LSU Board changes ‘Dale Brown Court’ to honor Sue Gunter

BY ADAM BURRUSS @AdamDBurruss

LSU’s Board of Supervisors voted Friday morning in favor of amending LSU’s basketball court to the Dale Brown-Sue Gunter Court to honor former LSU women’s basketball coach Sue Gunter.

The academic committee voted 6-2 for approval and the full board passed it with one objection.

The board renamed the Pete Maravich Assembly Center court after the winningest basketball coach in LSU history, Dale Brown, in September 2021 on a 12-3 vote.

Gunter coached the Tigers from 1982 to 2004, as she amassed 448 wins, eight Sweet Sixteen appearances, four Elite Eights, and one Final Four. At the time of her death in 2005, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer left LSU as the third all-time winningest women’s basketball coach in NCAA history.

Some controversy emerged around the decision, as prominent sportscaster and former basketball head coach Dick Vitale voiced his criticism about the potential naming.

“How absurd-in Louisiana the Governor wants to change the name of the LSU basketball court that was named Dale Brown Court in a dedication ceremony about a year ago,” Vitale said. “Dale deserved the honor and it was finally affirmed.”

One of LSU’s Board of Supervisor members, Jay Blossman also levied criticisms against the process of the vote. He voiced displeasure that the Board had not been told about Sue Gunther’s nomination prior to her March 17 nomination.

Another board member, James M. Williams, also voiced displeasure with the notion that the Board had some level of outside pressure to make this decision and did not make this decision of their own accord.

“I think it is insulting to this board and insulting to our governor that anyone could be told what to do,” Williams said. “However this vote turns out, it’s a very unfair characterization of what we are trying to do.”

SHOWDOWN, from page 11 season.

“Overall, I thought it was a very good meet,” Clark said. “We stayed aggressive and stayed true to our message. We’ll continue to keep climbing and keep getting better.”

The team has improved upon their weaknesses meet by meet, but consistency seems to be a persisting problem. Pressure seemed to get the best of the LSU gymnasts when they endured a shaky start on bars, recording one of their lowest scores on the event this season.

Alexis Jeffrey led the lineup with an uncharacteristic 9.675 on bars, massively underscoring her average on the event. Freshman Ashley Cowan followed with a 9.775 in her collegiate debut. Sophomores Tori Tatum and Aleah Finnegan added a 9.850 and a 9.875 respectively in the next two spots in the lineup. In her usual fashion, Haleigh Bryant anchored the event with a strong 9.950 to match her career-high on bars.

Besides Finnegan’s perfect vault, LSU’s performance on the second rotation was less than their usual, to say the least.

Junior Elena Arenas started the event with a 9.800. Alyona Shchennikova followed with a season-high 9.925 while KJ Johnson recorded her lowest vault score this season at 9.725. In the anchor spot, Bryant finished with a 9.900.

Meanwhile, Auburn was accumulating a hefty score on bars. Lee wasn’t planning on letting Finnegan’s 10 be the only perfect score of the night. The Olympic champion finished in her usual fashion, earning a perfect score in the event for the second straight week. The team wrapped up the rotation with a 49.500 to give them the lead.

The purple and gold put up a worthy fight on floor. Sierra Ballard scored a 9.825 in the leadoff spot. Shchennikova matched her career high 9.925 while KJ Johnson recorded a 9.875. Scoring a 9.975, Finnegan took the co-title on the event alongside Lee and Auburn’s floor anchor Derrian Gobourne.

The floor score was enough to keep the two teams neckand-neck until the last rotation. Moving onto beam, Arenas led with a 9.750 before Shchennikova posted a 9.850, matching her season high. Kai Rivers turned the tide with an electric 9.900 to record a season high on the event. Bryant followed with a 9.900. Determined to finish the night on a high note, Finnegan anchored the event to match her career-high 9.950 and take the co-title with Lee.

Despite recording their highest score on beam this season, it still wasn’t enough to take down Auburn.

LSU’s latest performance may have ended with a loss but the Tigers proved that they’re on a track towards improvement. Auburn could only overcome the purple and gold by scoring their highest score this season.

Nearly every LSU gymnast has found massive success at one point this season. Moving forward, the Tigers just need to learn how to harness their talent and skills altogether.

Pressure will rise when the purple and gold return to the PMAC for their next meet on Friday as they host No. 2 Florida. The meet will be streamed on ESPN2 at 8 p.m.

LOSS, from page 11 game of the season, it just wasn’t enough. Each time the Tigers got the game within single digits, the Aggies responded on the other end.

Eventually, LSU ran out of time.

A solid second-half performance, one of its best halves of the season, was overshadowed by the fact that it couldn’t get the job done because of how south it let the game go early on.

The Tigers outscored the Aggies 45-33 in the second half but at the end of the day, it’s still just a moral victory. When asked what the difference was between the two halves, both McMahon and his players highlighted effort and energy as key reasons why the team struggled in the first half.

“We didn’t play 40 minutes, we played 20 minutes,” Miller stated. “If we would have played 40 minutes, we probably would have been more tired than this. It is kind of like a cycle that we have to break.”

