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Post by thebluff on Dec 30, 2023 0:24:46 GMT -5
This is all on coaching. Our best player Harris can’t even get a great look. I don’t know how many times Harris has gotten off to a great start only to get iced out by our coaches/teammates.
We are running the same terrible sets. Our offense is a complete joke. Schematically we are flat. I don’t know what to say. Even in a win would’ve been bad.
Graham should’ve seen the floor more. Could’ve thrown Taitz out there. Rick didn’t get nearly enough time.
Our team is frustrating to watch.
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Post by waterboy on Dec 30, 2023 0:58:26 GMT -5
I posted this last week against Colorado St. It applies exactly to tonight.
"Been keeping quiet to see if the hype matched the performance, and it doesn't. I don' know what offensive sets Stan is pushing (really can't see anything but running around the far perimeter and avoiding crashing the boards) but whatever it is it makes his team seam confused and disoriented. Why does Stan on every play have to yell to his players what to do every set and move? Can't he just teach them the sets so they know them? The team is always looking at the sideline. I see why? They don't know any plays? Stan should try the ole Pick n Roll and at least pretend he has an offense (other than individual player efforts). LMU makes up for a lack of offense, with a porous defense. Thankfully we can't rebound, otherwise there might be some hope. Face it, Stan's team lacks fundamentals, and it doesn't know how to do a simple pick and roll. Tonight we got killed by the pick n roll. Just killed."
Stan took the team, who was favored by 6.5 pt, to a 13 point loss. 18 pt upset of the odds. The teams attitude seems its deteriorating. Did you see Iszanza's tantrum?
Stan needs to adjust. He's got to get an offensive set that works or at least looks like it does something other than standing around. WE are so dependent on individual play. Maybe we can outscore our lack of defense.
Good to see glimpses of the old Leapepe.
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Post by t on Dec 30, 2023 1:16:07 GMT -5
I’ve seen enough. Fire Stain Johnson!
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Post by ALioninWinter on Dec 30, 2023 4:58:58 GMT -5
I like to take as positive approach as I can in these game analyses. Normally there’s a mix of good and bad. But tonight was as about as bad as it can get. The team has regressed over the past month and I see the wheels coming off the bus. At this point, I’m not sure what anyone could do to right the ship. Last season, on a pathetic Cal team, Lars averaged 9.5 points and 5.4 boards a game. Sixteen times he scored in double figures. He scored 18 against Arizona. Those are good numbers. This year he’s barely a presence for us. Someone needs to watch some of last year’s Cal game film to see what he was going then versus what he’s doing now. We did miss Alex’s hustle and determination. Wright had a good game. Harris and Johnston are both excellent shooters. Why aren’t we setting screens for them?  We need Leaupepe pounding the ball inside. Let Harris and Johnston do the outside shooting. Coach gave Lewis lots of opportunity tonight. Once again, he showed he’s not up to the challenge. Bench him. Coach Stan’s failure to recruit even a mediocre 6’7” wing once again proved our undoing. We have no defense against that type of player. Tarleton played very well. They deserve credit for a good win. Tarleton’s center is 6’5” and weighs 220 pounds. Yet he scored a very strong double-double. Inexcusable given our inside guys. No hot dogs in the Tip-off Club area! What a mess!! |
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Dec 30, 2023 9:18:13 GMT -5
I didn’t see Issanza’s “tantrum”, maybe that’s why he only got three minutes in the second half.
In the first half Graham played eight minutes and had five rebounds (4 offensive) and two blocks. Why does he only play three minutes in the second half?
For the game we were +1 when Graham was on the court, -2 when Issanza was on the court and -10 when Lars was on the court.
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Post by ALioninWinter on Dec 30, 2023 12:28:19 GMT -5
Graham’s game isn’t pretty but the guy hustles and gets results.
Regarding Lars - I looked up his season stats. The averages aren’t far off what he did at Cal. But most of the productive games this season were early. He has definitely regressed. I don’t know why.
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Post by lmu2008 on Dec 30, 2023 13:51:05 GMT -5
Had anyone heard of Tarleton State until they showed up on our schedule? I hadn't.
That's because they were a Division 2 school up until July 2020... And we lost by 13 at home.
I defended CSJ after the last loss but this is embarrassing. Even if we "turn it around" in conference play like I had hoped do we have any shot at winning the WCC?
We finish non-conference as a .500 team, but our wins are against:
Westcliff (exhibitions shouldn't count towards W/L)
Jackson St - with all due respect we shouldn't lose to an HBCU
FIU - They are a bad 5-9 team
UTEP - Decent win
Central Arkansas - They are a bad 3-11 team
UNLV - Solid win
Detroit Mercy - Still winless at 0-14
So after 14 games we have 1 decent win (UTEP) and 1 good win (UNLV) and multiple bad losses. Not good enough given pre-season expectations.
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Post by lmu2015 on Dec 30, 2023 14:57:51 GMT -5
this was a tough one to watch, Tarleton started coming off screens and hitting mid range jumpers on us and we didn't adjust. When we got up 21-12 (or was it 19-12?) i was confident we were going to win this game and possibly cover the spread, but we looked like a different team the last 30 minutes. We are a more talented team but got outcoached. Too late in the season to be missing this many rotations, having our bigs caught in no mans land on pick and rolls where they arent contesting the shot or in position to rebound. I understand we were missing Alex and Hill - which are two guys that bring energy and probably could have stepped up for us last night and changed the outcome of the game, but even without them we were the more talented team. If something doesn't change fast this could be a rough season for us in conference play.
