Only a few days after committing to the Baylor Bears basketball team, it seems like LSU's future is as bleak as ever. The reports seem to indicate that he had interest in LSU, but that interest wasn't mutual, or mutual enough for his liking. In a clearly football oriented state that produces many great athletes for the gridiron, Louisiana is on the other end of the spectrum for basketball.

Every couple of years, historically, it seems like there is a can't miss recruit. Recently, however, LSU has been missing them. It started perhaps in 2007 with LaceDarius Dunn going to Baylor as the best recruit from Louisiana. 2008 had Greg Monroe head up to Washington DC to play for Georgetown. The next few years, LSU was able to get the top talent, but it wasn't enough. Matt Derenbecker went to Dayton after his freshman year, while Eddie Ludwig and John Isaac have been role players for their careers.

The correlation seems to be that in the years LSU is at their worst, their talent from Louisiana also happens to be the worst. I think it's a fair opinion to have, but I don't think that tells the whole story. In other words, I don't think it's quite that simple.

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For the fifth time this season, the LSU Tigers fall on the road, this time to the Vanderbilt Commodores. For the second straight road game, however, in a loss I was pleased with the Tigers efforts. Despite the fact that it was a 15 point final, it was much closer for most of the game. The Tigers went into the locker room with a tie at halftime, and for much of the second half it was only a 2 score deficit.

John Jenkins and Jeffrey Taylor, as mentioned in the gamethread, made the difference. It's not a surprise to anyone that the best players on the Vanderbilt team made the plays they needed to down the stretch. In a somewhat shocking occurrence, Jenkins actually missed 2 free throws, the same amount as he missed in the previous eight SEC games. However, it was only a minor victory as he buried two dagger three pointers with time winding down in the second half.

Festus Ezeli was probably the MVP for the game, as he was unstoppable in the second half for a long stretch. Whether he was getting fouled or getting a dunk, all Vanderbilt had to do was throw it his way and they were coming away with points or a chance for points. If not for his poor free throw shooting, it might have been a much worse game.

The story for LSU was both a few breakdowns on defense during key stretches, as well as extremely poor 3 point shooting. The Tigers finished with a dismal 3-21 night from 3. Hickey and Stringer combined to go 2-16 from 3 themselves, while Hickey was the only player to make those shots. There were also defensive lapses by both the guards and the forwards as both Taylor and Jenkins hit back to back 3's each at different time to add cushion to the Vanderbilt leads.

All is not lost for the Tigers. Alabama is still coming to Baton Rouge on Saturday, and I don't think I need to point out the importance of that game. Whether it helps us get to the NCAA's, NIT, or simply to eliminate bad memories, it's an absolutely key game.

Now halfway through the SEC regular season, the LSU Tigers sit in a tie for 8th place with the Tennessee Volunteers at 3-5. So far, the road has been very unkind to the Tigers in SEC play, as they are yet to win a game. Despite the fact that Vanderbilt has been relatively disappointing this season, it still seems unlikely that LSU will be able to win in Nashville.

The Tigers did pick up a much needed win over SEC West rival Arkansas on Saturday, but with the news that Ricardo Gathers decided to take his talents to Waco, SEC fans will need another win to keep calm. Vanderbilt comes into tonight's 8:00 CT tip off with a stable 16-7 (5-3) record, but with the high off-season expectations, the 'Dores have underachieved so far.

At the beginning of the year, the story/reason/excuse was that Vanderbilt was missing center Festus Ezeli, a starter from last year and an anchor down low. With the ambitious schedule, losses were bound to happen, especially with so many good teams on the schedule.

The early season was a mix of good, bad, wtf?, and meh... losses. Cleveland State, while a decent team themselves, shouldn't have been able to pick up a win on Vanderbilt's home court. Louisville and Xavier were both overtime losses, and hot teams at the time of those games, but you would have expected a senior-laden Vanderbilt team to win at least one of the games. Indiana State is similar to Cleveland State, an OK team, but not a team you expect to see beat the 'Dores.

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Boutte is a 6'5, 305-pound OL commit from New Iberia, LA. His highlight tape is rather comical, if for no other reason, he towers over his own teammates. It appears as if he's not fully getting into his stance, but he's just that large compared to them. Also, I'm unsure of whether or not he's related to former LSU DT Marc Boutte.

Shortly after committing, Barton Simmons tweeted:

Josh Boutte commits to LSU. I was just watching his film today. Really impressed. He'll be highly rated when we updated our rankings this wk.

