How Do YOU Think Lamar Did In Hoops???

Are you happy that LU went 15-15 overall and 9-9 in conference? Did you expect Tic Price could get this team to .500? If they weren't under academic sanctions did you know Lamar would have made the conference tournament? (I know you know but did you expect it?) For a team that was pretty disgraceful under PK isn't .500 pretty darn good? I think so. I like the way the season played out while knowing it could have been better and it certainly could have been worse. With the NCAA tournament about to begin next week I think it's appropriate to ask, What do you think?,.

 

Rank best win (I think it was either Iowa State or Rice)

 

worst loss (I think it was the 29 pt loss to SFA on the road)

 

hope for the future. (I think there is a lot of reason for brighter days ahead!)

 

What do you all think?

Agree.

 

On the best win, Iowa State isn't in the running since that was a 59-96 loss against a ranked team. I liked the overtime win over Rice. Even though Rice had a down season, it was a DI OOC win as was the win against Arkansas State. I think the best wins were against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi and Incarnate Word in the Montagne. Those teams finished the conference race 4th and 5th respectively. TAMU-CC put an 8 point loss on 29-4 Stephen F Austin in Corpus.

 

The losses that hurt the most for me are the two could'a should'a losses. The first one was against Houston Baptist in Houston. The Cardinals ran out of time in that game losing 77-79. On the positive side, the Cardinals fought back from a pretty good deficit throughout the game to make it a nail biter in the end. The second one was the loss to McNeese in Lake Charles. The Cards held the lead most of the game, but let McNeese come back and steal the game in the last 6 seconds.

 

One thing I noticed this season, is that the team did not give up. We made the drive over to Beaumont to watch both the men's and women's senior day games. Both games were very enjoyable. I'm looking forward for continued improvement. I'm hoping Coach Price gets the players he needs. de Lattibeaudiere will be a big loss if this truly was his last one and only season with the Cards. I just hope the NCAA has a change of heart and lets him have another season.

Edited March 16, 2015 by LUSportsFan

I am very well pleased with the progress made this season. I thought Coach Price would be good but had my reservations about the talent level and buy in by the remaining players. The chemistry gained by the team under a new system was impressive. I think Coach Price is off to a good start and with the recruits coming in I am already excited about next year.

 

I too think the Rice was the best win and the McNeese game the most heartbreaking loss.

Agree.

 

On the best win, Iowa State isn't in the running since that was a 59-96 loss against a ranked team. I liked the overtime win over Rice. Even though Rice had a down season, it was a DI OOC win as was the win against Arkansas State. I think the best wins were against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi and Incarnate Word in the Montagne. Those teams finished the conference race 4th and 5th respectively. TAMU-CC put an 8 point loss on 29-4 Stephen F Austin in Corpus.

 

The losses that hurt the most for me are the two could'a should'a losses. The first one was against Houston Baptist in Houston. The Cardinals ran out of time in that game losing 77-79. On the positive side, the Cardinals fought back from a pretty good deficit throughout the game to make it a nail biter in the end. The second one was the loss to McNeese in Lake Charles. The Cards held the lead most of the game, but let McNeese come back and steal the game in the last 6 seconds.

 

One thing I noticed this season, is that the team did not give up. We made the drive over to Beaumont to watch both the men's and women's senior day games. Both games were very enjoyable. I'm looking forward for continued improvement. I'm hoping Coach Price gets the players he needs. de Lattibeaudiere will be a big loss if this truly was his last one and only season with the Cards. I just hope the NCAA has a change of heart and lets him have another season.

 

You're certainly right about the Iowa State win--not being in the running. If we had won that game it would have been the best win hands down. I just made a mistake. I was looking at the schedule to refresh my memory and I meant the Arkansas State 63-58 win was one of the better ones especially since it came early in the season when Lamar needed a win in the middle of a slew of road games. I listened to most of that game on the radio and it was a very exciting game.

Agree about the Arkansas State game. I haven't researched it, but it seems to me that Joneboro was always a tough place for the Cardinals regardless of the team.

 

As a bit of trivia at the start of the season, the Lamar vs Arkansas State series ranked #1 for Arkansas State according to their media guide. We had played 82 games against each other...guess it's 83 now. Next in line was UALR with 79 and then ULL with 69. We hold the overall with them at 47-36 (added this year's game to the 46-36 in their media guide). We're also #3 (9,873) and #5 (9,500) in their list of highest attendance. They are #4 on our list with 8,992.

Realistically LU won the games they should have with the schedule. Best win was at CC. Worst loss was at HBU. Missed opportunities at McNeese, at IW, at UNO and at Northwestern State. LU needed two of those four plus the HBU game to define real progress. Don't get me wrong winning 15 games is much better for the program and appearance of a successful year but four of the fifteen were against lower division schools. Success next year should include a minimum of fifteen D-1 wins.

