THE HOME FOR LU SPORTS TALK

For reference I'll use Sunday as the start of a new week. Conference games during the week ending 12-31-16 finds the first upset with HBU winning at Sam on Thursday. Also UNO defeated ACU Thursday. Saturdays matchups has McNeese defeating Norhwestern St in overtime(upset #2), Southeastern La defeating ACU, Nicholls defeating Incarnate Word, SFA winning at home over HBU, Sam Houston looses at UCA by two points after going up by one with 6 seconds left and fouling the three point shooter with one second left (upset #3) and Corpus Christi and New Orleans goes to overtime with UNO winning by one for upset #4 of the week. Lamar's game Monday at UCA looks much tougher after…

Last non-conference game. Should be another blowout win against a lower division school. Just hope that the team has played enough quality opponents that they are ready for conference. At least this year LU isn't opening it's conference season against one of the top teams, but it will still be on the road.

At the under twelve time out LU is up by 12 points as one would expect. Main negative is defensive effort as Nzeakor and Weisbrod both have two fouls.

Lamar takes on Liberty this evening at 7:00 PM in the Montange. As this is the last meaningful opponent before conference I see this as a near must win game for the Cards. Lamar is a slight favorite according to Massey even though Liberty is currently ranked higher. The next two games before conference are feel good games that Lamar should dominate and if they don't, then expectations for conference play goes down fast. McNeese is currently the only conference opponent ranked lower than Lamar.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/sports/hs/article/Former-Lamar-coach-Woodard-applies-for-BISD-s-10810093.php Good Luck to him. I don't see why he wouldn't be a good hire for Athletic Director.

Can we talk about the LU basketball Cards for just a sec? Nothing deep or earth shattering but so far the Cards are 7-5 on the season and they have recorded some pretty nice wins so far. Think about it, the have wins against FBS schools like Oregon State and UT-San Antonio. They have nice wins over Prairie View A&M and they gave Fresno State a run for their money. The Cards ended up losing by 19 but the game was closer than that most of the way. A 19-5 run in the first half by Fresno so of put the game away for them but Lamar pulled to within 4 with 8 minutes left before they finally succumbed to the Bulldogs. Is this where you thought we'd be in Tic Price's second se…

Central Arkansas wins their first round game 31-24 over Illinois State after trailing by up to 10 points through the first three quarters. I know the FCS rankings have been favorable to the Missouri Valley Conference all year there are several 7 & 4 teams that got overlooked to pick Illinois State at 6 & 5. But to make an argument against the pick UCA should have beaten them soundly. Nest up is Eastern Washington next Saturday at 3 PM Central Time. Sam Houston will play at 2 PM Central Time against Chattanooga who won easily today.

3:50 remaining in the first half and the Cards are down by five. Lamar is having another terrible shooting performance. Can't make layups. Lamar is shooting 29% from the field. The team has trailed all but about two minutes of the game. UTRGV builds a little lead and the Cards come back but can't seem to keep the momentum going. Too many turnovers also with the Cards committing 8 at this point.

Is this who we want as our athletic director? -Zero people skills -Zero communication skills -Lacks personality -Poor public relations with fans and community. -Most of his hires have been failures. -All the Lamar coaches think he is a joke as a leader (athletic director). -It looks like higher administrators keeps him as a puppet and a robot. He is just a "yes man". Hiring a consulting firm for a Southland Conference head football coach shows his insecurity as an athletic director!!! *He has zero contacts* Is this the person we want to lead our university? Hopefully Dr. Evans, President of the University, realizes what most of us think. Henderson must GO!

Didn't get to follow this game as family duties got in the way, but see that LU did what they should have and blew away this small school. While LU needs the confidence of a win, I'm not sure this kind of game is good for anything in preparation for conference. Bosha's numbers look good. Glad to see he appears to be headed in the right direction. 10 steals is impressive even against this very week competition.

fbschedules.com posted today that Lamar will face A&M in 2019. Lamar will receive a $500,000 payday. Compare that to the $375,000 we got for the 2014 game. We are scheduled to play North Texas in 2017 but I do not know the payout for that game. I have yet to see an FBS game on the docket for 2018.