That's a nice piece of praise from a national recruiting analyst.

There's typically two types of OL who excel at the next two levels: mean, nasty maulers and pure technicians. Obviously, some combo of both is what makes the elite guys like Jake Long, etc.

The first thing that sticks out to me on Boutte's tape is that he is one bad sumbitch and he wants you to know it. I LOVE OL who continue their blocks until their guy is on the ground. To me, that shows the tenacity and toughness required to be a superb linemen. I watch the tape of Vadal Alexander in awe, because he enjoys punishing his targets. In Boutte, I see the same. At 6'5, 305, he's got a nice frame without all the excess chubbiness. Obviously, almost every OL's body needs to be re-worked when they get to the next level, but Boutte seems to have a nice, naturally thick build without being tubby.

Beyond Boutte's aggressiveness, the way he fires out of his stance stands out to me. As a former (and terrible) OL, one thing our coach constantly reiterated was exploding out of your stance. Our center in HS was about 160 pounds, but I saw him absolutely melt guys weighing 270-280 pounds because he was not only tough, he fired out of his stance and got leverage. Those are two of the most important aspects in line play.

From the tape, Boutte will still need to work on coming out of his stance too high (a common problem for taller linemen), but that's a technical issue the coaches can work through.

The other noticeable point is that he really moves well. He pulls a good deal, and he looks really natural getting out in front of the play, locating his target and engaging them. Boutte moves well, and he doesn't labor.

Overall, I'm really impressed. Boutte is probably the top lineman in the state, and while he may not be quite to the level of a prospect of La'El Collins stature, he's only a step behind IMO. He likely projects to guard, but I could see him playing at RT, or even C in a pinch.

Here's a good, free read on Boutte and his commitment.

Coaches Miles and Cooper traveled with Mo Claiborne to Oklahoma last night to accept the Thorpe award. The award was presented by last year's winner, Patrick Peterson. LSU joins Texas as the only schools with back-to-back Thorpe winners and no school has won 3 in a row...yet. The Oklahoman took a few minutes to catch up with Coach Miles, who hadn't been back to the state in some time.

Four former Tigers won some new hardware at the Super Bowl last weekend: Corey Webster, Michael Clayton, Chad Jones, and Ryan Perrilloux. Perrilloux had been cut once again late last week, but was part of the team in the championship celebration this week. Chad Jones is the only player in the history of sport to have a BCS, CWS, and Super Bowl championship to his name.

When LSU missed out on Ricardo Gathers, the best talent in LA's 2012 basketball class, we were disappointed, but it was kind of expected. Given what's happened to LSU the last few seasons, it's a hard sell to even the home state's best players. However, Gathers' comments to The Advocate are extremely frustrating to hear. Gathers specifically re-opened his recruitment to give LSU a second chance, but afterward he felt LSU wasted his time

"I just felt like coach (Trent) Johnson didn't put forth a great enough effort to get me," Gathers said. "He kind of sent most of the assistant coaches on me like Brent Scott. I had to realize I wasn't going to be playing for Brent Scott; I was going to be playing for coach Johnson. The simple fact I had only seen coach Johnson at one of my games, and that was the Scotlandville game this year. That doesn't even really count because that was in Baton Rouge. Other than that, I haven't seen him."

I'm stunned. The idea that Gathers, the state's best talent, specifically decommited from a Big East program to give LSU a chance and Coach Johnson did not give enough effort with a second chance is inexcusable.

Our Vandy Bros at Anchor of Gold preview tonight's matchup by saying we don't suck this year. High praise indeed.

Ponamsky at BBI sat down with Coach Miles to review the incoming class.

Baseball scrimmages continue and the pitching staff is looking very good this year. 9 days until first pitch.

Softball is starting up very soon as well (LSU opens against Penn St. this Friday night) and the SEC Network has a nice preview of our new coach Beth Torina.

Lou Tepper has resurfaced as the new DC at Buffalo...University

Ole Miss, having replaced their FB coach is also in the process of replacing their soon-to-be-retired AD. The leading candidate appears to be Sean Tuohy. Yes, that guy from The Blind Side who was played by Tim McGraw.

The Big East is set to invite Memphis to join it's ranks this afternoon. Some of those who care about Big East football are...less than pleased.

All of a sudden the B1G wants a playoff too. If it'll keep Delaney distracted from trying to mess with baseball, I'm all for it.