LSU now has six more chances to end its now 12-game losing streak before the conclusion of the season. Its next chance comes on the road against Georgia, a winnable matchup against a team that has lost six of its last eight games.

NBA, from page 11

From the beginning of his LSU career, Cam Thomas had high expectations, coming in as a five-star prospect and one of the best shooting guards in the country according to 247sports. And after scoring 27 points on decent efficiency in his debut, the hype surrounding the guard would only continue to grow.

He attributed his season-high just six games later in a considerable 32-point outing against Texas A&M and ultimately finished the season as the fourth highest scorer in the country with 23 points per game.

His success in his lone season with the Tigers led to him being drafted late in the first round by the Nets in 2021. And though he was drafted to a super team featuring Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving on its roster, he did everything he could to get noticed.

He was named Co-MVP of the 2021 Summer League, averaging 27 points per game on 42.3% shooting from the field and 36.3% from behind the arc. His minutes were inconsistent through the first couple weeks of the regular season, but each time one of the team’s stars missed time, he took advantage of the opportunity.

In February of 2022, James Harden got traded to Philadelphia and Kevin Durant missed time with injury, which allowed Thomas to briefly show what he could do with starter-caliber minutes. In the eight-game span following Harden’s trade, Thomas averaged over 21 points per game on incredible shooting splits.

Though his minutes dropped once Durant returned, he rarely missed a chance to prove himself.

In the 2022-23 season, when eight starters including Irving and Durant were ruled out in a matchup against the Pacers back in December, Thomas not only led the team in scoring, but he also guided the team to an unexpected victory. Twenty-one of his then career-high 33 points came in the fourth quarter, and being that the Nets only won by three, every single one of those points was necessary.

That career-high would get trumped just a few months later, as he again guided the Nets to victory with a 44-point showing against the Wizards. One game later, it was surpassed again.

Now, as a 21-year-old in his second year in the NBA, Thomas is a prominent starter with unlimited potential on the offensive end.

Naz Reid

Reid currently ranks as the program’s seventh best all-time recruits according to 247sports, entering the 2018-19 season as the fourth best power forward in the country.

Like Thomas, he showed what he could do very early on in the season, putting up 29 points with a field-goal percentage of 78.6% in just his second game against UNC Greensboro. He still wouldn’t come close to Thomas’s scoring average, but through conference play, he was consistently dependable, putting up more than 10 points in 12 of the team’s 17 SEC matchups he was featured in.

Reid finished the season as LSU’s top rebounder and secondleading scorer, scoring 13.6 points and grabbing 7.2 rebounds per game. He headlined the best team of the Will Wade era, a team which won the SEC regular-season title and made it to the Sweet Sixteen in March Madness.

He’d declare for the NBA Draft following the season, going undrafted before signing a two-way contract with the Timberwolves. After spending some time playing with their G League affiliate, Reid made his NBA debut in December, and when Minnesota became shorthanded in late December, he’d experience his first uptick in playing time.

He put up 13 points on lessthan-stellar efficiency and maintained his heightened role until Karl Anthony Towns returned, consistently scoring in double figures and having success on the boards, despite standing at 6-foot-8. Towns went down again in February and as an undrafted rookie, Reid would make his first career start against the Celtics, attributing 19 points and nine rebounds on decent shooting splits from all points of the floor.

Since then, he’s maintained a solid role with the Timberwolves, even with the team acquiring Rudy Gobert in July 2022. While his numbers aren’t improving considerably, that’s more due to the team’s depth at big man rather than lack of improvement. Whenever he has received considerable playing time this season, he’s shown he’s capable of taking on a bigger role, evident by 28 and 27-point performances against Oklahoma City and Dallas back in December.

Tari Eason

Heading into the 2021-22 season, Cincinnati transfer Tari Eason was expected to be impactful, but mostly on defense. He averaged just over seven points per game with the Bearcats and didn’t have much of a three-point shot.

But through the first few games, that outlook started to change. Even when the schedule started to become more difficult, Eason consistently led the Tigers in scoring and played a large role in their undefeated start, especially in their win over then No. 18 Tennes- see, where he put up 24 points on 56.3% shooting from the field.

The team would ultimately get bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but Eason had done more than enough to garner attention from the league. His stats were considerable, as he attributed 16.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 52% from the field and 36% from three, and that proficiency led to him being drafted midway through the first round of the NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets.

Like Cam Thomas, Eason balled out during Summer League, averaging 17.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals through four games and making the All- Summer League First Team. And while his regular seasons don’t jump off the page, they do show a lot of potential.

On an average of just under 17 minutes, Eason is averaging 8.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game on 44.2% shooting from the field and 35.2% from three. While his scoring hasn’t progressed much throughout the season, he’s already seen rises in his rebounding and shooting percentages, as he’s gone from averaging 4.8 rebounds and shooting 41.8% from the field in November to 6.1 rebounds and 46.3% in January.

His playing time has consistently shifted throughout the season, but he’s had ample opportunity to show what he can do and has flourished, progressing by the month. His best stint of games came just a few weeks ago, when the rookie attributed three straight double doubles, capped off with a 20-point and 13-rebound performance against Oklahoma State to kick off February.