Lamar men are down in the Rio Grande Valley playing what used to be Pan American. Cards are shooting very good and have popped out to a 26 - 4 lead with 11:35 left in the first half. A couple of games for comparison. UTRGV has defeated A&M-CC and Prairie View.

Edited November 24, 20187 yr by geezer

After starting out with a very high field goal percentage Lamar has cooled off and the turnover bug has reared it's ugly head again and LU is only up by eight points at the half. Lamar has eleven turnovers resulting in fourteen UTRVG points. Lamar has three players in double figures with Nzeakor and Atwood with eleven points and Garth with ten. Atwood, Jeudy and Hunter each have two fouls.

LU up by 10 in the second half.

Game tied with 3 minutes left. Will they lose another game in the closing minutes?

Tic needs to man up. He lets his team take the foot off the pedal. He needs to have some damn fire.

LU fades again in the second half to lose a game. Coach Price was a good choice after the Pat Knight debacle but it's becoming evident he's taken this team as high it can go.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Freethrows, Freethrows, Freethrows. Lamar doesn't have a go to player and doesn't have anybody that really wants the ball bad enough. You can't expect to continue to shoot 70% from the field which the Cards did early in the game to build the large lead. You have to be able to protect the ball and you have to win the fifty-fifty balls. During the late part of the first half and all of the second half, UTRGV's Varner and Levi got just about every loose ball. In addition to the turnovers and missed freethrows Lamar picked up several silly fouls because of lack of intensity. Agree that Price has produced about as much as he is capable of as a coach. In five full seasons Lamar has never had a real offense that created shots. Too many high school moves by the guards and for that matter the forwards too.

LU fades again in the second half to lose a game. Coach Price was a good choice after the Pat Knight debacle but it's becoming evident he's taken this team as high it can go.

Coach Price was a cheap replacement for Knight. Lamar teams under him look like the McNeese teams he coached. I think Marco Born has a decision to make if we don’t make the conference tournament for sure. He has been given his chance.

And remember McNeese got rid of him.

While I have never thought Price could get Lamar back to consistent top three regular season performances, I don't see this team screwing up bad enough not to get to the conference tournement and for that matter not achieving a winning season. I would expect that they end up the non-conference schedule with six perhaps seven wins. SMU and Houston are probably losses but Rice, CS Bakersfield and Texas Southern are all three potentially winable games. Howard Payne and Champion Christian should be feel good wins to ease into conference. I don't remember if this is a contract year for Price but if it's not I would doubt seriously that Born would fire him with any payout needed to settle the contract.

Coach Price received a three year contract extension last year.

With Price in the first year of a three year contract I will guarantee unless there is a scandal he will be the coach through at least next year. Born might find the money for a one year buy out but Price has too many friends in Beaumont and it is a much tougher sell to fire a coach who is at least winning. I would think if Born were to make a move to replace Price he would need to have a proven winner lined up to take his place.

I have nothing against Price and probably it doesn’t matter if he stays or goes, LU basketball is stuck in mediocrity for good.

My measuring stick for Lamar’s BB program is conference wins and home attendance, which are somewhat related. Our home OOC schedule is a joke in that it does nothing but pad the season record. I only buy season tickets to support the school.

TCU assistant Scott Cross is out there for the taking. He built a solid program at UTA and lost his job after his best player suffered injuries. He has great in-state ties and can recruit at an incredible level.

As Geezer said, I think Price has 2 more years to prove he can’t get it done based on his contract.

I don’t think Marco Born gave him that contract. Marco understands that he can’t sell a loser. 19 games isn’t a loser by any means but it’s apparently not exciting enough basketball to put people in the seats.

 

Marco gets it. Lamar will be fine.

As Geezer said, I think Price has 2 more years to prove he can’t get it done based on his contract.

 

Since his arrival, Born has been building a lot of leash credit, in the administration bank. He has shown that he is not afraid to fire coaches and staff. If Coach Price's program starts to look like Woodard's non run of success and quite frankly, to me, it does, then,I don't think that he makes next year. As far as a buyout liability, I don't think he and the administration would worry about that. The reason being how much did the softball coach get along with the assistant coach, who was retained on the payroll, during her pregnancy. How much did Lamar payout to Woodard? I think that Coach Price is on the hot seat.

If memory serves correctly Woodard either had one year left of his contract was not renewed. Also Woodard had a loosing season which I'm not expecting with basketball.

Price was working at LU before he took over the coaching job so I'm thinking that if Born really wanted to go another direction then Price could possibly be reassigned to other duties outside of coaching. A full buyout of his contract may not be necessary.

Price was working at LU before he took over the coaching job so I'm thinking that if Born really wanted to go another direction then Price could possibly be reassigned to other duties outside of coaching. A full buyout of his contract may not be necessary.

 

Very good point, he was working as the athletic department travel agent. Wonder if the wording in his contract extension addresses this option.