Colorado State Rams

[lmu2008]

Dec 22, 2023 23:59:36 GMT -5 thebluff said:

CSJ threw Harris in the corner tonight to rot away. No action to get him the ball, no scheme offensively. Great game by Johnston.

We have to go out of our way to get Harris the ball. Barring foul trouble, he should be taking 12+ shots every game (8 tonight). I believe Harris is our highest rated player EVER and right now it feels like we're wasting his talents.

[golions1444]

Story of the season. Lots of ind. talent, but not a good TEAM.

If you want evidence of this look no further that our assists per game average sitting at about 300th in the nation.

[thebluff]

Harris only got 1 shot in the second half. Was stuck in the corner, nothing ran for him. Very frustrating! I thought it was a winnable game despite it all.

[waterboy]

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 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.

[fryer4three]

First time I watched the lions on tv this year. I feel bad for you guys.

Terribly coached squad. No sets, no semblance of an offense, no real identity. Looks like a bunch of individual street ballers that are thrown out there and expected to win.

This is what? Year 4 of Stan? Any improvement seen? I sure couldn’t see it tonight

[ALioninWinter]

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such unity in the messages and thoughts on this site. While there’s no shame in losing somewhat closely to a Top 20 team, even at home; this was a very frustrating game to watch. Despite the quality of the CSU team (and they are a good team. Not great, but good), this was a game that was highly winnable.

CSU is well coached and the players are disciplined in their approach. I think we have an edge in athleticism and I know we have an edge in size. But we were unable to make either work for us tonight. And I think this has been a consistent thought thru the first 5-6 weeks of the season.

I’ve played many a pick-up game where my team had more cohesiveness than what I’ve seen with this team. It’s hard to believe they’ve been playing together now for several months. And it’s very apparent that the players aren’t on the same page as the coach. How there can be so much confusion on what to do or where to stand when Coach Stan obviously hasn’t taught the guys much in the way of sets, offensive plays or defensive alignments?

CSU is a well balanced team. They have one very good player, no outstanding player and a roster full of guys who obviously follow their coach’s guidance. I’m quite familiar with Nique Clifford. He played 3A ball in Colorado where he absolutely dominated what was pretty weak competition. He was Colorado’s POY 2 or 3 years ago. He’s good but there’s no way he should go 9/10 from the field. He is the kind of player who presents the biggest challenge for our guys - a rangy wing 3-spot kind of guy because Coach Stan failed to bring in any 3-spot players.

There was a real contrast in styles evident tonight. While we essentially had 4 statues and one guy running around, the Rams were in constant motion. Not only did they basically double up our assists number, it wasn’t until the 16+ minute mark of the first period that we managed to record our first assist! That’s awful!

It looks like we need to put Coach Stan into marketing and promotions and get someone who knows something about running a basketball team.

[hankandboshow]

Wow, some very harsh criticisms of Coach Stan. 

And sadly, just about all of them are spot on.

Can't dispute any of the points made.

Here we are again.

[golions1444]

Let’s have some positivity guys..the Instagram videos are still pretty good!

[fryer4three]

Stan is outsmarting all of you.

You didn’t realize that if the play is so terrible he could use “raise the STANdard” as his slogan for the 5th straight year, did you?

[lionlife]

So here's the key question - has the program progressed under Stan? I'd still venture to say we are in a better place than where we were four years ago.

[lmu2008]

Dec 23, 2023 22:52:19 GMT -5 lionlife said:

So here's the key question - has the program progressed under Stan? I'd still venture to say we are in a better place than where we were four years ago.

Agreed that our program is in a better place now vs when Stan took over. However, the difference is that the program was going nowhere with Dunlap as head coach (and therefore at least I had low expectations). CSJ has given us hope that we'd be a NCAA tournament team, but we're nowhere close to that at the moment.

To be clear, I was and still am all in on CSJ, but cracks in my faith are starting to emerge.

Consistency is tough to come by with the new transfer rules, and even the Zags are having a down year. But if there was a year for us to pounce and win the WCC tourney, it's this year. But the odds currently look slim. I hope I'm wrong and the team finds a new gear for conference play.

[ALioninWinter]

The other teams in the WCC certainly are having their struggles and this is a great time for LMU to look good. I firmly believe the team has the talent to put together a very solid league season, BUT the guys need to figure it out and Coach Stan needs to make some adjustments to what he is doing. For now, I remain positive … but hesitant.

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

Agree with the last two comments. I just want to add that I’d rather be peaking as a team in late February/early March than in December. Hoping that’s the case.

[lmu2015]

Half the battle of college basketball is getting talent to the school, which CSJ has successfully been able to do. Also, this season will likely conclude the best 4 year stretch of basketball since the late 80s under Westhead. So has frustrating as it is to watch this team underperform and not play well, it is still probably one of the 4-5 bets teams we have had in the last 30 years. The fact that we are frustrated with a .500 season shows how far the program has progressed under Stan, and hopefully he can keep moving it forward. And if he can't, we will probably move onto someone else because regardless of school history, coaches who maintain .500 records usually don't get extensions.

[LIONS90045]

Dec 26, 2023 14:23:50 GMT -5 thx4leavinjimlynam said:

Agree with the last two comments. I just want to add that I’d rather be peaking as a team in late February/early March than in December. Hoping that’s the case.

Will we peak in Feb/Mar? I hope so too.
Tonite vs Tarleton State will be a test of our progress in the last week.