coachacola

96-64 LU.  Mike James has no points.  ???

The WAC survives... [quote]The WAC when its all said and done will likely receive that lifeline legislation from the NCAA about the continuity rule. Something interesting is begining to happen with the WAC andthe membership merry-go-round. After the last 2 decades of primarly going after a better piece of the Pacific Coast, the WAC is now becoming a Texas based league. After the additiional subtractions to WAC membership that I have outlined above the league will consist from East to West of La. Tech, Texas State, UT-San Antonio, New Mexico State, Denver, andIdaho. To this group the league is on the verge of offering Lamar, yet another school in the old SWC footprint. Talks are now ongoing to add NorthTexas (more excited with the large number of Texas schools) and UL-Louisiana (excited to get away from UL-Monroe). Primary western candidates UC-Davis and Montana have rejected membership so its clear the WAC whether it likes it or not is forced into its new SWC type direction[/quote] I found this interesting on why he thinks North Texas and ULL would join the WAC: [quote]The SBC has been given a lot of credibility for how its outmanuvered the WAC thus far and the expanding southern markets that it has unlike the MAC. It has the lowest academic profile of any FBS conference with UL-Monroe, Troy, A-State, UALR, WKU, MTSU being US World and News Report "master's universities" and not rated as national univerisites(usually an indicator of whether a school is FBS material). That is another reason why there is a good chance of UL-Laf and UNT eventually acepting a move from the SBC (Dukes of Hazzard Country) to a more regional, academically respectable WAC. It is forgotten that this league was very much on life support like the WAC 10 years ago and forced to add all these subpar academic schools just to stay in buisness.[/quote] [Hidden Content]

81-58 LU pulling away.

Too bad the coaching doesn't turn to Lamar's favor!  ;D

[quote name="Scalp'em" post="952431" timestamp="1295650811"] [quote author=becktobigs link=topic=78663.msg952419#msg952419 date=1295649167] [quote author=bigred360 link=topic=78663.msg949666#msg949666 date=1295270770] Pat Foster was at Lamar for 6 years and made either the NCAA or NIT Tournament every year. [Hidden Content] [/quote] Everybody loves Billy but Pat Foster was the best coach we ever had. [/quote] I agree and I met him a few years ago at a church in Sugar Land. He lives there now and was a super great guy to talk to. [/quote] Pat Foster could really spit out those profanities during games!  :D

[quote name="bigred360" post="952352" timestamp="1295640152"] See there are more people than just me upset with your comments. The NFL and other Pro sports teams comparison is a little lame.   I'm done with this debate as I have more important things to do. Have a nice day! [b]BTW, I listened to the Coach Tidwell show last night and he said there are more conferences than just the WAC looking at Lamar. He said he expected a big shakeup in the WAC, Sun Belt and C-USA in the next 6-8 weeks. [/b] He mentioned no conference has talked to him directly but he knows of a couple that are looking at Lamar. [/quote] Looks like Lamar will definitely leave the SLC if another conference offers an invite.  Hopefully Tidwell has some good connections and just didn't read about that off the internet.  ???

[quote name="NorthoftheBorder" post="952374" timestamp="1295643015"] I see this as being a very sticky situation for Dr. Simmons.  I am a big fan of his and he has done a superman's job as President of LU.  I think he wants to give Roc as much time as possible to succeed.  I'm just not sure Roc can accomodate Dr. Simmons confidence in him.  I see interest in LU basketball right now to be about as low as it's been since Billy Tubbs first took the job back in 1976. [/quote] Dr. Simmons replaced Tubbs as AD with Tidwell sooner than anyone was expecting.  With Roc's contract up (I believe) after this season I don't think Dr. Simmons will have any problem not renewing his contract. 

Lamar doesn't need 4 and 5 star recruits to be successful in the WAC or any other non-BCS conference.  Take a look at Boise State's commitment list on rivals, they get mostly 2 and 3 star players.  They may get a few 4 star players but no 5 star players.  Lamar is already getting a few 2 and 3 star players now so if they do move to the WAC they should be able to get more of them.

Another article talking about the WAC. [quote]Benson said any other FCS schools that are invited before the summer would work on the same clock as Texas State, ultimately bringing the conference up to the required number of football-playing schools by the end of the grace period. None of these changes will affect the WAC's standing with the BCS, which is separate from the NCAA's rules. "We expect that beginning in 2012, we will have more than seven football-playing schools," Benson said of members such as Texas State, which will be FBS provisional in 2012. "Whether it's eight or nine, we expect at least a minimum of eight beginning in 2012 and it appears to be reasonable that we would have as many as nine football-playing schools in 2012."[/quote] The article says the WAC hopes to extend invitation before April 1st.  We should know soon if Lamar is staying or going. [Hidden Content]

