It’s easy to forget now, but it’s only been a dozen years since LSU basketball was nationally relevant. In 2006, a team led by Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Tyrus Thomas went all the way to the Final Four.
Since then, LSU has made the NCAA Tournament twice and hasn’t gotten out of the first weekend either time. After John Brady got fired midway through a 13-18 season — just two years removed from the Final Four — LSU hired what looked like a coup in then-Stanford coach Trent Johnson; Johnson won 67 games in four years.