Your Starting 5

[fryer4three]

What do you all want to see the starting 5 as to start the season? In my sleuth work, based on video and colors of jerseys looks like right now the starting 5 is

Hill
Harris
McBride
Kelli
Lars

Could be wrong, but multiple practice videos I could confirm I saw everyone but Kelli in a white jersey and I assume he’s starting..

[LIONS90045]

Not surprised if McBride gets the nod even as a Freshman with no D1 experience. Limited number of pictures show me a strong body ready for D1 play, especially his legs.
I too like Kelli at PF and Lars looks like a polished big man with experience. Don't know enough to comment on the others but I like our options.

[fryer4three]

Although one of the videos I saw a guy w bleached hair in a white jersey. Lemaj? He will probably be 6 man I guess. Does McBride shoot well enough?

[golions1444]

Hill/Harris backcourt is going to be nice!!

[lambdachi1988lion]

Rick should get plenty of playing time at the 5 too, but I think you all are likely right that Lars will get the nod to start...but when is the last time we had two legit 7'1 guys??

Have energy players like Graham and Lamaj off the bench will be awesome.

I'm thinking Lamaj will likely start the year, but McBridge will challenge early and often and get into the starting 5 in the first half of the seasons.

Eager to see what Taitz can do coming back from injury.

And then based off stats alone I could see Wright getting some serious time.

Really exciting square we got this year!!

[ALioninWinter]

I won’t disagree with that starting five prediction, but where will the outside shooting come from? We need outside threats to prevent other teams from simply dropping back toward the key to prevent penetration. This prediction has our potential shooting threats on the bench

[fryer4three]

Ya i dont disagree with you at all LioninWinter. Harris can shoot and Kelli decent for a big, hill is average or below for a guard. Johnston can shoot off the bench. Taitz.. but outside of that, this isnt a great outside shooting team.

[thebluff]

Based on history and the comments of the players and coaches via social media. Our flat-out scorer/shooting threat (assassin) is Harris. I see him being our 16th NBA player. Our size rivals any team in the country with our front-court rotation. I love the idea of a two-man game between Harris and Kelli.

Guard 1: Hill (Lead Facilitator), Will Johnston (First Guard off), Harris may get some on-ball reps here)
Guard 2: Harris (Offense goes through his skillsets) (Wright gets some minutes here).
Forward 1: _________ Our question mark is here but I think the answer is Alex Merkvilade (You can go very small wing of Justin Wright but I think he's better off the bench, with Lewis as our other rotational wing/4)
Forward 2: Kelli (Lewis + Graham getting time here)
Big: Lars (Rick could start based on opposing team personnel and performance)

Overall, I can see our team earning our first tournament bid this season/knocking on the door. Contending for 1st in conference. At the end of the season, I think we are discussing Stan as COY. Harris as a potential draft pick, and Kelli as a potential 2-way guy or Exhibit 10 guy. Hill as a bright spot, along with Johnston, Alex, Rick, and Wright as notable contributors.

Thoughts? What are some predictions? 

[ALioninWinter]

The luff - love your optimism but ….

Tournament at-large selections are based on previous years’ performance as much (probably more) than current year’s performance. It may not make a lot of sense, but it’s true.

To make the tournament we have to either win the conference tournament for the automatic qualifier or look really good in league competition. Our OOC schedule will do very little to help our case because it’s weak! Any slip ups in November or December will hurt A LOT!

I agree that we have a solid front line. There may be better skilled front lines, but I can’t think of a team that can out-size/out-strength our 5 inside players. Lars will occupy any team’s big. That’ll free up Kelli who does get out-sized … but no one is going to put-strength him this year. The guy is a beast.

Harris is a great talent. I was always glad to see him leave the game against us because I thought he was better than the guys playing ahead of him. The question with him is his willingness to be a team player. If he buys in as a teammate, he can challenge for all-league status.

McBride certainly doesn’t look like a freshman. He’s not very tall for the 4/5 positions he was playing in high school. I know Coach Stan doesn’t like playing freshmen. For me, the guy is a complete wildcard.

I’ve always felt Lewis has had the talent to be an impact player. To date, he’s been a significant disappointment. Will this be his year to finally break out??

Rick will get sizable playing time. Alex will probably spell a Kelli. Mike G is probably odd man out , but I love the guy’s hustle. In total, they make a good frontline bench.

The rest of the team consists of guards and wings who need to prove themselves. If they shine and Harris works out, we will have a good team. Hopefully good enough to be an impact team in the WCC. But the March tournament is going to be a tough climb.

[jakeboise]

Sorry for hijacking the thread. Wasn't sure where to put this. Does LMU have a writer on Twitter I can follow? Or a good fan account maybe that isn't the official LMU MBB one? Thanks.

[pumpfake]

ironlion is good

[LIONS90045]

Taitz is our wildcard right now. Maybe he'll surprise us pleasantly? At least that's my hope.

[nbdlion22]

Long time no talk everyone!
Just chiming in with my thoughts.
Here is how I see the lineups and depth chart playing out.
I believe coach will want to go a 3 guard rotation for the majority of the time. Could be a very run n gun type of team that tries to run teams out of the gym.
Cautiously optimistic.

Only glaring weakness this upcoming season is a lack of pure shooting from the outside

G1 Justin W / Justice H
G2 - Dominick H / Will J / Noah T
G3/F - Aaron M / Lamaj L / Will J or Noah T
F - Kelli L / Michael G / Alex M
F/C - Lars T / Rick I / Michael G / Alex M

[ALioninWinter]

As fair an assessment as any. I am expecting to see a lot of rotations and player combinations in November and December. I’m assuming Taitz and the Texas Rio Grande fellow to be our shooters but we’ll need to see them in action.