Lamar travels to ULM on Saturday. With only two games left until conference, this may give us an idea of the chance of being more than a bottom tier team in conference. Sam Houston defeated ULM by 26 this week and Lamar played Sam close at least once last year. ULM last two games are losses to Northwestern St and Sam Houston. They don't have any of what I would consider quality wins, so maybe there is a chance.

LU is rated 356 out of 360 teams. I don't think even Pat Knight was this bad. Anyone notice that UH is actually better since Brooks left?

At the under twelve-minute timeout Lamar is down by six. ULM is on a 6-0 run with the ball, after Lamar turns the ball over on consecutive possessions. 16-10.

Lamar can not defend the 3 pt shot! LMU is leading 16-10 at the 12:26 media timeout.

Brooks is going to have to stop playing three small guards. Besides, everyone playing Lamar with bigger guards, the Lamar guards continue to turn the ball over on lazy passes and circus shots because they are trying to shoot around the defense instead of over or through.

Halftime with ULM up by 21, 40-19. Lamar has nine turnovers, with six of them by the guards.

Pryor has 1 assist in the first half!

As a team Lamar shot under 30% in the first half. Calmese was two for five, the other three small guards that played were two for eleven. Pennebaker is zero for five attempts. Lamar is one for ten from the three-point line.

Lamar falls 83-59.

Lamar falls 83-59.

I will say it again and again and again: BROOKS CANNOT COACH!!! One day maybe we will try to find someone who can actually COACH!!! Not an assistant not a recruiting specialist. A COACH!!!

There are only two coaches in Lamar's basketball history that might have been a coach and one of those I never saw coach was Jack Martin and Pat Foster. For all his wins, Billy Tubbs was more of a recruiter, than a coach. My problem with Brooks right now is he is sticking with the three small guards. Lamar played Yamanouchi and Hamilton and together for a little bit and it seemed successful, especially when Pennebaker was playing with them. For my money, Buckley and Pryor would be my eighth or ninth players. Not impressed with Gordon yet either.

I don't see any reason to pay any attention to LU basketball. After the Pat Knight disaster Tic Price quietly stabilized the program with consistent mediocre teams. Now Brooks comes in and it's back to crash mode, but this time LU is straddled with his 5 year contract. Just insane how badly LU athletics is run.

I will say it again and again and again: BROOKS CANNOT COACH!!! One day maybe we will try to find someone who can actually COACH!!! Not an assistant not a recruiting specialist. A COACH!!!

 

There was a reason he stayed an assistant all those years after failing as a head coach. But he was a LU alum and star player 40 years ago so that was more important than hiring a winner.

Ironically, I won't say he was a good coach, but Pat Knight could coach, he couldn't recruit and with the transfer portal probably wouldn't have been able to keep players. With Brooks, Lamar might be back to a similar place as it was with Roccaforte and in the Southland that might be good enough to get back to mediocre by the time the season is over.