The Year That Kept On Taking Finally Started Giving

Welcome back to the Korner!!!!

Well, the calendar finally is showing a few blank pages. The 2020-21 athletic calendar has officially ended. So maybe it is time for a few personal observations about what I saw along the way.

First of all, thanks to all the coaches, staff, athletic trainers and those that somehow got us through the 2020-21 calendar. When things got going finally after much debate, discussion and a lot of handwringing, you just held your breath (especially in the fall and early 2021) to see how far this would go. Would seasons finish? Would LSU, or opponents be the problem?

Testing (multiple, multiple) and vaccinations (two shots) became part of our days and all those personnel and medical types should also be complimented for putting up with all of us.

Well, let’s say in many ways the mission of college athletics at LSU was accomplished. There are times it wasn’t always pretty. Games were postponed, some weren’t even played and schedules changed in 36 hours-notice (see basketball’s trip to Missouri that turned into a trip to Ole Miss). 

There was volleyball and soccer that counted in the spring, conference only schedules, a release I wrote on Christmas Eve night announcing a game to be played the day after Christmas in basketball (I kid you not!) and the Nashville-Indianapolis bubble.

Coaching careers ended, players concluded spectacular careers at the school and on the final weekend of the 2020-21 season, the Tigers ended up national champions in men’s track and field.

And, have we mentioned the transfer portal?

But there are a few moments and things I saw that I will remember about this 2020-21 athletic season (in no particular order):

First, no one was excited about a 5-5 season in football, but think about this, there are a lot of players coming back who are better players now and the fact that this team didn’t pack it in at 3-5 and came back to defeat Florida and Ole Miss the final two weeks of the season told me that we will just write that season off and look forward with great anticipation to 2021. There seems to be that vibe again about football that was missing last year and it is a vibe that may be something to keep an eye on.

We may need to keep an eye on the volleyball and soccer programs next year. Playing a fall and counting spring season was very strange and different, but volleyball has a couple of players who were the top two point scorers in the SEC last season and now they both are the LSU team. Soccer, under new coach Sian Hudson, experienced not only COVID but the growing pains of a coaching change. However, there were three wins to close an 8-8-3 season that gives a hint of what might be coming later this year.

I’ll sure miss working with players like Javonte Smart and Trendon Watford and will always remember what they did for the basketball program. I’ll remember Cameron Thomas as well. Will Wade kept using the term “prolific scorer” to describe him before he arrived and he was right. He was also a good person with a work ethic that was hard to top. I have a feeling we will hear his named called fairly early in July’s draft.

You can’t say sports around here without LSU gymnastics and Haleigh Bryant adding her name to the list of NCAA winners in the vault proved to be very special because it was the last under retiring assistant coach Bob Moore. It was the seventh winning NCAA vaulter he coached at LSU.

And, if you haven’t fallen in love with beach volleyball at LSU, you really haven’t tried. An old tennis facility has become the country’s premier beach volleyball on-campus venue and to watch them again battling hard at the national championships year-after-year is pretty special. Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss set a standard for the sport that will be tough to top and I have a feeling the pro tour is not looking forward to having them out on tour in the near future.

I had a chance to go to Scottsdale for the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship and my how the game has changed since I first saw an NCAA championship in person 25 years ago. The players that would go for par 5s in two regularly were few and far between and under par scores were just not that common, especially in the championships.

Now, eagles on par 5s and booming drives and approach shots you are envious of are everywhere. LSU was one shot off making the eight-team match play after 72 holes at this year’s event with a score that was one shot off the best 72-hole score LSU recorded in 2012 when the team finished third. To watch the talent including two-time All-America Ingrid Lindblad who was third in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and has four titles in her first two years at LSU.

Paris Corley’s run in the NCAA women’s tennis championships was great to see, getting to the quarterfinals and earning All-America honors. That’s certainly a strong way to end her career.

I have to tell you I have watched a lot of baseball regionals over the years. I remember the excitement when LSU won over Texas A&M in College Station in 1989. But under the circumstances, I will also remember a lot about the regional in Eugene, even if it did keep me up much later than I wanted to be on several nights. To come back from an opening game loss and get all the way back doesn’t happen every day.

I was at Paul Mainieri’s conference in which he announced his retirement. All of us had to want one more special moment for his Tigers before the curtain came down. Dylan Crews and Gavin Dugas led a great performance that made me very happy for Coach as he concluded his legendary career.

I’m not sure when the last time I grinded a track and field meet on television like I did last Wednesday and Friday, but let me remind you it is track AND FIELD. Three first place wins in the field and speed galore on the track made it a run away for Coach Dennis Shaver and his guys.

It was fascinating to talk with him right in this spot before the SEC Championships and discuss the road that gets you to a national championship meet and then the national championship. It played out just perfectly. Coach Shaver and his staff was one of those caught in the COVID mess that probably cost him national championships and I say that plural in 2020. I hope he can enjoy this moment in his outstanding career.

Oh, by the way, JuVaughn Harrison, we might just be seeing more of you. Olympics anyone?

Look, it’s been a year here. Things haven’t been perfect. There have been issues. But we completed a sports season that had a lot of great moments and the future for athletics looks good. Did I see somewhere that the football opener is 80-something days away and less than that for volleyball and soccer.

 Well, year 33, you were something indeed. Can’t wait to see what my 34th year has in store. Thanks for stopping by the Korner!!!!