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| Scooter Hobbs Archive |
| 5/9 | Column: One Stab At LSU’s All-Omaha Era Team |
| | Picking LSU’s “All Omaha Era” baseball team is pretty darn easy. Easy, that is, if you play by LSU’s rules which stipulate that you pick three catchers, eight infielders, seven outfielders, 12 pitchers. And, perhaps, a partridge in a pear tree. Who wouldn’t want to field a team like that? Put that stampeding herd on the field and the Tigers wouldn’t have been held to a measly five national championships back when they were the Team of the Decade (1990s). They might even have knocked down a few ground balls during the Gorilla Ball era, when defense was often considered a luxury item amid the staple of booster-rocket home runs. But those kind of sheer numbers also make it too easy to narrow the team, which will be announced over this weekend as the Tigers play their final scheduled games in 70-year-old Alex Box Stadium. Continue... |
| 5/9 | Resurgent Tigers Trying To Keep Alex Box Open Overtime |
| | LSU goes into this, the final weekend of play in storied old Alex Box Stadium, trying to make sure that ... well, trying to make sure it’s NOT the final weekend for the 70-year-old venue. A few weeks ago it was pretty cut and dry. Sunday would be it — adios, turn out the lights — what with the Tigers set to abandon the decrepit old structure to play next year in state-of-the-art digs currently under construction a few hundred yards away. LSU, mired in 11th place in the SEC, seemed to have little hope of making the NCAA tournament, let alone hosting a regional, as The Box did for 16 straight years until LSU missed the postseason in 2006. But now, riding a nine-game overall win streak and back-to-back sweeps of ranked SEC teams, there are whispers that the Tigers (31-16-1, 12-11-1 SEC) might squeeze out one more regional bid for the place. Continue... |
| 5/4 | Column: Now LSU Can Finally Move On |
| | All together now. Everyone breathe a deep, appreciative sigh of relief. Our state’s long, gridiron nightmare is over at last. It’s safe to go back to the water cooler. Enter the neighborhood barber shop again without hesitation. Thank you, Les Miles. Now we can all get on with our own lives. There can be idle small talk again without somebody bringing up the Ryan Perrilloux question over and over. For a while there, I didn’t think there was any other issue in the state. Continue... |
| 5/3 | Perrilloux Gone For Good |
| | LSU head coach Les Miles finally reached the end of his rope with talented quarterback Ryan Perrilloux. So LSU will have an untested quarterback when the Tigers begin defense of their national championship next fall. Perrilloux’s checkered LSU career ended Friday when Miles kicked the projected starting quarterback off the team. Miles would not comment beyond a generic statement released by the athletic department. But ESPN reported — and one LSU official who asked to remain anonymous confirmed — that the final straw came when Perrilloux failed a drug test. Continue... |
| 5/2 | Column: Some Tiger Fans Just HAD To Watch The Title Game |
| | To your average LSU fan, the idea of “sacrifice” to watch the Tigers’ national championship victory over Ohio State meant over-extending the budget on tickets or a hi-def TV. Tell it to Army Spc. Benton Thames. And hold the hanky. Of course, Thames’ job description is all about the kind of sacrifice few football fans could ever imagine. The Denham Springs native and lifelong, devout Tiger fan, is one of the select few entrusted with guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Continue... |
| 4/24 | Column: One Last Gathering For LSU’s NFL Bound Seniors |
| | BATON ROUGE — Actually, I had hoped to see that big, natural smile of Glenn Dorsey’s one last time while we’re in still in the same tax bracket neighborhood. But the gregarious defensive tackle had to send regrets Thursday when LSU gathered its potential candidates for the weekend’s NFL draft. Dorsey was preparing to leave for New York, expecting but a short wait Saturday before hitting the lottery as an instant millionaire. Good for him. It’s nice to see it happen to the good guys every now and then, and Dorsey is certainly one of the best ever, on and off the field. Continue... |
| 4/24 | LSU Freshmen Pitchers Shut Down McNeese |
| | BATON ROUGE — LSU perhaps got a glimpse of its baseball future Wednesday and came away encouraged. For McNeese, it was the same ol’ story. Three LSU freshmen pitchers held the Cowboys to a season-low one hit and Matt Clark drove in four runs with two of the Tigers’ three home runs to come away with a 6-0 victory. Continue... |
| 4/14 | Column: Johnson Hired To Win Championships For LSU, Not Fill Seats |
