LSU tour continues; Monroe is next

LSU fans and supporters of the Tiger Athletic Fund Ark-La-Tex chapter streamed into the Horseshoe Casino’s Riverdome to greet four LSU head coaches on Monday.

LSU’s Tiger Tour wound though Shreveport and Bossier City with football coach Les Miles, men’s basketball coach John Brady, women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor and baseball coach Paul Mainieri talked with fans about their seasons and the future.

“This is my third time around, and it’s always great,” Miles said. “The people that surround this program and are loyal to it are so quality.”
Miles lost 13 players to the NFL, yet expectations remain high for the 2007 Tigers.

Five players were selected in the NFL Draft, including quarterback JaMarcus Russell becoming the No. 1 overall pick. Eight players have signed free agent contracts in the meantime.

Some preseason polls have the Tigers as high as No. 2 despite their losses. Miles dismissed the preseason talk.

“We have a lot of time,” he said. “We’ve got to have a great summer.

“It comes from any number of experiences that rankings in being picked to win means nothing. You have to go play and earn it.

“You have to have a great summer so that you can have a great start to two-a-days. It absolutely has to go that way. It’s not easy to win 11 games and finish in the top-five. The program is in a position at this point to do great things.”

Brady’s team is trying to forget a 5-11 season in the SEC. Brady should know about high expectations.

The Tigers made top-10 preseason rankings after making it to the 2006 Final Four, but center Glen Davis couldn’t counter the loss of Tyrus Thomas and Darrel Mitchell.

LSU beat three Top-25 teams, including eventual national champ Florida. Those are encouraging steps for Brady’s team.

“Those numbers mean at times you have a pretty good basketball team,” Brady said. “What it does say is that we weren’t consistent enough to win the games that were necessary for us to be rewarded as we would like to at the end of the year.

“We’ve got some players in place for that not to happen.”

His two biggest moves were signing Marcus Thornton (6-4, 195 pounds) and Anthony Randolph (6-10, 220).

For new head women’s basketball coach, Van Chancellor, the opportunity to coach the Lady Tigers was too good to escape from him.

Chancellor hopes to bring a calm to the storm that followed the program after the Pokey Chatman’s turbulent resignation.

The Lady Tigers made their fourth trip to the women’s Final Four despite the turmoil.

“If the LSU women’s basketball program is in disarray, then I love being in disarray,” Chancellor said. “We’ve got everybody returning, and everybody’s happy.

“I don’t think our program is in disarray zero. It’s the farthest thing from it.”

Mainieri’s first season as the Tigers’ baseball coach has been a learning one. The Tigers are 12-14-1 in the SEC.

“When we went through fall practice I could tell that we had some limitations with our team,” he said. “In a lot of ways, our team has overachieved.

“The kids have done as well as they can do. We certainly need an upgrade in talent, and we think we’ve done that.”