Pomeroy is predicting an easy 91-76 Lamar win.  Pomeroy is also predicting Lamar will go 9-7 in conference play.  In fact, the SLC is so bad that the conference rating has dropped to 27th out of 33.  I think the SLC tourney winner will be the proud owner of a 16 seed in the NCAA tourney! Maybe Lamar can get lucky like in 2000 and win the SLC tourney, then with their .500 record they'll go to one of the play-in games and promptly blow a 10+ halftime lead and lose in the last minute to a Great West or America East Conference team.  The Lamar brass will be happy and they'll sign Roc for 5 more years! [Hidden Content]

[quote]Not much to do around the campus area, so most of the kids go back to Houston, Dallas area on the weekends. LU doesn't have restraunts, bars, fun places close to campus. LU has came along way since I was there in the early 90's, but it still has a long way to go. It would be nice to have an investor bring in a string of businesses along Rolph Christopher betwwen LU and stadium area, then maybe the students would hang out at those places before going to the games. Just a thought.[/quote] A few months ago Dr. Simmons hinted that some private development may be taking place soon around Lamar.  Hopefully they'll add more restaurants and such around the campus.  With more students and football games there should be more demand for that.

They're coming to Lamar because they want to play in the WAC, not the SLC!  ;D

[quote name="bigred360" post="950304" timestamp="1295362744"] [quote author=coachacola link=topic=78885.msg950297#msg950297 date=1295362382] Roc is not a defensive coach and never will.  Kasper at SFA knows how to teach defense so they always have solid teams.  But even after this loss Lamar should make the SLC tourney, and the SLC is weak so anything can happen. I'm afraid this team will get hot at the end of season and sneak into the NCAA tourney as a 16 seed and promptly get blown out.  But with most of the team back for next year, the brass will say Roc has turned the ship around and keep him for another 5 years. [/quote] God Coach, are you trying to make me depressed. I say the 4 1/2 years outweigh anything Coach Roc and the Men's team can do short of winning the SLC tournament championship. Anything else and IMO there should be a change. UH let Penders go after making it to the NCAA tournament last year. [/quote] With Tidwell both the women's coach and the AD plus them looking to move up to the WAC, they may not want to deal with hiring a new coach.  And frankly, they've been making bad hires the last 20 years so I'm not that confident that the next hire will be any better.

Roc is not a defensive coach and never will.  Kasper at SFA knows how to teach defense so they always have solid teams.  But even after this loss Lamar should make the SLC tourney, and the SLC is weak so anything can happen. I'm afraid this team will get hot at the end of season and sneak into the NCAA tourney as a 16 seed and promptly get blown out.  But with most of the team back for next year, the brass will say Roc has turned the ship around and keep him for another 5 years.

LU down by 3 now...what a surprise!

Freshman center Osas Ebomwonyi is 2-2 with 4 points.  Good to see him making a contribution.

Good to see Lamar get that lead back up to double digits.

Davis, Miles, Adams and James are the main scorers.  A couple of other players have a few points.  Now we'll see if this team can handle Arkansas State's second half adjustments and win this game.

[quote name="bigred360" post="950011" timestamp="1295314466"] Coach, have you found anything about when renovations are starting on the Beck? Also, when will we start construction of a softball complex? [/quote] I go here for the planned projects at Lamar:  [Hidden Content] It says they'll start on Vincent-Beck in 2011 and the softball field in 2013.

44-34 with about 1 minute left in the half.

James is due for another monster game.

Another big first half lead...probably followed by a second half meltdown!

There's a whole section on the Capital Campaign on the LU website: [quote]The giving has spread well across all areas of the university, Mouton said. So far $20 million has gone to scholarships, $20 million to academic programs, $15 million to annual programs and $15 million to athletics. Of the total amount given, 47 percent has come from alumni, 25 percent from friends of the university, and 28 percent from corporations and foundations. Of the 480 privately funded scholarships at LU, 143 have been created since the campaign began, a 35 percent increase.[/quote] Only $15 million has gone to athletics. [Hidden Content]

From an earlier Beaumont Enterprise article about Lamar moving up to FBS: [quote]Lamar announced Thursday that it would play future road games against Hawaii in 2012, Oklahoma State in 2013 and Texas A&M in 2014. The school will get payouts of $125,000 from Hawaii, $375,000 from Oklahoma State and $350,000 from A&M and Lamar will also have travel and lodging expenses paid for by Hawaii, head coach Ray Woodard said. Teams in the Bowl Subdivision commonly get much larger payouts for guarantee games. Tubbs estimated the payouts for Bowl Subdivision teams to be in the $750,000 range and above. Sun Belt school North Texas will get $975,000 to play a 2013 game at Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. South Alabama, a future football-playing member of the Sun Belt, will get $850,000 for a 2013 game at Tennessee, espn.com reported. Read more: [Hidden Content] [/quote] Lamar can double the money by being FBS.  If Lamar does join the WAC I wonder if that would affect these deals? [Hidden Content]

Pomeroy is predicting a 83-72 loss.  I'd be shocked if Lamar wins tonight but you never know.