Looking Forward: Migraines and more

Drew Viney will be key to the Lions success in Vegas | Courtesy of Facebook

Another close loss last night. The final score is in no way indicative of the closeness of the game, as the Lions trailed by just four points with four minutes to play, and had numerous attempts to cut that lead down to two. Yet again, however, key turnovers cost the Lions from making a full-fledged comeback.

Junior leading scorer Drew Viney missed his second straight games with affects from migraines. Could the outcome of the game have been different if Viney had played? Definitely. Should we have been able to win that game without him? Definitely. Viney's name was spoken a lot in Gersten yesterday as fans were wondering "what if Viney had played last night," but let's not forget that Viney played when this team lost to San Diego, Pepperdine, and Santa Clara. The truth is with or without Viney in the lineup, this team has yet to play a full 40 minutes of basketball in any game this conference season.

But it is also clear that this team's offense runs so much better when Viney is on the floor (although to give credit where credit is due, the team played phenomenal defense last night in Viney's absence). 


After the game, Loyolan Sports Editor John Wilkinson spoke with Head Coach Max Good about Viney's current status. "He’s still got to see a neurologist [today]," said Good. "The [migraine] medication they thought was making him anemic and kind of weak.  It was like he was kind of tired and drained."

To read the full Loyolan story, click here.

And for those fans wondering why a migraine has kept Drew out of two and a half games this season, a close family member of his has chosen to explain that on the LMU Lions fan message board. I can assure you that this poster is close to the situation, but I will respect any privacy on their identity past that point.

So what does this mean for LMU? Well clearly, and unfortunately, the Lions will not play another meaningful until they step onto the court at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in March. This conference regular season is a wash, and it is apparent that we will probably enter the tournament as the seventh seed. However, I still believe that while this team may have lost its chemistry and confidence, it has not lost its talent that we all believed was enough to win them a WCC Title. There is no reason this team can't string together a couple of exciting wins at the WCC Tournament. However, Lions fans have got to pray that Viney's migraine situation clears up by then, as he will be vital to any successes we have in Vegas.

Until then, the best we can hope for is to treat the remainder of this regular season as tournament prep. I would like to see Godwin Okonji and Edgar Garibay get big minutes, as they seem to have been improving each game and should play a huge factor at the Tourney. I would like to see a consistent rotation set in place by Head Coach Max Good, so that each and every player knows his role come WCC Tournament time. And lastly, I would like to see the mental mistakes begin to be eliminated from play. If that can happen, there is no doubt that LMU is just as good a team as any in Vegas.