Lions vs Wagner Seahawks (12/22)

[fanblade]

Will be calling for a Christmas miracle inside Gersten Pavilion this weekend.

Saturday, 3pm (leaves plenty of room for nighttime libations)

Preview

www.silive.com/sports/advance/index.ssf?/base/Sports/119824200724870.xml&coll=1

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- Wagner's men's basketball team has won six of its last seven games, and a victory on the road tomorrow afternoon in Los Angeles against the struggling Lions of Loyola Marymount would ice a very solid pre-conference run for Mike Deane's club.

The Seahawks are currently 6-3 out-of-conference, with Kansas State the only non-leaguer left following Loyola.

The team left New York yesterday morning, and will be taking the red-eye back to the East Coast following the afternoon game tomorrow.

"Some players are coming back to campus," said Deane. "Others are heading home for Christmas."

They will reassemble on campus on Dec. 26, and head for that other Manhattan, the one in Kansas, later in the week for a Dec. 29, matchup with the rugged Wildcats who have been on the verge of being a Top 25 club much of the season.

Loyola is the one to get.

The Lions are young, with no seniors in the starting lineup. And they're stuggling, their nine losses coming by an average margin of defeat of better than 20 points.

The Lions do have some size, with two 6-9 frontliners in the starting lineup in Marco Deric and Tim Diedrichs.

But the best player on the team is probably 6-5 freshman swingman Orlando Johnson.

And teams with freshman leaders invariably struggle with consistency issues.

The Seahawks are far more experienced with five 500-plus college scorers in the starting lineup. And, so far this season, more successful.

The depth of veterans should help in dealing with the Left Coast travel.

"The guys are looking forward to the trip," Deane said yesterday, less than a week after registering his 400th head-coaching victory. "We've done this before, and I don't think travel will be a problem."

Wagner is coming off its convincing 105-86 victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore, a game that was decided early and one in which the Seahawk reserves saw plenty of time.

One reserve who saw his minutes extended was 6-6 junior Justin Drummond.

Deane has long been intrigued with the idea of converting the rangy Baltimore product into Wagner's point guard of the future.

On Saturday, Drummond was able to play 23 minutes, much of that at the point.

He responded with six points, four rebounds and six assists, giving hope to Deane's notion.

"Justin played very well," Deane said of Drummond's performance. "He's getting better all the time."

Another player who took a step forward was soph big man Michael Orock.

At 6-7 and 220 pounds, the former Hoboken High School star could be the strongest and most athletic of Wagner's young big men. He had seen only limited time prior to the UMES game, where Deane played Orock for 14 minutes. Orock scored 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.

PROBABLE STARTERS Seahawks
F - James Ulrich 6-6 Sr. 9.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg
F- Jamal Smith 6-5 Jr. 9.7 pg, 5.4 rpg
C - Durell Vinson 6-7 Sr. 14.4 ppg, 11.5 rpg
G - Mark Porter 6-2 Sr. 14.8 ppg, 6.5 apg
G - Joey Mundweiler 6-1 Jr. 11.2 ppg

Lions
F - Marco Deric 6-9 Jr. 8.4 ppg
F - Tim Diederichs 6-9 Fr. 7.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg
G - Orlando Johnson 6-5 Fr. 12.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg
G - Shawn Deadwiler 6-3 So. 10.2 ppg
G - Corey Counts 5-10 Jr. 4.5 ppg 2.6 apg

[fanblade]

Do you think counts will be invited back to the starting position?

[ironlions]

Wagner has a good record but most of their wins are over cupcakes. Not worried about their experienece...if we can beat Boise State at their house then anything is possible. I just hope we play hard and get a win....i also hope Deadwiler guards Mundweiler.

Go Lions

[fanblade]

Another home game, same results... well sort of. We were not blown out like usual (a nice feeling) but the lions desperately need a defensive workshop along with of course a free throw shooting workshop. It was not until the very last moment did I see some inspired D. Diedrichs did well, OJ continued to get new highs, thought Sweezy should see more time.

