westendfirst

He was one of the most excellent human beings I have ever met. I was a student at the same time he was, and several of the most memorable games I have been to involved him. I know we went to the tourney the year after he was done, but I really wished we could have done it a year earlier so Matt would have had that opportunity. Will you please take that obnoxious TT flag off this site. It is an LU site.

The women's problem was they were too successfull too quickly under Barbre....and they beat the wrong people..UT and LSU on the way there. Why doesn't the NCAA take away everything UNLV accomplished or OU with K Sampson. Or almost every other program out there. It's a joke on how they pick certain schools or certain teams to punish. I'm with ABTR...the NCAA can't take away what those girls accomplished on the court. They were awesome.

I went to this game and I will have to say I was impressed with the way LU played. I'll have to give coach Roc a lot of credit (I suppose it's only fair since I've been pretty critical of him this year). The kids played with a lot of heart/passion/effort. I was very impressed with our defensive effort. I love watching fast paced basketball but my main concern with it is that it often leads to 'lazy' defense. This was not at all the case last night. LU really got after them on the defensive end the entire game. Just from an athletic/physical presence standpoint, I thought SE La was equivalent to us. It wasn't a game where I was thinking 'wow, we have a lot more talent than they do..we should win this easily'. So, kudos to Roc and the kids! Btw, Sanders played fantastic. He was almost unstoppable in the post. He made some offensive moves that I did not think he was capable of. If they tried guarding him with a bigger man he would out-quick them. If they tried a quicker guy, Sanders would out-muscle him. And he was getting after it defensively as well. He and all of the Cardinals, played very well. If we continue to put out that kind of effort...particularly defensively, this winning streak should continue for a while. As a sidenote, where was Barrow? Have I missed something? Did he get hurt? (I was in Dallas all last week and wasn't able to keep up with the team.)

I CANNOT give an objective opinion on the subject of Barry Switzer. I just cannot stomach the guy at all. He disgusts me so much that I'm trying to figure out some other reasons why or how he could have possibly been so successful. Maybe he had great assistant coaches.

It's football man! Yes, I remember the 70s and 80s and the empty seats at Lamar. By 2012, the seats will be empty once again.... Who cares if it only draws 1,000 fans??? Those 1,000 fans will be able to create some great memories!!! It's about the university, and the students, and the kids that play football and the kids that will be cheerleaders, and members of the band. I mean, I would much prefer that it draw 50,000 but that's not really what it's all about. You just don't get it AT ALL. Why are their college soccer teams? Or college swimming teams? Or women's softball teams? I had a professor at my alma mater (LAMAR UNIVERSITY) tell me once "don't let the books get in the way of your education". That guy knew what he was talking about. I mean, we are there to get a good education and earn a degree but there is more to it than going to sit in a classroom, taking notes, and taking tests. That's not all it's about...or that's not all it should be about. When you were at those LU games with no fans I know there were some fans there for sure. Me and my fraternity buds went to every home game and most of the road games. We had a BLAST! We really didn't care if we won or lost and we really didn't care if anyone else was in the stands. We had a great time and made some great memories. Plus, what about the life lessons the players on the field are learning? What about the life lessons the band members are learning. Get a grip. It's not all about how it affects your own pocketbook. And realize that even WITH the WHOPPING $8 per semester hour LU still has one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, tuitions in the state....probably in the country.

From a fans perspective..it appeared that Long had a MAJOR attitude problem. Looked like he was always pouting. Never trying to be part of the team.

Please don't distort this discussion with facts and reason. Let's just focus on pure emotion and how it will 'cost' a student $100 a semester (at what is probably already the least expensive tuition in the state). Let's not focus on the fact that it is good for the long term success of the university and the area...no, that makes too much sense. ;D

It's football man! Yes, I remember the 70s and 80s and the empty seats at Lamar. By 2012, the seats will be empty once again.... You are an idiot. Who cares if the stands are full. It's not about having the stands full. (Of course, the reason the stands aren't full is because of people like you.)

Is it just me or does anyone else find it odd that we 'Lamar' fans with screen names like: UNLV, AggiesAreWe, and Horn R #1????? I wonder if the users on the ATM site have screen names like: CardinalsAreWe, UTSA, or Horns R #1???

Lamar start 5-1 back in 2006 and finished 9-7 in conference. They finished 17-14 that year, falling to a good Northwestern State in the SLC tourney. That's the year NW State beat Iowa in the NCAA tourney. In 2000 Lamar also started conference play 4-1 but ended up 8-10. And that's the year they won the SLC tourney and played Duke in the NCAA tourney. Very interesting. I did not realize the 2006 team started out that well. If I remember correctly, that was a pretty talented team (that played absolutely NO defense). And the 2000 team...Mike Deane. That was the team that probably had our best offensive player in the last 20 years...Landon Rowe.