Been meaning to post this for a couple days. This is a huge honor for him and he will get a chance to showcase his talent against some of the best players in the country as well as infront of NFL scouts and coaches. Last year, 104 players were selected across all levels of college Football (FBS, FCS, D-II, D-III & NAIA) to play with only 8 being from non FBS level. This year so far there have been 66 accepted invites and 8 from non FBS including Langley. http://lamarcardinals.com/news/2016/12/5/football-langley-receives-invite-to-senior-bowl.aspx

Cards loose 80 - 61. Similar story to the last two games, Lack of size means LU has trouble scoring inside and that hurts the outside game also. Team may be shooting a higher percentage for the year from the three point line than they are overall on field goals. Chatman scored 21 points for his first really positive game in a while. Bosha played about ten good minutes with two or three steals and scored 10 points. Don't think Weisbrod made a field goal but did make six free throws.

The final four teams have been announced for the NCAA playoff for the 2016 National Champion. Ohio State Alabama Clemson Washington I wonder how the Big 10 champion Penn State Nittany Lions feel about that. The selection committee pretty much rendered winning a conference championship meaningless by voting in Ohio State over Penn State. I'm pissed that they did that. Penn State has a real bitch about being screwed over by the selection committee but few disagree with the committee's choices. It's a messed up situation.

Lamar takes the court tonight against San Francisco at 9:00 PN CT. San Fran is currently five and one, with there one loss to be at Eastern Washington. SF should present Lamar with a significant challenge as they only have two players on their team shorter than 6' 3". All of their wins are against D-1 competition so we will see what Lamar learned from their game at Idaho State.

Video here: https://eversport.tv/big-sky/basketball-mens/2016/11/30/lamar-at-idaho-state Stats here: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=151893

I have a list of names that have shown some interest in the job at Lamar, plus 1 who Lamar should absolutely go after. http://theexaminer.com/stories/sports/who-will-be-next-lamar-university-football-coach

Ray Woodard is no longer coach of Lamar football...just saw the live press conference on Channel 12 Facebook

As this young season progresses this is another important game for the men. The upset win at Oregon State raises the expectation and while this game is on the road it is a game that according to Massey Ratings, Lamar should be favored to win. It should be a tough game but if Lamar is to continue to move forward and improve its rating a win against PV and then Idaho St are high on the expectation list. Game time is 4:00 PM

hopefully we have a good home crowd tonight.

After Week 1 15.) Sam Houston St. 18.) McNeese St. 38.) Central Arkansas 73.) Northwestern St. 78.) SFA 79.) Southeastern Louisiana 81.) Lamar 84.) Abilene Christian 98.) Nicholls St. 107.) Incarnate Word 121.) Houston Baptist Southland Conference Ranked 9th of 13 http://www.masseyratings.com/cf/compare1aa.htm

Overall Standings After Week 11 1.) KABrother - 240 (127-53) 2.) Skinny1 - 226 (116-64) 3.) puddin tane - 222 (120-60) 4.) geezer - 221 (110-70) 5.) Dracula - 172 (99-66) 6.) Eagle Eye - 155 (88-47) 7.) lu cards - 35 (23-22) 8.) Cardinal Nation - 14 (9-6) 9.) lamar1 - 13 (8-7)

1-Point Games: LSU 54 vs Texas A&M 39 Washington 45 vs Washington St. 17 Boise St. 20 vs Air Force 27 TCU 31 vs Texas 9 Baylor 35 vs Texas Tech 54 Tech 28 vs Georgia 27 Auburn 12 vs Alabama 30 Mississippi St. 55 vs Ole Miss 20 Norte Dame 27 vs USC 45 Oregon 24 vs Oregon St. 34 Utah 22 vs Colorado 27 Tennessee 34 vs Vanderbilt 45 Florida 13 vs Florida St. 31 2-Point Games: Illinois St. 24 vs Central Arkansas 31 Game Of The Week With Score: Michigan 27 vs Ohio St. 30

Lamar had 6 players recognized at 7 positions. 1st Team: DB - Brendan Langley PR - Brendan Langley 2nd Team: DB: Xavier Bethany Honorable Mention: RB - Kade Harrington TE - DeAndre Jennings DL - Koby Couron LB - Cameron Hampton http://southland.org/news/2016/11/22/FB_1122160602.aspx?path=

Lamar has started this game on a positive note as they are up by four 12-8 five minutes into the first half.