I appreciate Counts but he cannot run into traffic to take the last shot when he's a good half foot shorter than the 3 defenders flanking him.... Ziri was open and waiting.

Wagner was not a great team. We should have easily won. We are going to have a hell of a time dealing with USF and Portland.

[smc4]

Don't forget about turnovers!

[fanblade]

Forgive me. We'll see what Santa can deliver against SHSU next week. Some positive news, we are stilling hanging above the 1,000+ attendance mark.

Interesting to note, CS Bakersfield bombed UCR in Riverside tonight, 71-53. I was hoping that CSUB would be our last time to pick up a win before conference. But like ironlion mentioned we did beat Boise and we will actually be playing games so lets see.

[lmu]

Something about our offense I didn't like. Too much posting up by our bigs. It took up too much real estate contributed to the poor spacing for our offense. Should have let the guards shoot, at least they sank a few today.

The defense needs work...too many layups allowed...

[lmu]

I think Corey will stay at the point for a while. He is not as creative as Shawn, brandon or QT, but at least he is steady with the ball.

Btw, QT didn't get any playing time the last two games, what's going on? I was hard on him but I didn't expect him to sit for two games.

Edit:
Last thing before I sleep. I just want to thank the "one and only" roar member making noise in the stand. Thanks for showing your enthusiasm. I hope they counted the 3s u made during the half time. ;D

[ironlions]

For a 7-3 team Wagner was pretty bad. We should have had that game but Porter hit that deep shot. It was a disappointing loss and a win we needed badly slipped right through our fingers. I'm glad the team never gave up and showed some poise.Porter pretty much beat us single handed...I don't know why Counts was guarding him for any period of time. I like his confidence to take the last shot but he should have been looking for OJ. I was also at little surprise Sweezy didn't get much playing time. Let's rest up and get Sam Houston State.

Go Lions!

[lmu]

ironlions said:

For a 7-3 team Wagner was pretty bad. We should have had that game but Porter hit that deep shot. It was a disappointing loss and a win we needed badly slipped right through our fingers. I'm glad the team never gave up and showed some poise.Porter pretty much beat us single handed...I don't know why Counts was guarding him for any period of time. I like his confidence to take the last shot but he should have been looking for OJ. I was also at little surprise Sweezy didn't get much playing time. Let's rest up and get Sam Houston State.

Go Lions!

I think Count was indeed looking for someone, he just couldn't find an open man. Next time we should inbound the ball to the guy who will take the shot if our execution stays this poorly.

[lionspride]

Counts has confidence, but maybe too much confidence to shoot last possession shots in regulation and OT. He was most likely looking for someone else, but it did not develop and he was forced to shoot.

I wish Deadwiler would have been holding the ball as the clock winds down. There have been some isolations in the past few games that Deadwiler has delivered on. He is a better slasher than counts. Deadwiler can create and I am not sure if Counts can do it as effectively. Worst case is that Deadwiler tries to create and is stop and forced to pass to Ziri or OJ in the remaining seconds.

Attendance was not that bad...I was expecting the worst....it was GREATLY helped by Wagner's 250+ people that came to the game (Los Angeles Wagner Alumni event followed the game). I wish our crowd would come out and watch these Lions grow as a team.

OJ is developing well, but he needs to concentrate on his D and free throws. Also, there is plenty of times that he should be able to create for himself and take over a game. We have yet to see this. We have seen signs of his greatness, but the best is yet to come. That is quite scary for our opponents. His consistency is not there. A couple of games this year he has disappeared. OJ is the man and he needs to be the leader of this team. I realize that Ziri is the senior, but if he is not in the starting line...OJ needs to get the batton and run with this one. As OJ goes, so does the Lions.

Happy Holidays to all on the board and I cannot wait to see what Santa brings the Lions.

[shredaahead]

I'm getting really bored of this. Tention needs to win more than he loses next season or I say blow it up. NO ONE CARES! Start winning or put in a Westheadesquese coach after the 2008 season!