Future Lion wins state title

Bruce English, who will become a Lion in the fall, will bring a winning background to LMU as his La Verne Lutheran High School team won the California Division-III state title Saturday night. English's team pulled out a 64-59 victory over Northern California champion Bishop O'Dowd of Oakland.

English is the only recruit to commit to the Lions for next season. There appears to be one more roster spot available.

Drew Viney will return to the Lions next season

I have just learned from a close family member of Drew Viney's that he will indeed return to the Lions next season. Redshirt junior Viney, who has led the Lions in scoring the last two seasons, is an academic senior this year but has one season of NCAA Division-I eligibility remaining. Many thought that after a disappointing season in which the Lions went just 2-12 in West Coast Conference play that Viney would forego his final year of eligibility.

With the news that Viney is staying, LMU will only say goodbye to seniors Vernon Teel and Larry Davis, as well as walk-on Griffin Reilly. Teel was the Lions second-leading scorer.

Viney will likely return to the starting lineup next season along with point guard Anthony Ireland, small forward Ayodegi Egbeyemi, center Godwin Okonji, and power forward Ashley Hamilton.

In addition, the Lions will welcome freshman shooting guard Bruce English, who committed to join the Lions in the fall.

Ajayi returns from visit to LMU

LMU's number one recruiting target for next season, 6'11" center Lekan Ajayi, just returned to the east coast after visiting LMU on an official recruiting visit.

“I went to California,” Ajayi said to Adam Zagoria of zagsblog.com. “It was nice. They have a good business management course. The school is not a big population school, it’s a medium school, with 14-20 [students] per class. It’s good out there, very close to the Los Angeles Lakers arena. It’s nice. The L.A. weather is nice, like Nigerian weather. I like it out there, too.”

Ajayi had already visited Seton Hall and Tennessee.

According to Zagoria, Florida State is next on the list for Ajayi, and he plans to visit the program once they are done playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Only two questions really matter

                                                                        Photo taken by Julia Pine

I was going to write a column as we head into the off-season, but I realized there are two unanswered questions that make that impossible to do right now. They are as follows.

1. Will Drew Viney return?
     From what I'm hearing from multiple sources, it doesn't seem like it. If Drew decides to forgo his final year of eligibility, it will be a HUGE blow to the Lions. Drew has led the team in scoring and rebounding in both of his seasons in an LMU jersey, and is a potential WCC Player of the Year. The saddest part about Drew leaving would be the fact that Lions fans never got to see his true potential, just flashes of it.
2. Will there be a coaching change?
    Many fans are calling for it, but I don't think it's going to happen. I like and respect Max Good a lot, but in the end head coaching jobs come down to winning and losing, and the losing that went on this year was inexcusable. I'm not saying I want Good gone, but I would understand if a change was made. Like I said, I don't think it will happen.

Despite controversy, end of Teel's career should be honored

Flashback to Nov. 21, 2008: There's a sellout and record-setting crowd of 4,534 in Gersten Pavilion, much because brand new Head Coach Bill Bayno is set to coach his first game on the bluff. Bayno, however, is nowhere to be seen. Despite the confusion in the building about where "the savior" of our program is, the 0-3 Lions are hosting No. 8 Notre Dame, a big task any year. But despite never holding a lead, LMU hangs in throughout the game. With a starting lineup of Ashley Hamilton, Marco Deric, Kevin Young, Jarred DuBois and Kevin Young, the misfit Lions are down only four with five minutes to play.

The energy in the building was different than it had been in years, with lofty expectations set for the program with an NBA-worthy head coach at the helm. The players can sense the transition, and one in particular is willing to do whatever it takes to meet these new expectations set by the 4,534 in the building.

In just the fourth game of his Lion career, then-redshirt sophomore Vernon Teel is the Lions' leading scorer and rebounder after three games. But after a bad-step midway through the first half, he heads to the bench in obvious pain. Not wanting to leave the court in such an important game, he returns, and with ten minutes to play pulls down a huge offensive board and scores, pulling the underdog-Lions to within one. He plays just three minutes the remainder of the game; Teel has a broken foot.

“He told [the trainer] to tape it up and days later he ended up having to have a screw put in his foot,” Head Coach Max Good told me last season. “There’s no doubt about it, Vernon will compete.”

With the timing and severity of his injury, a medical redshirt could have been in the cards for Teel, who ended up appearing in only 16 games in the 2008/09 season. But watching his team struggle mightily on the court, Teel felt he had to come back.

“I was just trying to make our team better,” Teel said to me last season when asked about his decision not to sit out the remainder of that year. “It wasn’t about me getting another year, it was about the team and making us better. I didn’t want us to win just one game the whole year. I told Coach Good that I wanted to come back and play. I felt like I started the year with the team, I wanted to end the year with the team.”

In the Lions first conference win of the season, Teel narrowly missed a tripe-double, going for 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. The Lions would go just 3-28 on the season.

There were turnovers. There were missed free throws. But in Teel's LMU career there was always the heart of a Lion. There is nobody who played harder for the LMU these past three years, and who stepped up to so many different challenges asked of him. Teel deserves nothing but applause and respect from Lions fans, and I am disappointed that is not what he received this season.

Teel would be the first to admit that this season wasn't what he had hoped it would be, both for himself personally and the team, but if you watched him play the one thing Teel never lacked was effort. Considering Lions fans envisioned a starting lineup of Jarred DuBois, Vernon Teel, Drew Viney, Ashley Hamilton and Edgar Garibay this year, it is easy to see why Teel, at times, felt he had to carry the weight of the team on his shoulders. By mid-season, the rest of the starting lineup wore street clothes more often than not, and instead of being able to be the facilitator that led us to a turnaround season just one year ago, he was instead forced to change his game to fit the team's needs, and attempt to lead a stagnant offense. While it didn't always provide winning results, I thank Teel for stepping up when everyone else was down.

What happened at the end of the season happened, and I respect the coaches for making the decision they felt they had to make. But Vernon played with emotion and passion that was unmatched by any other Lion, and the mistakes he made were reflective of that. In the end, he finished the last three years with more points (1,140), minutes (2,566), games played (80) and assists (353) than any other LMU player during that span. He will be missed on the court next season, and as a Lion fan I wish him the best.

Lekan Ajayi to visit LMU next week

6-foot-11 center from Quality Education (N.C.) Lekan Ajayi will visit LMU on an official recruiting visit next week. Ajayi recently visited Seton Hall and Tennessee and will also visit Miami before reaching a decision.

“I just want to do those four and then make a decision,” he by phone on Friday to Adam Zagoria of zagsblog.com. According to Zagoria, Ajayi hopes to make his final decision by April 1.

Ajayi is the Lions' No. 1 recruiting prospect for next season.

2012 WCC Tournament format announced

With the addition of BYU to the West Coast Conference next season, the conference is forced to change the format of its basketball championship with a unconventional nine teams set to play in the conference. WCC Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich announced next year's bracket format this afternoon.

The 2012 Zappos.com WCC Tournament will begin on Wednesday, February 29 with the eighth and ninth seeds facing off against each other. The winner will then face the fifth seed on Thursday (and basically be on track to play the same bracket track that the eighth seed has played in the past). The sixth and seventh seeds will also face off Thursday.

Games will continue Friday and the semifinals will be held Saturday. Sunday will be a dark day, and no basketball will be played. This allows BYU to not have to play on a Sunday (which is against their school's rules) and keeps the eighth or ninth seed from having to play five games in five days to win the championship.

The championship game will be held Monday, March 5.