March 08, 2010

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Tasmin Mitchell

LSU basketball player, Tasmin Mitchell finished his home career Saturday with a twenty point effort against Georgia in a 50-48 Tiger victory.  Mitchell, a fifth year senior (how rare are those in college basketball?), still has at least one more game to play in the SEC tournament this week.  Currently he is third on the LSU all-time scoring list, behind Pete Maravich and Rudy Macklin, still needing 21 points to reach the 2,000 point total for his career.  He is the only player to be in the top ten in career scoring, rebounding, and assists for the Tigers, and he set the record for most minutes played in a career.  He has done this being a local player from Denham Springs and with class.  He has played for three different coaches and seen the penthouse (two SEC championships and a Final Four) and this season's 2-14 SEC record.  He is only one of nine players in LSU history to be a member of two SEC championship teams.  He will definitely be remembered as one of the all-time greats in LSU basketball history.

With that said, I find it interesting to try and figure out where Tas ranks among the all-time greats.  Talking to some of the media that covers LSU basketball, it seems to be somewhere in the 10-15 range.  Last season, LSU celebrated its 100^th year of basketball and had an all-century Sweet 16 team.  Everyone agrees that Tas deserves to be on that team.  And I agree with that.

However, if you want to play devil's advocate, Tas said the record he was most proud of was most minutes played.  I hear him, but you can also use that as a negative.  If he was really “great” then he wouldn't have been around LSU long enough to set that record. 

LSU Baseball

The #1 ranked LSU baseball team is starting off this season on an 11-0 roll.  This is the best start for the Tigers since the1997 team that won 19 straight and we all know how that season ended.  As everyone knows, this team is loaded and poised to make a run at another national championship. 

The thing I have been most impressed with is this team's ability to play all kinds of games, close one-run games, pitcher's duels, and lopsided wins.  This team has as much speed as any LSU team I have seen in awhile.  They also have as good a defense as any LSU team has ever had, especially up the middle.  The two things I still need to see this team develop in order to get me fully on the band wagon is a reliable left-handed pitcher and a good left-handed batter in the DH spot.  I think Chris Matulis could be the left-handed pitcher we need.  If he develops, then he could be in the middle of the two righties as a Saturday starter.  I'm not sure if there is a left-handed bat that I have seen that can fill in that DH spot.  Hopefully, the answer will be that Matt Gaudet will continue to tear the cover off the ball and we won't need a left-handed bat at that position.