Julia Pine- Top notch Lions coverage.

[ironlions]

Julia does a excellent job at covering Lions basketball. I have to say probably the best coverage I have read in over ten years of reading the Loyolan. Her stories are well written and a great read. I love the fact that she covers recruiting...as soon as we get verbal commitment it shows up in the paper.

I read the cover story in this weeks Loyolan about our win over SC, and her piece about showing respect to OJ when he comes back to LMU. Both great pieces.

Hats off to her

[irishlion]

I truly like the attention she is showing the basketball program, and agree, she is doing an excellent job. Her piece on OJ, hmmmm, I'm split on that one. I love the idea of showing him respect, and sportsmanship. But real world - the hostile crowd is part of the game. You don't want to make the other teams star player comfortable. I don't like boo-ing, or nasty heckling. But good natured ribbing is part of sports.

Once a player leaves a program, they aren't a Lion any more. You can appreciate what they did while they were here - but once gone, they are an opponent. I'm not against transfers - with the NCAA recruiting changes over the last 5-6 years, its made it almost impossible for a 17-18 year old kid to make an informed decision. So transfers are increasing, and understandable. But - they are choosing to leave the program, and once out the door, are no longer part of the family. You don't have to have ill will for them - but you also don't want to make their life too easy when they are battling AGAINST you.

So, keep it clean. Don't be mean spirited - but understand, he is a gaucho now. Not a lion. Don't make it easy on him.

My opinion. For what its worth.

[ldawg]

I heard that few students showed up to the game. I guess heckling was a non-factor?

[irishlion]

The fans in support of ucsb, and Oj were pretty bad, especially after the game. If there are sour grapes, they are directed at us, lmu. If I had been a ucsb or oj fan, I would have been very embarassed

[dedicatedlionfan]

There is no excuse...but it was because we had lots of old fans show up, the ones who don't show respect.....I actually talked briefly with OJ before the game, assuring him that there is no hostility

[irishlion]

I was shocked at the UCSB fan that was walking up and down the season ticket aisle, shooting garbage about LMU, and how OJ was screwed, and how we all just didn't know. Blah blah blah. It was embarassing. Then there was the UCSB fan who, before the game, heckled during the national anthem and the roster announcements, trying to stand in the center of the season ticket seats jeering the fans. It was classless. I did not see any retaliation of any kind from LMU fans. I was proud to be a LION.

[dedicatedlionfan]

Ya I remember him....i think he got kicked to the bleacher section and they made sure to stick some security on him too!

[irishlion]

Yeah, the guy from the beginning of the game. The end game fans were different - and angrier. Not fun. Just not fun at all.

[LIONS90045]

That Heckler was annoying and extremely loud - you coud not help but hear all his insults throughout the hall. I figure he went to the Comfort Hotel gathering m before the game. The only saving grace was that he yelled so loud he simply yelled himself out by later in the game. Probably used a whole roll of lozenges the next day also.
Fortunately, I missed the ugliness mentioned above after the game - this is not classy or fitting for LMU.

[irishlion]

WR - the ugliness was NOT LMU people. It was OJ supporters in the UCSB section. LMU fans did not partake.

[LIONS90045]

Itish - thanks - That explains a lot - I left by the side door so did not see the action in the corridor after the game. Yeah, there were some obnoxious guys in the UCSB crowd. And I thought our limited student crowd (due to the holdiay) was restrained.

[fanblade]

Students did not come out to support LMU (there was 1 or 2... seriously) and the season ticket holders were very quiet throughout the game. Much of that was because the game was not very exciting for lions fans unfortunately. Heckling OJ was not even an option.

I had the displeasure of sitting nearby one extremely obnoxious UCSB fan who for 40 minutes screamed slurs at the court aimed at LMU players, UCSB players, refs, coaches etc. The individual clearly was only interested in hearing himself scream. It was embarrassing.

[irishlion]

As a fan sitting in the season ticket area - we were restrained due more to the proximity of the UCSB people. We were not looking for a confrontation, but it seemed almost impossible to avoid one. They were riled up before walking into the gym. So, we watched the game, cheered the plays, and tried really, really hard to ignore the Gaucho idiots on the other side of the aisle.

It would certainly have been more fun to win - but I don't know if that would have quieted them down anyway.

[fanblade]

From what I could tell it wasn't restraint due to not wanting to cause a fight or being shamed into submission by Julia Pine.

The LMU crowd was pretty lifeless and perhaps paralyzed by UCSB's strong showing of fans. I was really dissappointed in the lack of noise LMU fans made. Thankfully some Young Alumni did join the student side (when there was literally only 1 or 2 fans standing there) to try to get things going but for the most part Gersten could have been Hanon Library. It was sad.

For a brief 1 minute the crowd did get on their feet and begin to support the team with '5 to go' when the lions tied the game up on some clutch plays by Kalipende but soon after UCSB started rattling off some 3's and it was back to sitting on our hands. Not necessarily blaming the fans because I don't think the lions really looked that exciting to illicit much of a response and it was thanksgiving break but considering this was a throwback game with a legit opponent it was not a proud moment for Gersten.

[lmu2008]

Fanblade -

No disrespect but you cannot expect students to come back from the long weekend early to cheer for a sub .500 team. If/when we start winning consistently, you'll see students come back from vacations early to cheer. Until then, the players and the coaches have to show that they can win if they want to see substantial student fan support for game the weekend of Thanksgiving/Winter Break.

Season ticket holders are generally not rowdy at any school, most schools get their home court advantage from the student section... When ROAR is in full force they are louder than nearly every student section I've seen, especially on a per student basis.