re: LSU Basketball Recruiting Thread: 2024 (And Beyond)

quote:

---

I honestly don't remember anyone being negative on Hunter Dean except an idiot or two in some late season in game threads. On paper he wasn't expected to do much, but everyone who saw him quickly became a fan.

---

There were multiple people (imo most people posting) who mentioned that Dean was terrible and didn’t belong on the court in a P6 conference. People only started warming up to Dean in the middle of the season (maybe the Texas game, but even then people still doubted him) when they finally realized Baker was not very good.

I would know, I was probably the first person to champion for Dean and talk about all he could do and how skilled of a player he was, and was met with constant downvotes. It’s really sad that our question of why baker played so much over Dean was finally answered by Dean being not on scholarship. That’s really sad.

quote:

---

There were times when that was true and times when Baker helped us win.

---

Yes, he helped us win a few games with his interior scoring. He was very good at that when he was on. However, the areas where our team needed him to excel like rebounding he didn’t step up enough. There were numerous games where he was out rebounded by players almost a foot shorter than him.

That being said, (and I think McMahon is partially blame for this) there were numerous games where he outright sold the game. Nicholls comes to mind the quickest. I think it’s really dumb that Dean didn’t play significant minutes for
the sole reason that he wasn’t on scholarship. That’s incredibly dumb.