Cards resting on tournament bubble

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Cards resting on tournament bubble

BEAUMONT - It all began with high hopes. And early on, those high hopes didn't seem ridiculous.

As the Lamar Cardinals finished up their non-conference schedule in late December, they appeared to be improving steadily - week by week, game by game.

They had just polished off Northern Illinois by 11 points at home before Christmas and, despite a 25-point loss at Memphis, coach Steve Roccaforte and his players suspected they were into something good.

Why shouldn't they contend for a Southland Conference championship?

Two months later, after a 4-6 record, all they can hope for now is a berth in the Southland Conference Tournament. Perhaps there, at the Campbell Center in Houston, they can catch fire and win three games in three days, punching their ticket to the NCAAs.

Isn't that what makes March Madness so great?

"We know that's the goal right now - trying to get to the tournament. We know if we can get to the tournament, we can do big things," reserve guard Ray Sansom said.

"Everybody knows most of the losses we've had, we've put them on ourselves - they weren't because of the opposing team. It was like, basically, about turnovers. If we can get to that tournament, we can basically prove a point: The records don't mean anything. That's what we're on right now."

At this point, the Cardinals are more likely to make the conference tournament than to miss it. But with six games left in the regular season, it's not a lock.

As it stands, Lamar is tied for seventh place with McNeese State, but the Cards would enter the tournament as the eighth-seeded team because they lost to McNeese in their first game (the rematch is Feb. 24).

Lamar and McNeese are a half-game ahead of Nicholls State for No. 8 and a half-game behind Texas-Arlington for No. 6.

A look at some the factors that will shape the next three weeks:

Lamar's remaining schedule

The Cardinals have three home games and three road games, beginning with Thursday's 7 p.m. game at Central Arkansas.

Of the Cardinals' six remaining opponents, they have faced five of them once already this season. LU has defeated Central Arkansas and Nicholls; but has lost to McNeese State, Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana.

Lamar will also play host to league-leading Texas A&M Corpus-Christi next week.

Lamar has not yet defeated an SLC team with an equal or better record - and four of the Cards' final six opponents own an equal or better record. Also, Lamar is 1-10 in road games this season.

Worth noting: McNeese has lost three games in a row and faces Northwestern State, the East Division leader, at 7 p.m. today. ... Central Arkansas, which is not eligible for the conference tournament, has lost three in a row. ... SLU has won seven of its last eight games, with its only loss coming in overtime at Northwestern.

Contenders for the No. 8 seed

Nicholls State, sitting a half-game behind Lamar and McNeese, could be the most dangerous team to overtake the Cardinals.

The Colonels have won two of their last three, and they led A&M-Corpus Christi at halftime before falling, 107-91. Nicholls leads the Southland Conference in 3-pointers and has the league's leading scorer in Stefan Blaszczynski (18.5 points per game).

In their only meeting so far, the Colonels lost to Lamar by seven points, 89-82, as the Cardinals shot 64 percent from 3-point range, by far their best mark of the season. The two teams meet again in Thibodaux, La., on March 1.

McNeese, currently the No. 7 seed, came back from a 13-point deficit to turn back the Cardinals, 68-60, on Jan. 28, when Lamar played without center James Davis or coach Steve Roccaforte (Davis was in uniform but out of the lineup; Roccaforte was serving a one-game suspension after getting tossed from the Cards' previous game).

McNeese visits Lamar on Feb. 24.

Worth noting: UTA, currently the No. 6 seed, has won four of its last five conference games after starting league play at 1-5.

Contenders' schedules

Of the four teams between sixth and ninth place in the Southland Conference overall standings, No. 6 UTA has the toughest remaining schedule; the Mavericks' five opponents own a combined conference record of 30-23 (.566).

Lamar, with three games against teams with above-.500 records, has the second-toughest road; the Cardinals' six remaining opponents are 34-30 in SLC play (.531).

Nicholls State, which has five games left on its schedule, faces teams with a 25-28 conference record - but the Colonels, to a large degree, control their own destiny. Although they are currently the ninth-place team, they can make up ground quickly because they face McNeese and Lamar - the two teams directly ahead of them in the standings.

McNeese, meanwhile, can break out of its recent slump with a schedule that lightens up toward the end. The Cowboys' upcoming opponents are a combined 27-37 (.422).

Worth noting: After facing last-place UTSA on Thursday, the Mavericks face three straight teams with winning records. ... After playing host to Northwestern State today, McNeese squares off against three straight losing teams. ... Nicholls finishes up with three straight games against losing teams.

No lone replacement for Zeek

If anyone has wondered why Lamar never replaced associate athletics director Paul Zeek, his longtime friend and former boss has a simple explanation.

"No, we never hired anybody to fill that position," athletics director Billy Tubbs said. "I filled it."

Over the previous three years, while Tubbs was pulling double duty as athletics director and men's basketball coach, he trusted Zeek and a handful of other university officials to take care of day-to-day operations within the athletics department.

In fact, during an interview with The Enterprise last summer, Tubbs said Zeek had basically "run the athletic department for us for the past three years."

Zeek, who spent 35 years at Lamar in some capacity and served as an administrator since 1991, retired to Boerne last summer.

Other officials, such as Barry Johnson, vice president of student affairs at LU, oversaw important projects, such as the refurbishing of facilities after Hurricane Rita. Robert Dirk, hired two years ago as director of the Montagne Center, also helped in that capacity, helping to supervise Cardinal Stadium as well.

Now that Tubbs is once again the AD only, he said he has re-taken most of the responsibilities he gave up.

The school also hired Jason Henderson as its full-time compliance coordinator in April. A 2003 graduate of Texas A&M, Henderson oversees scholarships and compliance with the NCAA; he also serves as game manager for most men's events on campus.

Henderson came to Lamar from Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he served as academic coordinator while earning a master's degree in business administration.

"Jason took over those (compliance) duties when he got here," Tubbs said. "That's mostly what Mr. Zeek had been doing. We've got a good staff here, and we didn't miss a beat. It's really that simple."