[Men's Hoops] Champion Baptist at Lamar - 7:00 pm Monday, December 15

from lamarcardinals.com

LU OFFERS FREE ADMISSION WITH NEW TOY DONATION

 

The Lamar men's basketball team will be playing its first game in the Montagne Center in a month Monday night when it faces Champion Baptist, and the Cardinals are trying to make that game count for more than just the record. Obviously, winning is the sought-after goal in any competition, but this week Lamar would also like to brighten the holidays for local area children.

 

Free admission in exchange for new toy donation for Friday's Milligan College game also.

 

Read more here: http://www.lamarcardinals.com/genrel/121414aaa.html

15:36 left. LU leads 87-33. Really.

Final 128-54 LU. Champion Baptist: the Texas College of hoops. :)

I'm guessing this was more of a glorified scrimmage than a real game.

I wouldn't even call it a scrimmage. Lamar did what it should have done for the most part. LU beat a team that was much smaller and overall much less talented soundly, but it wasn't really that great. I was disappointed with Lamar's half court defense. While Coach Price was pleased overall, the fact Champion scored as many points as they did is disappointing. I believe they had a total of maybe three players that were really over six feet tall and yet early in the game they were able to get several open looks.

They lost a game last year by 104 points!

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champion_Baptist_College

Although I would have liked to seen better defense and less turnovers and fouls by LU, the most disappointing thing was the attendance. Do to other conflicts work and travel I only made it to the first Ladies game but I think there were more fans at the ladies first home game than there were tonight.

Official attendance was 1,673. I guess there were a bunch of no-shows. Attendance for the first women's home game was 894.

 

Official attendance for the men's first home game last month (11/16) against LSU-Alexandria was 3,313. That would be acceptable, particularly if there were few no-shows. We have Milligan College, an NAIA team, on Friday and then Rice on the 22nd. It would be nice to have a good crowd for those games; especially against Rice.

 

Milligan played East Tennessee State (77-94) early in the season. ETSU is currently 5-2 with four Division I wins. Looks like Milligan will provide a little more competition than Champion Baptist. They are 10-4 overall. The Buffalos play ULL a couple of days before they play us. Hopefully the Ragin' Cajuns will soften them up for us.

 

Rice may be a good weather vane game for upcoming conference play. They lost to HBU by 3 points at Tudor Fieldhouse the first part of this month. The Huskies are 4-3. Their one Division I win was against Rice. Rice has been on the short end of several very close games so far this season. Their one DI win was a 4 point victory against a 1-9 Prairie View A&M team. Prairie View's record may be a little misleading since they have been up against some really good Division I competition the whole season.

I don't see how anyone can expect a good turnout for a game like this, especially after Pat Knight ran the program into the ground the last couple of years.

I was disappointed, not surprised.

Hopefully attendance will pick up once we get into conference play. I can't really get into these games either and I love the game.

ive been unable to get fired up this year.not being able to make the tourney is the main reason.didnt renew my season tickets for the first time since ive bought them(10 years).tic's got to win me back and I aint seeing it happen this year.the loses to utpa and southern tell me we aren't getting the players I had hoped for.ive been an ardent cardinal fan my whole life but unitl we get the program back to respectablility im gonna be a so/so supporter.

Hate to hear that lu cards. While I agree Southern is a SWAC team, they were their rep to the NCAA Tourney last year and I remember some pretty good TS teams coming to Beaumont several years back. UTPA is a member of the WAC which until they lost their FBS status most of the football fans on this board would have been happy to move to. There are four schools in that conference that Lamar has lost to in the last few years including UTPA so I am not as positive as you are that considering when he was able to start recruiting that Tic didn't get the caliber of players Lamar needs. Look at the roster again and tell me there isn't an improvement (I know PK's recruiting was terrible). One thing positive is out of seven or eight players brought in for this season only one of them is under 6' 2". That in itself bodes better for the future. Mattingly was out with an apparent injury last night but of the players that started last night only two played last year so this team deserves support if you want the program to get better. What recruit wants to come play in a 9000 seat arena with less than a 1000 actual attendance. I was at the Ladies opener and last nights game and you would have a hard time convincing me there were anywhere near double of the ladies first game.

I know a lot of people who watch the games online. I do, because I live in Houston.

The attendence will pick up once Lamar starts winning consistantly. We KNOW this to be true. Tic has got to get his team going and maybe an easy win will be just what the doctor ordered. The game against Pan-Am was pretty good and a good test of where the team is. I am still withholding judgement on the team but I look forward to seeing some games after the first of the year.

People bitch because we play Indiana and Iowa State, and now you bitch because we play Champion Baptist and Milligan College? You get what you are dealt. Most of the games were booked by Knight. Secondly, you find who will come to Beaumont. You will not get teams like Houston, ULL, La Tech, UTSA, etc to come to Beaumont. My guess is that TP was in a bind and scheduled who we could get. I am also guessing that LU had to promise to go to Rice 2-3 years in a row to get them to come to Beaumont this year.

