Westcliff University Warriors

[LIONS90045]

Westcliff University Warriors
Member: NAIA
Record (22-23): 18-9

OK fans the new season is starting next week with an exciting exhibition game versus Westcliff.

The Warriers were California Pacific Champions last season:

westcliffathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/releases/20230301pwccii

The Warriors play CSU Dominguez Hills on Nov 4 before meeting the Lions in Gersten.

Roster:

00 Demetrius Douglas G JR 6'2 Chicago, IL /
01 Micaiah Hankins G SO 5'11 Temecula, CA /
02 Justin Boateng G JR 6'6 Charlotte, NC /
03 Ray Witt Jr G JR 6'5 North Hills, CA /
04 Adofo Thomas G SR 6'1 Long Beach, CA /
05 Cameron Snyder G JR 6'0 Phoenix, AZ /
10 Rayven Turner G JR 6'6 Portland, OR /
11 Jamal Briscoe G JR 6'3 Compton, CA /
12 Korey Hess G GR 6'0 Denver, CO /
22 Rodney Guillory G JR 6'2 Inglewood, CA /
23 Marques Sales F JR 6'7 Dallas, TX /
24 John Duff F SR 6'10 Crenshaw, CA /
32 Maxx Zion Hazely F JR 6'8 Irvine, CA /
35 Royce Ramos F FR 6'6 Aurora, CO /
42 Marius Ntwari F SR 7'0 Kigali, Rwanda /

CSU is trying to upgrade their basketball as are our Lions.

The Warriors have some size but I have no idea about their talent level - except I think it will be below the level of our Lions.

Gametime : Tuesday, Nov 7, 7 pm Gersten.
Video: ESPN+

[lambdachi1988lion]

First game thread of the year! Can't wait to see the type of team we are this year. I think we have a ton of potential if we can bring it all together.

Good mix of experience and continuity with added fire power.

Let's go Lions.

[LIONS90045]

Just pondering what I'm expecting to see this season from our mostly rebuilt team.

I see Alex Merkviladze having a very good year. I base this on his being a 4th year player. In the past, I have seen guys improve every additional season they play. He looks good in the limited Instagram videos the Lions post.

I'm curious to see what Noah Taitz brings to the team after sitting out last season. He is now a veteran and seems to be a solid 3-point shooter from those Instagram posts.

Don't know much about the new guys but we seem to have a nice flock of capable guards on the team.

Just noticed that in addition to Aaron McBride, direct from HS, who I expect will see lots of minutes in his first season, we also have Jovan Ristic from Serbia. I don't recall seeing him in the videos but he may have been there.

My best guess for the starting 5 tonite are:

Justin Wright G
Justice Hill or Will Johnson G
Dominick Harris Wing
Keli Leaupepe Strong Forward
Lars Thiemann Center

I'm hoping to see most of the team play this evening in a one-sided game. By the way, the Warriors on the 4th was a scrimmage so no info in available.

GO Lions.

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

Looking forward to tonight, as well. Will Johnston has been named Player of the Week a few times on social media by the basketball program.

And curious to see how we rotate the three big guys.

Go Lions!

[LIONS90045]

Not the start I expected
The Lions have lots of work to do before Sunday’s game vs Yale

[golions1444]

Bad start is expected. These guys have never played together. Settling in now.

Rick and Noah not dressed

[LIONS90045]

Rick has knee injury
Taitz “nursing” a sore calf

[lmu2015]

We look like a team that has never played together, it is going to take 5-10 games at least for them to get comfortable and for CSJ to figure out rotations - particularly if we like our lineup with 3 bigs or 3 guards. I would also like to see us play through Thieman a bit more in the post given his size advantage, but overall im just happy to be watching LMU basketball again.

[slblions08]

Squeezing in some LMU bball between my kids’ practices and the baby is a new challenge but I also bought the ESPN+ to have it in the go. I think there’s a lot of buzz on this team but they’ll need to work hard on the basics such as defense and rebounding. Being new to each other, they’ll lack feel for each other. I hope they can pull it together quickly because Yale is a tough team. Happy to hear from all of you for another season.

Add* : this is a professional broadcast. I love to see it.

[lmu2015]

Yale plays Gonzaga on Friday too, should be a good game. Maybe we will benefit from the typical post big game let down. But we really need to clean up the tacky fouls, shouldn't be having almost a foul/minute against a D3 opponent.

[LIONS90045]

I feel a lot better after the second half.
Team play coming together

[nbdlion22]

Lots of talent on the team, but CSJ really needs to find an identity and rotation strategy fast.

We don’t want to let this talent go to waste.

Top to bottom don’t remember the last time we had this much raw talent on the squad

[iggysdiner]

Loved what I saw out of the new guys. Lots of excitement for this team big test Sunday against Yale. Don’t think they will come out as flat early as they did tonight. Go Lions

[ALioninWinter]

Man, it felt good getting back into Gersten for another season!!