| | He’s an impressive fellow, this new basketball coach LSU hired. My guess is that Tigers fans can start caring about hoops again. It may even be safe to go back to the Maravich Assembly Center, what with Trent Johnson having been lured from Stanford to coach the Tigers. I have no doubt he’ll win. His background and the talent available to him in Louisiana almost assure that. As for making LSU basketball relevant again — a standard every-morning, water-cooler discussion item and a must-have ticket — well, we’ll just have to wait and see. I was a little taken aback, however, when Johnson was asked at his introductory news conference what he had in mind to bring back the fans’ fannies, as well as their passion. “That wasn’t brought up,” Johnson said of the interviews that led to his hiring. “What they talked about was championships.” Continue... |
| 4/11 | Johnson Vows To Revive LSU Basketball |
| | BATON ROUGE — For Trent Johnson, the realization came as Texas was dismantling his Stanford Cardinal in the Sweet 16 round of the latest NCAA tournament. Specifically, it was a jaw-dropping athletic play by Longhorn point guard D.J. Augustin that Johnson knew no player on his team could or likely ever would pull off. And right then Johnson knew he had taken Stanford about as far as he was ever going to get. “I guess it was about two weeks ago, maybe two and half, that I started thinking about LSU,” said Johnson, who was introduced Thursday as LSU’s new head basketball coach. Continue... |
| 4/10 | LSU Expected To Hire Stanford Basketball Coach |
| | A New Orleans radio station and several California news outlets are reporting that Stanford head basketball coach Trent Johnson will be introduced as LSU’s new coach today. LSU officials have declined comment. But at least one official from the school said the school plans a press conference today in regards to the basketball program. The intention to hire Johnson was first reported by radio station WGSO in New Orleans on its website. The Associated Press later reported that it received an e-mail from Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby that said Johnson had been given permission to talk to LSU but had not resigned yet. “LSU notified me that they wanted to talk with him this morning as I was leaving Tampa (following the women's Final Four),” Bowlsby told the AP. “The position probably pays twice what ours does so I expect he feels he has to listen. Trent has not informed me that he has accepted another position.” Continue... |
| 4/9 | Column: Flawed Search Conducted To Find New LSU Athletic Director |
| | During a brief exchange in the press box at LSU’s spring football game, this Joe Alleva fellow seemed a decent enough sort. But that doesn’t make the way LSU landed a new athletic director smell any better. The whole thing looked a little hurried, to be honest. It was so rushed that the press conference to introduce Alleva as LSU’s next athletic director was held before the guest of honor could even make it to Baton Rouge. LSU President John Lombardi and interim Chancellor William Jenkins came off looking like grumpy, old bureaucrats trying to mumble and hrrrumph their way through a good-ol’-boys power play. Maybe Alleva will revolutionize college athletics from his new power base. Maybe he will become legend around Tigertown. But if he turns out great, it won’t be LSU’s fault. Continue... |
| 4/7 | LSU Guts Out Victory To Win Bama Series |
| | BATON ROUGE — In a game with three ties and three more lead changes, Alabama kept considerable pressure on LSU Sunday afternoon. But it was nothing like the Tigers head coach did to them. Less than halfway through the conference schedule, Paul Mainieri called it a “must-win” game before they ever took the field for the weekend’s rubber game. “I told ‘em,” Mainieri said, “You hate to put words like ‘must’ on anything, but I’m doing it today.” The Tigers responded, overcoming a late three-run deficit to beat Alabama 9-7 and take the weekend series 2-1. “Now everything is still in front of them,” Mainieri said, though LSU is still 5-7 in SEC play (20-11 overall). Continue... |
| 4/6 | Richard Murphy Stars In LSU Spring Football Game |
| | BATON ROUGE — At the end of the day, it was still a spring game, which meant LSU head coach Les Miles considered it a roaring success that there were no injuries. But there was no shortage of big plays Saturday as the Tigers completed spring drills with the White team, which had most of the projected starters, taking a predictable 38-10 victory. “Not necessarily exactly what we wanted,” head coach Les Miles said. “But considering it was divided teams, we felt like we got a lot accomplished. “The quality of execution was not game-like, but now we can look forward to a great summer. I look forward to taking this team to the field in the fall.” Running back Richard Murphy was the game’s star with 145 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Continue... |
| 4/6 | New LSU Athletic Director Says He's A "Football Guy" |
