30 Greatest Tigers of the Decade: The List

by Poseur on Feb 12, 2010 10:16 AM CST Comment 6 comments

Over the past month, we have counted down the top 30 31 Tiger athletes from the last decade. First off, thanks to everyone who said nice things about the feature. It was a labor of love, but it was a labor. It was also just one jackass' opinion.

I was going to list all of the honorable mentions, but that would end up slighting those that I forgot to put on the honorable mention list. It never ends, really. But I did leave off some truly great athletes. Brandon Bass was an SEC Player of the Year, for example, and he's not on the list due to his short career . Was I wrong to leave him off? Maybe. I snubbed other basketball greats like Tyrus Thomas and the two Mitchells, Taz and Darrel. I could have easily done a top 30 of just football or baseball and populated it with All-Americans like Craig Steltz, Andrew Whitworth, Herman Johnson or beloved players like LaBrandon Toefield and Matt Mauck. From baseball, I left off stars like Matt Fontenot, Ryan Theriot, Aaron Hill, and Jon Zeringue. Not to mention last year's studs like Matty Ott, Anthony Ranaudo, and Ryan Schimpf.

Then there are all of the "minor" sports stars I'm leaving off like Kelly Baptiste (2008 SEC Runner of the Year), Ken Skupski (2006 indoor tennis champ), Leslie Klein (three-time softball All-American), or Nicki Arnstad (2002 floor champ).

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of talent to pass through LSU over the aughts was staggering. And it paid off in wins and titles. Football, of course, won two national titles and three SEC titles. Baseball went to Omaha five times and won two national titles. Softball almost kept up the pace, making the WCWS three times. Women's basketball never won the title, but they went to the Final Four five straight years, and the men's team got in the act, making it once and winning two SEC titles.

Track had another successful decade. The men's team netted three team national titles and 28 individual national titles, while the women's team earned six team national titles and 11 individual titles. And before some A&M fan brings up Pat Henry leaving, the women's team won the 2008 indoor title. The program's doing okay. Gymnastics is a regular in the Super Six. Volleyball just won the SEC title and the tennis and soccer teams are tournament regulars.

This truly is the Golden Age of LSU Athletics. Enjoy it, folks. After the jump, the entire Top 30 (with links!). Use the comments to tell me where I screwed up.

1. Glenn Dorsey, football

2. Seimone Augustus, basketball

3. Louis Coleman, baseball

4. Britni Sneed, softball

5. Josh Reed, football

6. Glen Davis, basketball

7. Corey Webster, football

8. April Burkholder, gymnastics

9. Richard Thompson, track

10. JaMarcus Russell, football

11. LaRon Landry, football

12. Lolo Jones, track

13. Sylvia Fowles, basketball

14. Michael Clayton, football

15. Blake Dean, baseball

16. Kristin Schmidt, softball

17. Xavier Carter, track

18. Jacob Hester, football

19. Lane Mestepey, baseball

20. Marcus Spears, football

21. Bradie James, football

22. Brad Cresse, baseball

23. Susan Jackson, gymnastics

24. Stromile Swift, basketball

25. Megan Falcon, tennis

26. Chad Lavalais, football

27. Marcus Thornton, basketball

28. Temeka Johnson, basketball

29. Brittnee Cooper, volleyball

30. Ben Wilkerson, football

31. Wally Pontiff, guardian angel

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Comments

I don't know if someone has made this comment yet, but I will anyway

First, this is a great list. I enjoyed the hell out of this series.

But I will say the list is affected by the somewhat arbitrary definition of “decade.” Matty Ott isn’t on the list; but in two years if you did a list of “30 greatest tigers from 2002-2012” he would be. Same for players from say the 1998-2002 period (Torris Bright set a surprising number of LSU records).

As to actual substantive comments? I’d have put Bass ahead of Stromile, but that’s about it. Kudos to you for including lots of football linemen (Wilkerson, Dorsey, Lavalais, Spears). The game is won and lost in the trenches. I read that the ratio of quarterbacks to offensive linemen in the pro hall of fame is like 2:1 even though there are 5 times as many linemen as quarterbacks on the field. I approve of giving the big dudes their due.

by 4.0 Point Stance on Feb 12, 2010 10:46 AM CST reply actions

Decade endpoints

It also hurt Cresse, who likely would be higher if we looked at his whole career. Yeah, some people fall through the cracks by arbitrary endpoints.

And you know how we love the linemen at ATVS. Our titles were built in the trenches.

Fake Pundit. Real Fan.
http://www.andthevalleyshook.com

by Poseur on Feb 12, 2010 11:14 AM CST up reply actions

I don't mean this as a"zomg I can't believe you left off so and so and therefore your list is invalid" ...

But Ronald Dupree is pretty underrated by LSU fans.

From wiki:

During his sophomore season he led the SEC in scoring at 17.3 points per game and was second in rebounding with 8.8 per game. In each of his last three years he ranked second in the SEC in rebounding with averages of 8.8 (2000-2001), 8.5 (2001-2002), and 8.3 (2002-2003) RPG. He also never finished lower than seventh in the league in scoring in his final three seasons. He finished his LSU career as the school’s eighth most prolific scorer and sixth best rebounder.

He’s a good guy too … he was in several of my Electrical Engineering classes. Playing in Germany now.

Thorougly enjoyed the list … I admittedly don’t keep up with the non-revenue sports so it was great learning about some of the less well-known stars. Also a good trip down memory lane for some of the guys that played earlier in the decade (when I was at LSU).

by amiznit on Feb 12, 2010 12:57 PM CST reply actions

I seem to remember that one year he led the SEC in both scoring and rebounds

And did not make first team All-SEC. How is that even possible? Plus I have a lot of respect for someone who can make it through a tough major like EE while playing a demanding sport like basketball.

by 4.0 Point Stance on Feb 13, 2010 6:34 AM CST up reply actions

Poseur

You just made it to the top of my all time favorite Tiger Fans. (Second only to the guy that handed me his flask full of burbon and let me touch his girlfriend’s ‘girlfriends’ when I was 12)

Fantastic list and great work!

GEAUX TIGERS!!!

by SouthernMan on Feb 12, 2010 6:12 PM CST reply actions