 

Team needs a win or two to gain some confidence going into conference. Hopefully they can build a little winning streak going into the conference opener against UNO on Jan. 5th.

I don't see how anyone can expect a good turnout for a game like this, especially after Pat Knight ran the program into the ground the last couple of years.

 

I totally agree. you run the program into the ground and then you hire a coach with a ton of baggage, you get stomped by texas southern, and then you schedule champion Baptist and you expect attendance to be good? Really? lol

People bitch because we play Indiana and Iowa State, and now you bitch because we play Champion Baptist and Milligan College? You get what you are dealt. Most of the games were booked by Knight. Secondly, you find who will come to Beaumont. You will not get teams like Houston, ULL, La Tech, UTSA, etc to come to Beaumont. My guess is that TP was in a bind and scheduled who we could get. I am also guessing that LU had to promise to go to Rice 2-3 years in a row to get them to come to Beaumont this year.

 

Team needs a win or two to gain some confidence going into conference. Hopefully they can build a little winning streak going into the conference opener against UNO on Jan. 5th.

 

 

Who is bitching about playing Indiana and iowa state???!!!???

People bitch because we play Indiana and Iowa State, and now you bitch because we play Champion Baptist and Milligan College? You get what you are dealt. Most of the games were booked by Knight. Secondly, you find who will come to Beaumont. You will not get teams like Houston, ULL, La Tech, UTSA, etc to come to Beaumont. My guess is that TP was in a bind and scheduled who we could get. I am also guessing that LU had to promise to go to Rice 2-3 years in a row to get them to come to Beaumont this year.

 

Team needs a win or two to gain some confidence going into conference. Hopefully they can build a little winning streak going into the conference opener against UNO on Jan. 5th.

 

I think my daughter's 7th grade B team has an open date next year. I'll have the coach contact Price.

I ask again......who is going to come to Beaumont to play Lamar?

Southern beat CB 114-50 on Tuesday night.

Texas Southern also was in the NCAA last year. They played two common opponents as LU. Played Indiana to about the same point differential as Lamar did, and only lost to SMU by 12. Where LU lost by 30 plus. They also have a proven winner at coach in Mike Davis. Formerly of Indiana and UAB. He was a winning record both seasons at TSU, and won the league his first year, and finished T-2 last year and won the conference tourney to get into the NCAA tourney.

 

Not sure why losing to TSU was not expected.

This year's home out of conference schedule is not much different than those of years past. Looking at Tubbs 2nd season we opened with the following powerhouses.

 

Baker University - NAIA

Texas Wesleyan - NAIA

Texas Lutheran - NCAA DIII

 

The following year, we had these powerhouses on the home schedule:

 

Southwestern University - NCAA DIII

Texas Lutheran - NCAA DIII

Oklahoma Arts & Sciences - NAIA

 

Just sampling, a few years later a Pat Foster team had these opponents at home.

Sienna Heights - NAIA

Hardin Simmons - NCAA DIII

 

We were season ticket holders for 15 years before we were transferred away. As I recall attendance was always significantly lower for most of the out of conference home games. The difference is that the base attendance was higher than now. I have no doubt that attendance would pick up once the team shows that it can be successful or competitive. The last two seasons really hurt. We had the same issue during the Tony Branch years but still had some carry-over from the Tubbs/Foster years so it wasn't as big of a hit.

 

It's way too early to write the team off. We're coming off of a 3 win season followed by a 4 win season. Let the team build some confidence and remember how to win.

 

We had some very good home competition the year after the Montagne Center opened (Pat Foster's last year at Lamar) with Villanova and LSU at home, but that home out of conference schedule was the exception. Even so, we also had Texas Wesleyan and St. Marys (Texas) on the home OOC schedule that year.

Edited December 18, 2014 by LUSportsFan

The attendence will pick up once Lamar starts winning consistantly. We KNOW this to be true. Tic has got to get his team going and maybe an easy win will be just what the doctor ordered. The game against Pan-Am was pretty good and a good test of where the team is. I am still withholding judgement on the team but I look forward to seeing some games after the first of the year.

 

I totally agree even though it was a loss. In that game, the Cards were up and down. They were down early, but closed to within 3 points down to start the second half. Then they were on the verge of getting blown out when UTPA went on a 15-3 run. LU fought back from that slump to finish within six.

Arkansas State,which we beat there,went into Starkville and beat Mississippi State,go figure.Teams I could see playing home and homes with us are teams like ULL and Texas State that do that with other nearby Southland Schools.Tic will have more flexibility with the schedule next year when a multitude of Pat Knight issues are mostly behind us.Attendance numbers seem to be tickets sold not Butts in the seats.