Post by fanblade on Feb 15, 2008 14:41:07 GMT -5
Prayers have been answered and Husak is finally speaking up about the disastrous basketball season. He is writing a 3 part "Perspectives" series to update fans on what is going on. Much of it we already know but it is nice to see him finally acknowledge that things look glum. We need donors, boosters, and season ticket holders to stay on-board desperately because if lionsfund takes a hit then our sports programs will be set back even further and we cannot afford that.
lmulions.cstv.com/ot/ad-column-index.html
Recently, I was asked to address what constitutes a successful Division I men's basketball program and what is LMU's plan to get there. I was also asked what the prognosis is for our team in the future and how can people help to get our program to the highest level possible. Over the course of the next couple of months, I would like to address these three questions.
What is LMU's model for developing a successful men's basketball program? All models can be broken down into two general categories - a junior college transfer model and a freshman model. What this means is that the nucleus of your teams consists of junior college players who are enrolled at the University for 2-3 years or athletes who enroll as freshman and remain for 4-5 years. Each of these models has various nuances as to who may complement these nucleus of players. The junior college model is complemented frequently by freshman or transfers from other four year institutions while the freshman model is complemented by junior college and/or four-year institution transfers. It is rare to find these two models in a pure form as nearly every institution will have one or more of each type of student-athlete.
There is also a third model that has evolved in recent years that only briefly needs to be mentioned. That model is reserved for the very elite programs who recruit great high school players, stay for one year and then bolt for the professional ranks. With the development of the NBA Developmental league and more players opting out of college after their freshman year, this model has become one forced onto a few institutions.
Each model has its strengths and weaknesses. At Loyola Marymount University, we use a freshman model for many reasons. We believe that the opportunity to have the greatest success is through attracting quality freshman and developing them. It is tremendously rewarding for fans and all involved to watch a player through a significant period of time mature and develop within a system. It is also requires patience, trust and faith in a coaching staff's ability to recruit and develop players for success. Projecting what a 17-18 year old high school senior may become as a 22-23 year old senior is both a science and an art. With only 13 scholarships available and using a red-shirt year, the average number of scholarship available in any given year is two or three. Creating class balance within a team's roster, where any one class has two or three athletes on scholarship, is the ideal. Circumstances (student leaving a program for reasons like academics, coaching changes, professional opportunities, etc.), however, can result in class inbalance and inbalance can lead to wild fluctuations in win/loss records from season to season. A heavily laden senior team with experience can have great success in one season followed by a lack of success the following year because the team is comprised of inexperienced freshman.
The implementation of each model can also vary. One factor is where do you recruit your players? Do you recruit internationally, nationally, regionally, statewide or locally. Our goal is to recruit Los Angeles and California heavily and the majority of this year's roster consists of California players. But we also have players from Canada and Australia as well as from three other states. We try to find the very best players we can. There are many other factors that go into play as well. Some examples are the style of ball that the team plays, coaching reputations, Conference strength and the aspirations of the institution. Our goal is to win and we believe that the best way to do that is with an up-tempo pressure game against the very best competition we can find.
I believe that recruiting is the life blood of not just our men's basketball program, but the life blood of all our teams. Indeed recruiting successfully for our institution, for the business world, for politics and for anything that the final outcome is dependent upon a human factor is THE KEY. I have recruited s head coach, who in turn has recruited a staff, that is as dedicated to improving themselves as they are to recruiting and developing the players who come to be Lions.
Stability in a program and with coaches will contribute to positive efforts in recruiting and pay dividends in the long run. In the next installment of this three part series, I plan to address our prognosis for the next few years in the men's basketball program. Thank you for taking the time to read this column and as always...
lmulions.cstv.com/ot/ad-column-index.html
Recently, I was asked to address what constitutes a successful Division I men's basketball program and what is LMU's plan to get there. I was also asked what the prognosis is for our team in the future and how can people help to get our program to the highest level possible. Over the course of the next couple of months, I would like to address these three questions.
What is LMU's model for developing a successful men's basketball program? All models can be broken down into two general categories - a junior college transfer model and a freshman model. What this means is that the nucleus of your teams consists of junior college players who are enrolled at the University for 2-3 years or athletes who enroll as freshman and remain for 4-5 years. Each of these models has various nuances as to who may complement these nucleus of players. The junior college model is complemented frequently by freshman or transfers from other four year institutions while the freshman model is complemented by junior college and/or four-year institution transfers. It is rare to find these two models in a pure form as nearly every institution will have one or more of each type of student-athlete.
There is also a third model that has evolved in recent years that only briefly needs to be mentioned. That model is reserved for the very elite programs who recruit great high school players, stay for one year and then bolt for the professional ranks. With the development of the NBA Developmental league and more players opting out of college after their freshman year, this model has become one forced onto a few institutions.
Each model has its strengths and weaknesses. At Loyola Marymount University, we use a freshman model for many reasons. We believe that the opportunity to have the greatest success is through attracting quality freshman and developing them. It is tremendously rewarding for fans and all involved to watch a player through a significant period of time mature and develop within a system. It is also requires patience, trust and faith in a coaching staff's ability to recruit and develop players for success. Projecting what a 17-18 year old high school senior may become as a 22-23 year old senior is both a science and an art. With only 13 scholarships available and using a red-shirt year, the average number of scholarship available in any given year is two or three. Creating class balance within a team's roster, where any one class has two or three athletes on scholarship, is the ideal. Circumstances (student leaving a program for reasons like academics, coaching changes, professional opportunities, etc.), however, can result in class inbalance and inbalance can lead to wild fluctuations in win/loss records from season to season. A heavily laden senior team with experience can have great success in one season followed by a lack of success the following year because the team is comprised of inexperienced freshman.
The implementation of each model can also vary. One factor is where do you recruit your players? Do you recruit internationally, nationally, regionally, statewide or locally. Our goal is to recruit Los Angeles and California heavily and the majority of this year's roster consists of California players. But we also have players from Canada and Australia as well as from three other states. We try to find the very best players we can. There are many other factors that go into play as well. Some examples are the style of ball that the team plays, coaching reputations, Conference strength and the aspirations of the institution. Our goal is to win and we believe that the best way to do that is with an up-tempo pressure game against the very best competition we can find.
I believe that recruiting is the life blood of not just our men's basketball program, but the life blood of all our teams. Indeed recruiting successfully for our institution, for the business world, for politics and for anything that the final outcome is dependent upon a human factor is THE KEY. I have recruited s head coach, who in turn has recruited a staff, that is as dedicated to improving themselves as they are to recruiting and developing the players who come to be Lions.
Stability in a program and with coaches will contribute to positive efforts in recruiting and pay dividends in the long run. In the next installment of this three part series, I plan to address our prognosis for the next few years in the men's basketball program. Thank you for taking the time to read this column and as always...
Next season we lose Ziri and Kanne and gain two talented recruits. We also need to pray that our current lineup improves in the off season. It definitnely can happen. Deadwiler and Counts have stepped up huge compared to last season. If we can see OJ and Diederichs do something similar we'll be competitive. If others also improve to the same degree like Sutton, Sweezy, and Turner then we'll be very competitive.
