Task at hand

It appears the biggest job facing Trent Johnson right now as the LSU men's basketball coach is keeping his recruiting class together.

If you're keeping score this is what you need to know: UCLA is circling around center J'Mison Morgan of Dallas. Houston point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin is planning on reopening his recruitment with LSU in the mix with Texas, A&M, OU, Baylor and others. And forward Dennis Harris of Georgia says he's still coming to LSU.

Now, this may sound crazy, but even if LSU were to lose every player in this class it may be worth it to have Johnson on board.

You have to figure that Johnson will be able to recruit now that he won't be saddled with academic restrictions. And he's proven himself to put consistent winners on the floor in his final years at Nevada and throughout his time at Stanford.

Certainly, LSU wants to keep the recruiting class. But a one-year blip may not be the worst thing that could have happened -- which would have been letting the program slip deeper into mediocrity.