Big opportunity for the Cards Monday night. A win against Southern Miss and Lamar is in position to have a winning record at the end of the non-conference portion of the season. The game will be Southern Miss's third game in a row against SLC competition with a win over Northwestern St and a loss to McNeese. While you can never really judge how a team will stack up against common opponents, it will give some insight to where Lamar is compared to other SLC programs. Game time is 7 PM in Beaumont.

Watching on ESPN+. Audio is horrible. Looks like maybe 40 people there?

Whew, they fixed audio

At the under twelve minute timeout the game is tied at 16. Overall a pretty evenly played game.

3:12 left in the half and although USM got to a five point lead, it is back to tied at 33. The Cards will have the ball when play resumes.

Even LU's social media person isn't interested in the game. No Twitter updates so far.

Lamar down by three at the half. 38-35 Difference in the game is three pointers. USM has seven to Lamar's 3. Lamar continues to have problems defending the three point shot. Lamar seems to get out of position trying to help on the inside and leaving the opponents open and spotted up for the three.

Edited December 19, 20232 yr by geezer

IMO, BB Knight should be playing 25-30 minutes a game. LU really needs to win this game headed into the LSU contest.

Through the first eight minutes of the second half the Cards have been in one of their offensive funks with turnovers and poor shot selection, getting down by thirteen before getting a three pointer to get back to ten down.

I hope the AD has already started looking for a new coach. Brooks isn't getting the job done. Another subpar year and zero fan excitement.

Cards continue to fight back and at the under eight timeout are down by eight but going to the free throw line. 64-56

Cards pull to within one point on a Terry Anderson drive to the basket with 3:47 left in the game and Anderson going to the line to try and tie the game up after the timeout.

Lamar falls by three points 82-79.

Lamar falls by three points 82-79.

 

Of course they do. Just fire Brooks already.

Absolutely piss poor finish!

 

Why didnt we get a decent game tying shot off??

After getting the ball with the game tied and 1:43 left Lamar turns the ball over twice in last 1:18 and are unable to overcome them.

This was a very encouraging performance against a good Sunbelt Conference opponent that won the conference last year. In my opinion, this is the best LU team in many years. I agree we struggled to defend the 3 for most of the game, but this team plays with a lot of energy and fights through adversity. BB Knight is a pure shooter who I'd like to see on the floor more, but Pennebaker really found his stroke on mid range jumpers and is a better defender. They shared the floor some last night and I hope we see more of that in coming games.

Hopefully it is still fixable, but the biggest disappointment for me was two stretches that Lamar really was forcing the ball on offense and settling for poor shots or turnovers. The first one was when Southern Miss built the lead out to thirteen over just a few minutes and the second time was the last two minutes of the game. The end of game was similar to the loss against Pacific.

Watching on ESPN+. Audio is horrible. Looks like maybe 40 people there?

 

why didnt you go?

This was a very encouraging performance against a good Sunbelt Conference opponent that won the conference last year. In my opinion, this is the best LU team in many years. I agree we struggled to defend the 3 for most of the game, but this team plays with a lot of energy and fights through adversity. BB Knight is a pure shooter who I'd like to see on the floor more, but Pennebaker really found his stroke on mid range jumpers and is a better defender. They shared the floor some last night and I hope we see more of that in coming games.

 

i agree this is the best team weve had in a while , BUT, southern miss isnt very good and with the exception of 2 teams, the sunbelt is pretty weak

This was a very encouraging performance against a good Sunbelt Conference opponent that won the conference last year. In my opinion, this is the best LU team in many years. I agree we struggled to defend the 3 for most of the game, but this team plays with a lot of energy and fights through adversity. BB Knight is a pure shooter who I'd like to see on the floor more, but Pennebaker really found his stroke on mid range jumpers and is a better defender. They shared the floor some last night and I hope we see more of that in coming games.

 

LU basketball has sucked for many years so saying this is the best team in many years isn't saying much. Southern Miss is not very good and and LU has shown again that they cannot even beat mediocre teams. Brooks was a failed head coach back at UH and he's proven here that he was never meant to be a head coach.

LU basketball has sucked for many years so saying this is the best team in many years isn't saying much. Southern Miss is not very good and and LU has shown again that they cannot even beat mediocre teams. Brooks was a failed head coach back at UH and he's proven here that he was never meant to be a head coach.

