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Post by irelandnepal187 on Mar 17, 2023 17:20:31 GMT -5
Would have liked to see Anderson stick around. He's a terrific athlete and valuable defender. My guess is that Johnson let him know that probably wasn't going to take over as main ball handler or nuber 1 offensive weapon. Stan has the levarge to go into the portal and sell an elite point guard with Shelton's success. Taitz' return could be important. I saw him play a couple cames back in high school and he looked like a big time combo guard who could shoot long range. Sniper will oviously get a lot of minutes, so I think off guards will be shooting a lot of 3's. Getting a special point guard to transfer in will be huge. Bit surprised about Nobles. In this day and age, it's pretty rare to see a kid see no time for couple years and still stick around. He must have been told he has big opportunity this season. Johnson would have done that both out of simple hunan decency as well as just thinking about roster spots and production.
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Post by golions on Mar 17, 2023 18:34:59 GMT -5
Updated Friday 3/17
Following players who have hit the portal since Monday (3/13) and been reportedly contacted by LMU (with position and current year from this past season)
- Mike Mitchell, Jr/Pepperdine (Guard/Sophomore) - Justin Wright/NC Central (Guard/Junior) - Jayden Taylor/Butler (Guard/Sophomore) - Nate Calmese/Lamar (Guard/Freshman) - Zach Austin/High Point (Forward/Freshman) - Russell Dean/Hampton (Guard/Senior) - Jonathon Cisse/UIW (Guard/Junior) - Brayon Freeman/Rhode Island (Guard/Sophomore - 14.3/3.0/2.8 this past season - was dismissed from program - transfer from GWU) - Denver Anglin/Georgetown (Guard/Freshman - former 4 ⭐️ Top-90 Prospect) - Isaiah Pope/Utah Tech (6’5” Guard/Junior averaged 13.1/4.0/2.6 this past season) - Marko Maletic/Long Island (6’6” SG/F Sophomore- averaged 15.9/3.0/1.0, 43% field/39% 3P this season) - Myles Stute/Vanderbilt (6’7”, 215/Junior Forward - averaged 8.4/4.6 this past season) New - Jaden Henley/Minnesota (6’7” G/F, Freshman - 5.3 pts/2.2 reb/1,3 ast) - Myles Stute/Vanderbilt (6’7” Forward/Junior - 8.4 pts/4.6 reb/0.6 ast) - Tedrick Wilcox, Jr/St. Francis Brooklyn (6’6” Guard/Senior (11.3 pts/3.7 reb/2.1 ast)
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Post by LIONS90045 on Mar 17, 2023 21:16:32 GMT -5
Thanks
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Post by golions1444 on Mar 17, 2023 21:56:50 GMT -5
Is golions Stan or Craig? Lol
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Post by slblions08 on Mar 17, 2023 22:36:00 GMT -5
I agree with everyone’s assessment of Jalin. He is our only ball handler coming back, but also he can be erratic. In doing a kind of mock look at our starting lineup next year, if he’s not in the Cam role, then he’d be fighting Taitz for that 2-guard role. He probably wasn’t happy about it. I think Stan is going for a better PG or play making / scoring guard so it looks like what we saw is what he saw too in regards to Jalin. That being said, it is disappointing to have 3 years with a guy and then he’s not ready for that role.
I just hope that Stan can find the right player. I also hope that Taitz actually shows up and plays significantly. I hope he isn’t the next Dameane Douglass with injuries or Patson Siame man of mystery.
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Post by lmu2015 on Mar 17, 2023 23:50:12 GMT -5
Merkviladze - unless he transfers - is our top returning scorer... Either we need to bring in 1-2 elite scorers in the transfer portal, or we need to bring in another 2-3 elite freshman (such as McBride) and officially call it a rebuilding year and let the young guys learn. Here is next years lineup based on the current roster:
PG: Taitz SG: Stephens/Nobles SF: Lewis PF: McBride/Merkviladze C: Issanza/Graham
I don't see is being better next year than this year, replacing Leaupepe and Shelton is just too big of an ask. Unless Taitz is suddenly a 20 ppg scorer and we hit the jackpot with another transfer, next year could be ugly on offense.
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Post by pumpfake on Mar 18, 2023 0:39:59 GMT -5
James Nobles just entered the transfer portal. Good luck to James who seemed like a solid young man.
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Post by LIONS90045 on Mar 18, 2023 10:02:22 GMT -5
I spoke too soon about Nobles!! Coach Stan must feel he will reel in some very good players.
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Post by LIONS90045 on Mar 18, 2023 17:52:14 GMT -5
Interesting that a few years back I was excited that we landed the two best players from the LA City championship team - David Elliott IV and James Nobles and neither could cut it at LMU. Shows how hard it is to get the right players directly from high school. In any case, I’m kinda excited about Coach Johnson’s minor rebuild for next season. Lots of openings on our roster.
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Post by ALioninWinter on Mar 18, 2023 21:12:29 GMT -5
Two significant problems with high school players. One, the teams really are not very good. There are exceptions but the quality of competition is simply not very good in most cases. There are definitely exceptions to this, but even if you have a good player or two and/or a particularly good team, who you play against is a problem. Players don’t see a whole lot of tough competition. When kids see DI play, they’re overwhelmed. It’s not always the case but true more often than not.
The second problem is lousy coaching. I’m amazed at how poor the coaching is. Again, there are definitely exceptions but those exceptions are rare.
It’s hard to recruit quality players when you don’t have a lot to look at. Anyone can look good when there’s no defense.
And of course today coaches are having to deal with inflated senses of self worth, demanding parents … I could go on. I don’t blame Coach Stan for looking at already proven upper class men.
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Post by golions1444 on Mar 18, 2023 23:15:43 GMT -5
Lmu posted about Stan being considered for the Cal coaching job.
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Post by lmu2008 on Mar 19, 2023 0:30:40 GMT -5
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Post by LIONS90045 on Mar 19, 2023 6:54:23 GMT -5
His work here isn’t done!
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Mar 19, 2023 8:16:14 GMT -5
Not surprising. And if he is going, this would be the time to do it since we are definitely in a rebuild going into next season. I really hope Coach stays, it was a historic season this past year.
And if CSJ did leave I have a bad feeling McBride would go with him and who knows who else…we would be right back at the bottom. Good time for CSJ to leverage an extension.
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Post by lambdachi1988lion on Mar 19, 2023 10:28:50 GMT -5
Would really hate to see Stan leave, not only because he'd leave the cupboard extremely bare, but because I think he's done an excellent job building momentum and excitement around this program that I haven't seen in my 15 years as a Lion.
Looking at the coaching profiles though it seems like it is Pasternack's job to lose. Guy was an assistant at Cal for 7 years and has a much stronger record at UCSB (a more comparable state school than us) including tourney bids.
If CSJ keeps us moving forward this won't be the last time solid colleges come sniffing around. We just have to hope that LMU remains an attractive destination for him to keep building.
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