Link Gumbo 2/1/10

Remember those contract extensions/raises? The Board approved them last Friday. "Where will they get the money to pay for them?" You ask. Through increased ticket prices. They tried to soften the blow by dropping the price on near worthless non-BCS game tickets from $45 to $40, but starting this year one SEC game will arbitrarily be designated a "premium game" and the price jumps from $50 to $70. This years designee is the Bama game on Nov. 6. For all the talk in the last year of trying to stem the tide of no shows at the cupcake games, lowering the price might be a good move. The $20 random gut-punch will hurt though (any early guesses for the 2011 schedule? early money is on Florida)

Speaking of coaches with pay raises, The Chief was on Tenn. sports radio last week to talk about Dooley taking over at his Alma Mater. The important quote from the interview:

"Georgia is a great situation, a great job, with a mighty fine head coach,'' Chavis said. "That would have been a good fit. But I haven't done what I came to LSU to do, and I feel a loyalty to this program and our head coach. He hired me when I didn't have a job.''

As mentioned below, yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the record that will never be broken. LSUSports.net has a special essay by Dan Borné, who was covering the game for WAFB at the time. It includes a few old interviews Borné taped with Pete and his father/coach Press Maravich after the game.

Rudy Macklin's jersey will be retired next Saturday during the home game against Kentucky.

Hotard at the Advoc had a great piece yesterday on potential signee Trovon Reed from Thibodaux, who lost his mother to cancer in the March before his senior season.

I've avoided it long enough, the men lost again in Starkvegas on Saturday, 67-51. Taz had 26, Spencer had 9, and that's pretty much it. The one bright spot, if you could call it that, was the play of Daron Populist who went from almost no playing time to 22 minutes worth. If nothing else at least our bad half was in the beginning this time. LSU had only 15 points at halftime.

The Lady Tigers managed to get off the skid and blow away Bama on the road, 78-41. Hightower had a career 6 3-pointers and 29 points. Bama isn't exactly the class of the conference, they haven't beaten LSU since '02.

Baseball was forced indoors because of rain Friday and spent practice in the cages. Rosetta at the Advoc has a nice bit on Blake Dean's transition from outfield/DH to 1st base.

Let's blow through the rest of the spring sports in action: Both tennis teams lost their tourneys, Swimming and Diving won their final matches and head to NCAA postseason. Indoor T&F now has 6 potential (2 guaranteed) qualifiers for NCAA postseason after only 2 meets. Gym lost their meet at Florida, but Susan Jackson won the all-around and will remain the nation's top gymnast for another week.