First of all, I was impressed with Westcliff. They’ve got some good ball players. They move well, shoot well and hustle. They have decent height but were definitely overwhelmed by our strength. I wasn’t expecting this much talent in an NAIA team. I’ve seen significantly worse Division I teams (including a few in Gersten).

As is often the case in games like this, the underdog came out strong. With nothing to lose and low expectations, they played with confidence and hustle. For about 12 minutes they were giving the Lions everything the Lions could handle. Our guys had made several TOs, missed several easy shots, and looked disjointed. As a couple others noted, that happens when you’re playing for the first time. Practices only get a team so far. You need real game experience to work out the kinks.

It was about at the 12 minute mark that things turned. The Lions had a couple good runs that turned a 5-7 point deficit into a decent halftime lead. Then, a solid run at the beginning of the second half sealed the deal. Westcliff quickly ran out of steam … and poise. The last 5-7 minutes of the game were typical mop-up basketball with lots of sloppy play and poor defense on the part of the Lions. But I understand. It’s tough to play hard nosed defense when you have a 40 point lead. Also, our bigs (Leaupepe, Merkviladze and Thiemann) sat out the end of the game.

Coach used a lot of different combinations tonight so it’s hard to assess team effectiveness. I’m not criticizing Coach. It’s the right thing to do. But it’s going to take a few games to understand and better assess how the team will do as a whole this season. I am cautiously optimistic for their chances but there’s certainly work to be done.

Hill and Wright - I liked what I saw. Both can play ball. I think Wright was the better player tonight. He takes the ball to the hoop with authority and has enough size and strength to make things happen.

Thiemann - I’m happy to report that we have a legit post player. He’s big. He’s strong. He has good footwork. He has a good soft touch. He knows how to play the position.

Merkviladze - He played a strong game while maintaining control. Last year he hustled a lot but sometimes played out of control or didn’t play smart. Tonight he hustled, maintained control and played smart. Very pleasant improvement.

Leaupepe - The guy is a beast. With Lars able to occupy other teams’ big guy, Kelli is going to have a much easier time overpowering his opponents.

Harris - Played very poorly in the first half. Did much better in the second half. The team needs to have “the Guy.” Harris should be that guy. He has the talent but I’m not sure he’s worked hard enough up to this point to earn the title or develop the requisite skills.

Johnston - Played with a ton of hustle. But I didn’t see much evidence of an outside shooting ability. And we NEED that!

McBride - He certainly doesn’t look like a freshman. He’s got a solid body and moves well. Only had limited action and that will probably be the case all season. But he had the makings of being a very solid player.

Graham - Perhaps the least talented player on the team but I love his hustle and how he uses his length to protect the inside. He works hard and deserves whatever playing time he gets.

Lewis - I was not impressed. The guy has talent but has simply not been able to put it to good use. Way too many mistakes. His defense tonight wasn’t exceptionally strong. He lacks touch under the basket so he misses what should be “cookies.” He’s the only legit wing on the team, so we need him; but he’s gotta up his game.

Isssnza - Did not play. tweaked his knee. I’m under the impression he shouldn’t be out long.

Taitz - This one worries me. He’s been practicing with team but just tweaked his calf again. Will he ever play?? We need his outside shooting.

Ristic - He didn’t dress for the game. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. No limp, no cast, no sling.

What Looks Like Strong Points
1. We’re big, strong and athletic.
2. Lots of hustle.
3. Lots of offensive movement. No standing around waiting for someone else to do something.
4. Plenty of talent on the team. Decent speed.
5. The team is deep.
6. Coach was true to his word. The guys who received the most attention during the weekly hustle awards are the ones who started tonight.

Seeming Weaknesses
1. Very poor penetration defense. Every one of our guards needs to work on this. Our bigs can only make up for some of the mistakes made by our guards. This needs to be worked in practice.
2. Still haven’t seen signs of good outside shooting. Who’s going to step up??
3. Will Harris put in the effort required to become “the guy”?
4. Can these guys maintain the focus needed to beat good teams? They didn’t have it for the first 12 minutes and the last 12 minutes of tonight’s game?

[lmu2015]

Maybe just a coincidence, but things really started to get going when we went to our 3 guard lineup, I really hope we start with that this Sunday. As already mentioned, we have so much depth and versatility with our team it will probably take sometime to figure out our identity and establish our style of ball - and balance that with constantly switching lineups in order to try to create mismatches for the other team. Wouldn't be surprised to see 12 man rotations to start the season. As Winter pointed out, we don't really have "a guy" like Cam where we knew we would be out there for 40 minutes and step up in big moments, so hopefully by the time we got to conference play someone can step up (my bet is on Hill).