| | BATON ROUGE — LSU’s new athletic director, Joe Alleva, dropped in on the Tigers’ spring football game and immediately knew he wasn’t at Duke any longer. “We might get 500 (fans) at a spring game,” he said. It’s part of the reason he left Duke after 32 years at the private school and 10 years as the athletic director. “I’m a football guy,” Alleva said. “I played football. One of the disappointments I had (at Duke) was that we couldn’t get football going.” Continue... |
| 4/5 | Perrilloux Backups Take Center Stage In LSU Spring Football Game |
| | Ryan Perrilloux won’t play in LSU’s spring football game this afternoon, but the suspended quarterback will be a Tiger in good standing by Sunday. Perrilloux will also be with the team when the Tigers travel to Washington, D.C. on Monday to visit the White House and meet President Bush as a reward for winning the national championship last season. “Absolutely,” head coach Les Miles said. But he’s no-go for today’s intrasquad game. “We’ll leave him on the sidelines and let him watch this one,” Miles said. “He’ll have full privileges on Sunday.” Continue... |
| 4/4 | Mainieri Thinks It’s Not Too Late For Tigers |
| | Before the season, second-year LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said he thought his team was ready to take it to the next level. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it — even at the halfway mark of the regular season with the Tigers off to a 3-6 start in the SEC, 18-10 overall. That’s the bad news. The good news? “Even with a poor (conference) record, we’re only one game out of first place,” Mainieri pointed out. And it’s true. The Tigers are in fourth place, but the three-way tie for first in the SEC West — Alabama, Auburn and Ole Miss — featured teams that are only 4-5 in the early going. LSU can catch or pass at least one of them when Alabama (16-13, 4-5) comes to Baton Rouge for a weekend series. Continue... |
| 4/3 | Column: April Madness Shouldn't Apply To Football |
| | The NCAA’s latest busy-body edict is, of course, mis-guided and illogical and mostly snooty, as so many of them are. But perhaps in some small way it will end up benefiting the common good. Spring football, if you haven’t heard, is spinning dangerously out of control. LSU, to its credit, has never been on the leading edge of this foolishness, but evidently other schools were starting to suspect there’s cash money to be made from spring football, and the Tigers were eager to hop aboard. So in an effort to spruce up their spring football formal a tad, LSU had planned a Friday night concert — the first ever in Tiger Stadium — to coincide with the Tigers’ intrasquad “game” the following day. Continue... |
| 4/1 | Lady Tigers Take The Fifth |
| | NEW ORLEANS — Honk if you high-fived with LSU’s Erica White Monday night. The Littlest Lady Tiger was slapping palms with teammates, cheerleaders, the dance team, coaches, athletic directors, assorted wives, most of the 5,067 fans on hand and was seemingly working her way through the concession stands when finally lured back to the standard LSU net-cutting ceremony. And that after she boogie-boogeyed her way around the court twirling an LSU banner, most of her tiny 5-foot-3 frame consumed by a six-foot smile. She was all over the game, too, just as she and her teammates’ suffocating defense was all over North Carolina en route to 56-50 victory that sends the Lady Tigers to a record-tying fifth straight Final Four next weekend in Tampa, Fla. Continue... |
| 3/31 | Lady Tigers Eye Fifth Straight Trip To Final Four |
| | NEW ORLEANS — Not that he remembers any details or anything. After all, it was 22 years ago. But first-year LSU women’s coach Van Chancellor did kind of recall his closest personal brush with the NCAA Final Four Sunday. Well, maybe just a few particulars. Just off the top of his head. His Ole Miss team lost in the regional final. To Texas. The score was 66-63. On Texas’ home court. It denied his team a trip to the 1986 Final Four. Attendance was 14,000. There was 1:19 left on the clock before his Lady Rebels shot their first free throw. The sky was overcast, he wore a red tie, there was a spot of chewing gum stuck behind his bench and ... Continue... |
| 3/30 | Column: Comedy of Misfires Lands LSU In Regional Final |
| | NEW ORLEANS — Ordinarily the way the North Carolina and Louisville women conspired to pass out 52 turnovers in a single basketball game Saturday morning would have been a genuine show-stopper. Turns out they were just the warm-up act for the serious comedy. For one Saturday afternoon, at least, costumed as LSU and Oklahoma State, vaudeville was alive and well and knee-slapping its way through the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. At least, I think it was basketball. That’s what was advertised. That’s what the top of the box score says, right there under LSU 67, Oklahoma State 52. And most everyone managed to keep a straight face during the postgame formalities. Continue... |
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