LSU Tigers

After a meeting with head basketball coach Tubby Smith, Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi told the St. Paul Pioneer Press Friday that he expected Smith to return.

"There have been rumors every year; not certain what ones are true," Maturi told the Pioneer Press in a text message. "I have stated often that I hope and expect Tubby to finish his career here."

Maturi said he spoke to Smith Friday, but did not divulge details of the conversation, the Pioneer Press reported.

Various reports Friday said LSU athletic director Joe Alleva spoke with Smith about the job, presumably Thursday when both me were in the Norfolk, Va. area where the Portsmouth Invitational is ongoing. LSU also interviewed North Texas coach Johnny Jones about the job Tuesday.

This kind of story is nothing new for folks in Minnesota in the Smith era. The former Kentucky, Ge0rgia and Tulsa coach has been a strong candidate for various jobs during his five-year run at Minnesota.

There have been flirtations in recent years with Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, Auburn, and Oregon. That trend continued this season when he was a candidate for both the South Carolina job that eventually went to Kansas State's Frank Martin and at Tulsa, where Smith held his first head coach job. That job eventually went to Kansas assistant coach Danny Manning.

Smith, 60, has been pushing for a contract extension from Minnesota, a request complicated by the pending retirement of Maturi in June. Minnesota wants to wait until Maturi's replacement is identified before dealing with Smith's contract. Smith has also been unhappy with his program's lack of a practice facility. LSU has a new facility that cost just under $14 million to build.

LSU might hesitate based on Smith's advanced age - he'll be 61 by the time the fall semester begins - and recent issues in the Minnesota program. While his 491-209 career record with a national championship in 1998 with Kentucky are impressive, his Gophers teams have missed the NCAA tournament the last two seasons and his teams have gone 12-24 in Big 10 play.

He has also had six players transfer out of his program in the last two years.

Clarence Ceasar couldn't believe what he was hearing Wednesday.

"They've already had outsiders - John Brady and Trent Johnson," he said. "They don't need to be bring Jamie Dixon in here."

Frustration was in the voice of Ceasar, an LSU basketball star from the early 1990s who was a teammate of Shaquille O'Neal. He had just read reports that surfaced Wednesday that Dixon, the Pittsburgh head coach, was being interviewed for the LSU head basketball coach opening (reports that were later refuted).

Ceasar, once a streak-shooting, defensive-minded 6-foot-7 forward and now a high school coach at Washington-Marion High in Lake Charles, La, thought it was nonsense.

"They need to bring Johnny Jones over there if they care about LSU basketball," he said. "They should have done it four years ago."

Ceasar was reacting to the news of a strange day in what has been a strange search. Before it was over, he'd have reason to be less frustrated.

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Todd McShay breaks down the various scenarios for all 32 first-round picks, including LSU's Morris Claiborne and Michael Brockers, projected at No. 5 and No. 25, respectively. Some teams (Colts, Redskins, Bucs) have clear options, while numerous needs and possible trades present a slew of possibilities for others (Browns, Jags, Patriots, Chiefs, Jets, Chargers).

BATON ROUGE -- On Tuesday, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Memphis coach Josh Pastner had not contacted LSU about its men's basketball coaching vacancy.

The story refuted an earlier report that Pastner had reached out to LSU to inquire about the opening. But what Pastner never said was that he wasn't interested.

It would be unwise to put words in the third-year coach's mouth, but it takes a certain level of employment to simply shrug off the thought of coaching in Baton Rouge.

Admittedly, LSU's basketball program has been dormant for much of the last 20 years, with a few exceptions in the form of a conference title and Sweet 16 appearance in 2000, a 2006 Final Four run and an unlooked-for 2009 SEC championship. But Pastner, and any other coach linked to the vacancy, has to be aware of the elements in place at a school like LSU.

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BATON ROUGE -- Whoever winds up taking over the vacant men's basketball position at LSU can at least thank Trent Johnson for one thing: a full allotment of scholarships.

One of the well-documented struggles of Johnson's tenure with the Tigers was the one with the Academic Progress Rate, or APR. The NCAA calculates APR based on athletes' academic eligibility and retention during a four-year period. Each student-athlete in each sport is capable of earning up to two points per semester, for a maximum point total of 1,000 per sport.

The NCAA lists a cutoff point, currently at 930 after being bumped up from 925, that sports must meet to avoid penalties. That magical number is something the Tigers struggled to meet during Johnson's tenure.

"They use a four-year average. So when Trent came, in particular the year he took over, I think we were down in the 800's," said Miriam Segar, LSU associate athletic director. "Since then he's been able to get the number obviously higher through retention of his athletes. A lot of them graduated, and he really made a concerted effort to get the rates higher."

The departure of players from the program certainly hurt Johnson has his tenure continued. The program's APR score dropped from a 942 in 2008 -- the year he was hired -- to a 918 in his first season on the job. The primary reason was a single-year score of 827 in 2009, which killed the team's four year average. The severe dip below the cut off point eventually cost the Tigers a scholarship for the 2010-11 season.

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BATON ROUGE -- When you take two of three from the nation's No. 1 team, it's bound to catch some attention.

That's exactly what happened in this week's ESPN baseball power rankings, which you can see here.

LSU was bound to raise some eyebrows after the Tigers (25-7, 8-4) finished off a weeklong stretch that saw them take two of three games from the highly touted Gators. Prior to that, LSU swept Arkansas -- currently No. 16 in the power rankings.

Everything seems to be clicking for the Tigers as they gear up for the back half of the season. With all the attention the team is catching, it will be interesting to see how LSU handles a busy week, which starts Tuesday night. If the Tigers are going to make a push for the SEC crown, they have to handle business against the likes of last-place Alabama, which comes to Alex Box Stadium this weekend.

Why haven't we heard much scuttlebutt in the LSU coaching search about Scott Drew, the son of former LSU assistant coach Homer Drew?

This could be one very good reason.

LSU athletic director Joe Alleva is not going to want anything to do with NCAA violation baggage. LSU's been there recently with football and you better believe Alleva is in no hurry to go through it again.

Most people were already thinking Drew would not leave what is generally perceived is a better job at Baylor, which has made two Elite 8 appearances in three years. This might be a better reason why it's not very likely to happen.