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Post by nbdlion22 on Dec 31, 2023 17:34:53 GMT -5
Billie Gillespie and staff absolutely punked CSJ and “staff”
Our assistants have got to be the weakest staff in the whole country.
A head coach is judged on many different criteria, one of them is what type of staff he builds around him. Safe to say CSJ absolutely has failed in this regard since he’s been hired. Do we even know what assistants are responsible for what? Or does CSJ try to do everything himself?
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Post by LIONS90045 on Dec 31, 2023 19:07:04 GMT -5
Assistant coaches in brief during game interviews (or on Instagram shorts) seem to be focused on talking points stating the "three keys" to winning. While these "keys" may be OK, how the team will achieve them seems to be missing and that's where coaching comes in. Which assistant is closest in line to take over the team if needed?
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Post by dedicatedlionfan on Jan 2, 2024 16:20:13 GMT -5
It is interesting to see how the Lions have fared over the past 10-15 years. Here is a link that shows a snapshot of coaches, records, and how we have generally ranked. Opinions? What is our real expectation of this team? I would be interested to hear nbd’s expectation. barttorvik.com/team-history.php?team=Loyola+Marymount |
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Post by nbdlion22 on Jan 2, 2024 17:57:52 GMT -5
It is interesting to see how the Lions have fared over the past 10-15 years. Here is a link that shows a snapshot of coaches, records, and how we have generally ranked. Opinions? What is our real expectation of this team? I would be interested to hear nbd’s expectation. barttorvik.com/team-history.php?team=Loyola+MarymountWow thats actually a very cool visual. Thanks for sharing. No matter how much "negativity" I may show on this forum and how frustrated I may sound pretty much all the time, this visual makes me quite sad as a long time lion fan. The reality is besides a few very small sparks of hope, our program has been generally hopeless and less than mediocre for the better part of the past 20 years. It's truly a shame how mediocre we have been considering our school's strategic location in west LA, the beauty of our campus, and the level of educational opportunities available to our students here. When you put that in comparison to a school like Gonzaga (who IMHO can not compete on any of the criteria listed above) it is quite embarassing the lack of athletic success our Lions have shown over the past 2 decades. All I can do is hope for a better and more successful future for our student athletes and alumni. |
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Post by ALioninWinter on Jan 2, 2024 18:40:38 GMT -5
Lots of numbers but once you’ve analyzed them, they simply prove what we already knew — we’ve suffered through A LOT of mediocrity!
Hopefully a new coach brings something positive to a program. There aren’t very many coaches who excel in all or most areas. Those that do, become legends (Coach K, Wooden, et al). One can only hope that your coach can bring several positives, thereby achieving more success than most.
Unfortunately, our sad string of coaches have brought very little to the program. Tention was awful and a huge disappointment on the recruiting front. He had supposedly led Arizona’s super strong recruiting efforts. Yet, for us, his only notable recruit was Orlando Johnson … who left when Bayno came aboard.
Bayno was the complete opposite of Tention. Within weeks of his announcement as our new coach he had recruited a decent team. Unfortunately, demon alcohol got the best of him and what seemed to be the beginning of a promising era quickly turned to ashes. I think he could’ve been a successful coach if he could’ve escaped his personal issues.
Max Good was the most approachable coach we’ve had and he had some good recruits during his tenure. Unfortunately I don’t think he demanded enough from the players so they never developed as they should have. He had plays in mind but didn’t do a good job of communicating those plays to the players.
Mike Dunlap was the polar opposite of Max. Has there ever been a colder fish? Let’s face it. College basketball is about entertainment and you have to present an appealing product. In that, Dunlap was a complete disaster. He certainly knew basketball but his intellectual approach was unworkable. Also, he felt he was the most important cog in the machine. Everything else, including the players, were only of secondary importance. He had some decent players but his coaching style never allowed those recruits to play their game. The result was mediocre play and some of the most boring games I’ve ever witnessed.
So, now we have Mr PR… the polar opposite of Dunlap. Stan Johnson has worked miracles in reviving interest in a moribund program. He has the right vision for the program. He’s attracted some good players. Thise are strong pluses. His recruiting is uneven. He seems to focus on a type of player whereas I think a solid team has a mix of player types. And he seems to have nearly zero understanding of the Xs and Os of college basketball. Those weaknesses aren’t any worse than the weaknesses of his predecessors, but he’s set expectations high and is not even close to achieving them.
If I’m the AD, I’m having a serious talk with the coach. I don’t want to fire him. Revolving doors are never helpful. I do think Stan has done a pretty good job of navigating the massive changes affecting the recruiting process over the past couple years. And he is solidly capable of building enthusiasm for the team … and remember, it’s all about entertainment. He needs to bring in some assistants that can coach Xs and Os, and work with bigs. As AD, I would insist that he recruit with an eye of developing a complete team — point guard, solid wings, shooters, good defenders and teachable bigs.
This current team, while lacking “the guy”, has more talent and more depth than any LMU team I’ve seen since the Gathers-Kimble days. It’s really frustrating to see such a lack of success this year. Frankly I’m not sure this year is fixable … but we still need to point to the future.
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Post by dedicatedlionfan on Jan 2, 2024 23:30:35 GMT -5
Thanks for the insights!!! If you look around on the website, you can really see where our team is strong and where we lack. You can also compare us to the rest of the WCC and we are literally middle of the pack. It could be worse, as Pacific is one of the worst teams in the country! I think now that we have CSJ, we need one more boost from someone or something and I think we are there. Just not sure who or what that is, but I digress.
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