THE HOME FOR LU SPORTS TALK

Lost game 1 to Texas Southern. That shit will get you fired.

Lamar men close out their current road swing at Southeastern tomorrow with a 6 PM tip off. The Cards are one and one on the road swing with an embarrassing loss at UIW and a nice win at UNO. Lamar defeated the Lions by ten at home, but that was Southeastern's last loss. The Lions are on a six-game winning streak including a win against conference leader McNeese. In light of their recent history, this may be a very tough game and it may be another embarrassment. Will Lamar still be tied for second after tomorrow evening with two home games next weekend against McNeese and Corpus or will Lamar be trying to figure out how to stay in the top four.

Cards open the 24 baseball season with three games hosted by South Alabama. Cards open at noon today against Southern Indiana. Hopefully the Cards will set a positive tone for the season as none of the teams involved are from major conferences. Conference season starts in about a month and the schedule appears to have a lot of opportunity for wins.

With a two and two record after the first weekend of play, Lamar returns to Lake Charles for another multi-team event. Highlight of the weekend will be a Saturday afternoon game with NCAA Champion Oklahoma. We will see what Lamar pitching can do.

Ladies and men play at UNO this afternoon with the ladies tipping off at 2 PM. Ladies are in control of the regular season conference championship but must still win out at this point to have sole possession. For the men this weekend and next will determine if they are true contenders for upper tier conference tournament seeding or just another of the group making the tournament. With two road games this weekend, the men still need to prove they have matured to win road games. Lamar can't afford another embarrassing game like this past Monday's at UIW.

Lady Cards and Southeastern La tipoff at 6 PM tonight for the game that will probably determine who the regular season conference champion is. The teams are tied in the loss column at one game each with third place Corpus Christi already having three losses. Each team will play Corpus one more time before the end of the regular season but without help from another SLC opponent the best Corpus can do is wind up one game back of the winner of this contest. So far Lamar has the tie-breaker with both SELA and Corpus having won the previous contest, but Lamar also will play at Commerce in this last part of the season who Lamar lost to at home early in the conference season.

The men take on UIW at 6:30 PM this evening. It is the first of a three game road swing and the Cards need to win to maintain their current tie for second place, either Nicholls or Corpus will fall out of that tie tonight as they are playing each other. Cards need to prove they have developed the maturity to control their turnovers and win on the road if they want to stay near the top of the conference.

Lamar softball season started today with a 7-2 loss to Tarleton State. Cards play four games in Lake Charles this weekend with two versus Tarleton State and two versus Tennessee State. This weekend will be followed by four more games next weekend also in Lake Charles.

Men and women take on Nicholls Saturday at home. Both the men and women won at Nicholls. It will be the second game of the week for the women who play at UIW on Thursday to start their second half of the conference season. For the men, while all conference games are critical from the standpoint that Lamar isn't good enough to think that any game is a sure win, the game against Nicholls is against a team ahead of Lamar in the standings. Lamar men are currently in fourth place and a win Saturday will either move them into a tie for third or possibly second as Corpus is playing McNeese. Another reason this game is critical is that it is one of four remaining home games …

Has anyone heard anything about any new signees?

Women begin the second half of the conference season with a 6:30 PM game at UIW. Cards are currently one-half game in back of Southeastern who will not have their bye game day until the 22nd.

Will Wade, McNeese MBB coach has signed a 5 year contract extension for a reported $700,000/year. This is more than double any other SLC MBB coach. It also includes buyouts of $1.25 million this year, and $1.0 million the following years. Wade has been rumored to being approached by DePaul University, plus others. I do not believe the buyout costs will stop any of the big schools from going after him. McNeese is currently projected to be a #12 seed in the NCAA tourney if they win conference and the SLC tourney.

These are the games you want to play in at the halfway point of the conference season. Both games are to stay at or near the top of the conference race. The ladies are tied with Corpus and Southeastern La for first and the winner will at least maintain a tie for first. The men are tied for second with Corpus for second and the winner will be in sole possession of second, but still two games back of McNeese. Ladies tipoff at 1 PM.

Cards have the early lead, 14-11 at the first media timeout.

Cards men and women take on Southeastern today with the ladies tipping off at 3. Womens' game is for a chance to tie for first place and avenge last years tournament loss, while SELA's men were originally picked to be at the top of the conference and haven't lived up to the preseason hype yet, but should still provide a very stiff opponent for the Cards.

Lady Cards at home versus UNO. Cards have a slow first half, struggling in the shooting department at 30.3%, turnovers with eleven although one less than UNO, and fouls with four players with two fouls compared to UNO with two players with two fouls and 11-6 total team fouls. Halftime score UNO 26 - Lamar 25.

Men are at home tonight against A&M Commerce. Probably another tough close game. Commerce appears to have improved their competitiveness since conference opened. Commerce has lost three of four, but the largest defeat was by six-points to McNeese. Their last game out Commerce defeated Southeastern La. Tipoff at 7PM.

Saturday double header at HCU. Women tipoff at 1:00 PM, men follow. Since we are talking about Lamar there are no guarantees, but the women should have a fairly easy win and the men is probably a little tougher but should be a win.

Lamar Ladys (10-4, 4-0) host the Texas A&M-Commerce (7-7,2-2) at the Montagne Center tonight.

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Cards hop across the river tonight to take on 14-2 McNeese tonight. Cowcrap have won their last 9 games and are undefeated at home. Should be a hostile crowd tonight, McNeese had 4200 inbreds in the stands for last Saturdays game versus SELa.

LU starts the 3 game road trip with a win. They trailed Nicholls almost the whole game.

Ladies get out to an early lead and after the first quarter are up 22-8.

Lamar has a chance to start conference off with two wins after getting the opening win Saturday. It's been a few years since the Cards won their conference opener, wonder how far back it has been since the Cards won the first two