the Big Dance.
It took five years before this season’s shocker.
But it is a glimmer of hope. It can be done.
Yes, even in basketball — in the football conference.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the conference’s takeover of the BCS football era was not just that the conference won nine of the 16 that were mathematically staged, it’s that five schools did it.
Five!
Count ’em — Tennessee, Auburn, LSU (2), Florida (2) before Alabama (3) started hogging the thing and busting up all the good china at the end.
It was an amazing run.
No other conference had more than two.
Still, that’s a fairly exclusive club.
Only five out of the 14 schools in the conference were involved, all of them with long football histories.
And this was easily the dominant football conference during that era.
On the other hand, the same SEC — the conference that outside of Kentucky doesn’t give a big hoot about hoops — has had seven teams make it to the Final Four.
That’s half the league.
Point is, it can happen easier in basketball than in football, even in the nation’s pre-eminent football conference.
There’s a cleaner path.
Kentucky generally dominates basketball the way Nick Saban, uh, Alabama, dominates football.
But Martin and South Carolina didn’t have to go through Kentucky to get to the Final Four.
So far, only Saban has mastered the trick of going to the football national championship game without winning the conference. And he’s been shy to share how he managed it.
Basketball? Anybody can hire the right coach, stumble onto a monster recruiting class or dominant player, and catch fire at the right time.
If South Carolina can do it, any of the 14 teams are in play.
So hear Wade out. He may be onto something.
It’s not like LSU has never been to a Final Four. The Tigers’ four trips is exactly third in conference behind Kentucky and Arkansas.
It could happen … someday.
On the other hand, can you imagine Kentucky hiring a football coach and the listening the poor guy immediately predict trips to the College Football Playoff?
They’d lock him up.
God forbid, Vanderbilt.
No, football is a much more closed society.
But in basketball, there’s always hope.
Even for LSU.
l
Scooter Hobbs covers LSU
athletics. Email him at
shobbs@americanpress.com