I hate NWSU!!!! They are right up there with McNeese, SHSU, and SFA in my book. I can't believe I forgot this was an afternoon game and I didn't get to listen to us put in on them!

Beating NWSU at their place is a big win for us. I was concerned heading into this game with the way we played at UCA. I hope our guys aren't forgetting how to play defense but this is a very good start to SLC play. Things may start to get a little exciting again at the Monatagne?????? I sure hope so. Hopefully I'll be able to make our next home game.

I guess it's ok to run and gun in the SLC but the only way we will beat the better programs in the country (like top 75 teams) is to play defense. Don't get me wrong...I love run and gun but we need to stop the other team from scoring so easily. That said...I'm enjoying this start to the conference. When was the last time we started the conference 4-1? Does anyone know??

I've been to a lot of games in the past and the SLC officials always seem to call A LOT of fouls. Maybe I'm wrong but it just seems like a lot of games turn into free throw shooting contests.

I don't know if they get in free or not. I would hope they would. There used to be a lot of students in attendance when I went to LU and we really weren't all that good. In the mid to late 80's...post Foster. I was in a fraternity and we'd bring 60 or 70 students just with our fraterntiy alone. And most of the other fraternities and sororities would bring about the same on average. I agree winning would help but we went more for fun than anything else. There were some of us that were true basketball fans but most of the others were there for a 'party'. The kids at LU need to learn that it is ok to go out to a game and have some fun and just act stupid every now and then. Anyway, I hope the winning comes regardless of whether or not the students go.

That's part of what is so discouraging "it's not like Lamar was a favorite in this game". I guess I AM old. I remember the days when we would be a large favorite in almost all of our conference games. Especially against teams like SFA and SHSU and NWSU and UTA.

FINALLY! A quality win!!! Maybe we ARE finally turning the corner?????? Man, I hope so!!!

I think that's good attendance for a team with a losing record and a program that hasn't done squat in 20+ years. It amazes me that we are still able to find 3600 people willing to support the team.

This is exactly why my pessimism remains. We are constantly trying to find 'moral' victories: - we almost beat ORU - we almost beat Wyoming - we almost beat UNO - we were beating Northern Illinois and then lost - we played Tech tough - we scored 70 on SFA BIG FLIPPIN DEAL!!!! I THINK THIS ACCEPTANCE OF MEDIOCRITY BEGAN WHEN GREY GIOWEENIE WAS THE COACH AND HE CONSTANTLY TRIED TO PUT A POSITIVE SPIN ON FINISHING 9-9 OR 10-8 IN CONFERENCE. HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE SHOULD NOT ACCEPT MEDIOCRITY WHEN WE PLAY IN THE SLC!!!!! AM I BEING ARROGANT WHEN I THINK WE SHOULD BE THE ELITE PROGRAM IN THE SLC?

Who is Ken Pope??? The only Ken Pope I find on the internet is some assistant Aggies coach that was recently fired with Franchione. If that's him...I suppose he would be interested. Employment is a necessity for most of us.

I would say Tubbs the first time around. And Foster. Mike Deane and Abatemarco???? Man, we have some people with low expectations. I will say that I did like Deane much more than Abatemarco. Abatemarco was a total joke.

Title IX played a large part in the cancelling of football due to the additional costs of the athletes. However, it apparently isn't going away so I'm sure we'll have to have a softball team and the $100/yr of revenue it will generate (I'm sure soccer doesn't generate much more revenue either). Greed and stupidity canceled football. I was attending Lamar when it was canceled. Mysterious fires, murder, instructor/student sex, and rape at LU that year. They canceled football then gave themselves a pay raise. I was too. I don't exactly know what the murder, instructor/student sex, or fire had to do with the football program? Don't know anything about the rape??? Wouldn't be surprised if they gave themselves a raise.

I hung on with the basketball program thru most of Mike Deane's tenure...he was all I could stomach. I was so disgusted at that point I couldn't even drag myself out there to watch any Billy Ball. Simmons has done a fantastic job. I hope that Roc is able to get the basketball program rolling. And hopefully football will be back????

Well, I think it starts with the student body. The student body has ZERO school pride/spirit. Go to a game and see how many students are there. Then watch some other college games and look at their student sections. There should be a minimum of 1500 students there at every home game. I would say they average closer to 150 students per game.