 

Southern Miss won the Sunbelt last year and is better than every team in the Southland with the exception of a very loaded McNeese with all of the studs Will Wade has brought in. Andre Curbelo, former Big 10 6th Man of the Year and All Big 10 Freshmen team back when Illinois was ranked #1 in the country became eligible in time to play last night. I believe he scored 14 points with 6 assists, 6 rebounds and at least 2 steals that I recall. He was the difference in the game. He wasn't eligible for any prior games this season. He may have changed the outcome when Southern Miss played McNeese. I'm with you on the performance of LU during the last decade or more. I've been a fan since I was a student from 82-86. I have endured all of the terrible and mediocre seasons. However, I thoroughly enjoyed their home games against UTSA, ULM and Southern Miss. This team competes hard and is fun to watch. It's a shame there aren't more people watching.

Southern Miss won the Sunbelt last year and is better than every team in the Southland with the exception of a very loaded McNeese with all of the studs Will Wade has brought in. Andre Curbelo, former Big 10 6th Man of the Year and All Big 10 Freshmen team back when Illinois was ranked #1 in the country became eligible in time to play last night. I believe he scored 14 points with 6 assists, 6 rebounds and at least 2 steals that I recall. He was the difference in the game. He wasn't eligible for any prior games this season. He may have changed the outcome when Southern Miss played McNeese. I'm with you on the performance of LU during the last decade or more. I've been a fan since I was a student from 82-86. I have endured all of the terrible and mediocre seasons. However, I thoroughly enjoyed their home games against UTSA, ULM and Southern Miss. This team competes hard and is fun to watch. It's a shame there aren't more people watching.

 

Agree with your last couple posts. Curbelo was the difference in the game. But, I have couple points. One, Pennebaker is not a better defender than Knight. Plus, BB is head and shoulders above Cody as a shooter. Just take a look at their shooting percentages. Finally, Lamar has assembled a nice roster but they keep losing close games, continuing to play the same players who keep making the same mistakes when the game is in the balance. I am not bashing the players as some of it it falls on coaching.

Agree with your last couple posts. Curbelo was the difference in the game. But, I have couple points. One, Pennebaker is not a better defender than Knight. Plus, BB is head and shoulders above Cody as a shooter. Just take a look at their shooting percentages. Finally, Lamar has assembled a nice roster but they keep losing close games, continuing to play the same players who keep making the same mistakes when the game is in the balance. I am not bashing the players as some of it it falls on coaching.

 

You may be right about Knight being a better defender. I've seen both of them do good things on defense and I've also seen both of them fail to rotate quick enough to guard shooters. I'm no basketball mastermind and probably have been swayed in my opinion by watching Brooks sub in Pennebaker strictly on defense. We've lost too many close games already and it may be coaching deficiency, but I think we win last night if Hamilton doesn't lose control of the ball on the baseline and we don't turn it over on the inbound pass on the sideline in the last two minutes, not to mention the non call on Hamilton's made shot when he was obviously hacked. I'm still holding out hope for a good season. At the very least, I'm thrilled to see us play decent teams competitively!! We all want the same thing!! Let's hope we get it soon.

Southern Miss won the Sunbelt last year and is better than every team in the Southland with the exception of a very loaded McNeese with all of the studs Will Wade has brought in. Andre Curbelo, former Big 10 6th Man of the Year and All Big 10 Freshmen team back when Illinois was ranked #1 in the country became eligible in time to play last night. I believe he scored 14 points with 6 assists, 6 rebounds and at least 2 steals that I recall. He was the difference in the game. He wasn't eligible for any prior games this season. He may have changed the outcome when Southern Miss played McNeese. I'm with you on the performance of LU during the last decade or more. I've been a fan since I was a student from 82-86. I have endured all of the terrible and mediocre seasons. However, I thoroughly enjoyed their home games against UTSA, ULM and Southern Miss. This team competes hard and is fun to watch. It's a shame there aren't more people watching.

 

Well, that is one big thing that aggravates me. They have one guy who is hot from the 3. So, who do we keep leaving open? THAT GUY! We do NOT make adjustments. We are going to play the same sorry defensive scheme come hell or high water. Sometimes you have to say "hey, let's change up. Do NOT let this guy get off a three." It was much worse last year but it is still bad this year. We do a VERY poor job of defending the 3 and that is because of the defensive scheme - always wanting to trap.