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While I agree Lamar as a program should have "should win" games, let's not forget we went 4-32 in SLC play the last 2 years. We aren't at a point where there are many "should win" games. Going 9-9 in conference is a huge deal.

While I agree Lamar as a program should have "should win" games, let's not forget we went 4-32 in SLC play the last 2 years. We aren't at a point where there are many "should win" games. Going 9-9 in conference is a huge deal.

 

+1

I believe that Price got much more out of the talent that he had this year than Knight did with the previous years talent, but that doesn't change my opinion about Lamar's performance this year. McNeese wasn't near as good as they have been in previous years. At the beginning of the year maybe a few of the conference wins would not have been counted as "should win", as the year progressed they became "should win" games". While I don't like LU playing multiple lower division schools maybe those four wins gave the team the confidence they needed to play better in conference. What will satisfy you next year? I'm hoping LU will have at least two more D-1 games and have at least nineteen regular season wins. I really want 20 wins and all D-1 games. I really want to beat SAM and SFA.

Given the struggles of the program the last two years, combined with the coaching change and delayed/shortened recruiting cycle and the negative impact of the APR probation, I'm thrilled with what the program did this year.

 

I think the biggest question going into next year is whether we will be able to get out of APR jail next year, which will certainly make it easier for Tic to recruit. The APR calculation is simple on the surface, but has more loopholes and workarounds than the tax code (and much like the tax code, those loopholes benefit the connected and powerful at the expense of everyone else). Basically, a scholarship player can get four points per year: two for being eligible each semester and two for being retained by the program. The eligibility part is easy to understand, it's the "retention" that's tricky. If a player leaves for another four-year institution with a GPA above 2.6, you don't get docked the point from the way I read the rules.

 

To get off of APR probation, LU must have a four-year average of 930, and the APR is calculated a year "behind"--so the years that are relevant to the next calculation are 2013-14, 2012-13, 2011-12, and 2010-11. Our APR scores were 940 in 2010-11, 923 in 2011-12, and 915 in 2012-13. That means we must have a score of 942 or higher for 2013-14 to get out of jail.

 

Since we had 13 scholarship players in 2013-14, we have 52 possible "points". Four for each player--two for eligibility, two for retention. We have to get at least 49 of these to get a 942 (49/52 X 1000 = 942). We should have 32 of these "in the bag", as eight players from 2013-14 came back this year and obviously were eligible: Tyran, Hancock, Holliday, Mattingly, Minton, Norman, Owens, Ross (it doesn't matter than Minton was suspended--it wasn't for academics). Amos Wilson graduated: that's four more, for 36 in all. So the question becomes--what of the other four players who left after last season: Nimrod Hilliard, Octavius Green, Rhon Mitchell, and Keilan Blanks?

 

Since all four did play both semesters last season, we know that they got at least two points (they remained on the roster for spring and were obviously eligible as they played)--so that's 8 to get us to 44. So we've got to have five of the remaining eight points left to get to the magic number.

 

Nimrod Hilliard transferred to NC Central (Division I) and played this year. This should mean he had to have gotten his eligibility point for the spring. So... what about the "retention point"? There are two rules for "getting back" a lost retention point: the student in question had to have a 2.6 GPA and he had to have transferred to a four-year institution. NCCU is a four-year institution, but I have no idea what anyone's GPA is. So we know Nimrod got us one point--and may very well get us two.

 

Octavious Green transferred to Divison II University of Charleston. He also played both semesters, so I'm thinking he's in the same situation as Nimrod. One point "in the bag", maybe 2 depending on the GPA.

 

Rhon Mitchell transferred to Division II Cal Poly Pomona. He also played both semesters, so the same deal as the above two.

 

Keilan Blanks is more problematic--he didn't play this year from what I can find. So that "retention" point is gone. We have no way of knowing his academic standing in the spring semester. If we would have been eligible to play this past fall (even though he didn't), we'd still get a point.

 

So--basically--our post-season eligibility for next year depends on needing two of the following four things to have occurred: Nimrod having a 2.6 GPA at time of transfer, Octavious having a 2.6 at the time of transfer, Mitchell having a 2.6 at time of transfer, or Blanks getting good enough grades last spring that he retained eligibility. I really don't think we'll have any way of knowing the results until May, when the APR reports come out.

 

One wildcard: the NCAA will credit you with a bonus point if a player who didn't previously graduate finishes his degree. I've "heard" that Osas completed his degree in late 2013 but never saw any official release/document showing this--if that's the case, we might gain a very valuable extra point.

 

We will see. Getting out of APR jail is, IMHO, a key factor in trying to pull in the kind of talent we need to move from "decent" to actually "good". But managing this year to get from "awful" to "respectable" is a big accomplishment--especially given the headwinds faced this year--and has given me back my optimism regarding the program.