The 2009 Louisiana Class 4A girls’ basketball championship game was a snapshot into the future of the LSU women’s basketball program. Two blue-chip recruits — St. Michael point guard Jeanne Kenney and Vandebilt Catholic center Theresa Plaisance — dominated the game before St. Michael took its second title in a row with a last-minute shot.And now both Kenney and Plaisance are committed to teaming up as LSU coach Van Chancellor’s 2010 recruiting class. Plaisance committed to LSU in July. Kenney, co-MVP of District 7-4A and a first team All-State selection, vowed to the Lady Tigers on Sept. 15 after visiting for the Vanderbilt football game.”When I came back from the visit, I just had this feeling,” Kenney said. “I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I had to tell him I was going to be a Tiger.”The 5-foot-9-inch point guard narrowed her choices down to LSU, Oklahoma and Florida State, but ultimately the Tigers had everything she wanted in her college.”She was looking for great coaching, a great family atmosphere and where a team will compete and work hard,” said St. Michael coach Tami Reynolds. “She just fell in love with it. She knew she wanted to go to LSU.”Kenney averaged 14.8 points, 6.2 assists, five rebounds and three steals, while excelling in the classroom with a 3.9 GPA her junior season.Reynolds said Kenney, the No. 31 player on ESPN HoopGurlz 100, sets herself apart from other high-school players with her leadership.”She was a leader from day one as a freshman,” Reynolds said. “These kids respect her. Even the seniors listened to her when she was a freshman.”The point guard demands control of her team on the court.”She is one of the best communicators in the country,” said Glenn Nelson, recruiting expert for ESPN HoopGurlz. “You can tell she is playing the game if you just close your eyes and listen.”Nelson said Kenney has a solid chance to claim a starting spot in the future.”The kids we see translate well at the next level do one thing special,” Nelson said. “She does at least a couple of things well. We call it the ‘it’ factor.”The Baton Rouge native has been compared to former LSU and Capitol High School star Seimone Augustus.”[Kenney] is in that category,” Reynolds said. “They are two opposite players. Jeanne is more of a shooter and great passer. Seimone can just turn a game on.”It will take a lot to match the legacy left by Augustus, but Kenney already has her sights set on something Augustus wasn’t able to capture — a national championship.”It’s a tremendous honor to be compared to her,” Kenney said. “My first goal is to get that starting job. My second is to win a championship.”Kenney and Plaisance, the two lone recruits in the 2010 class bring local flavor and a basketball connection of their own to the Lady Tigers. “Van Chancellor has done a great job of recruiting,” Nelson said. “It’s good to get local talent. It forms more of an emotional tie with the fans.”The point guard and center duo have played together for an AAU club team for seven years, and they will get the chance to be the focal point of LSU’s offense in the future.”They work well together,” Nelson said. “An inside player and point guard are the foundation of a team. In three or four years, they will finish each other’s sentences.”Nelson said the two local products give Chancellor a strong pair in 2010. He said the two will probably complete the Lady Tigers’ recruiting class.- – – -Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]