Topic: New Portal Player for Women's Hoops

[jdonaccbus]

Tamia Lawhorne from George Mason.

[chris88]

Bio:

https://gomason.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/tamia-lawhorne/7000

[wasbarryb]

Hope she'll offer coaching tips to the Men's coach at Marshall.

[FilmJunky]

Stephens is making more moves in the first few weeks for the womens program than there have been made in the last 10 years

[ThunderingHerdFan]

Only took two posts for the obsessed to try to hijack the thread.

Anyway, on topic, WBB has had a lot of portal players over the years. There were 7 on last year's team alone.

I am really excited about the program right now.

[HerdEcon]

I am impressed with Stephens energy so far.  Just what I hoped for.  Makes me hope even more that she succeeds.  An energetic coach is refreshing and easy to support. 

[herdorbust2]

First time I've ever been interested in woman's basketball. She bring energy to the program and i believe will do big things at Marshall.

[coalherd]

Ummm, new women's Head Coach and Coach Huff getting it done in the Portal.  Meanwhile, in the Office of the Head Men's Basketball Coach, the "cobwebs" continue to expand and grow bigger daily!!

[bighat]

Men's basketball got two portal players.

[herdorbust2]

Men's basketball got two portal players.

Yep and nobody to get them the ball. Even if Andy came back, another portal PG should have been the #1 priority.

[jdonaccbus]

Men's basketball got two portal players.

This thread was for women's hoops news. I didn't want to go here, but I am afraid I must.

We replaced the Conference Player of the Year and a 20 ppg scorer with a transfer from Indiana State that has shown little production in game situations. I am not saying Crawford won't succeed here. I think he can. But he is yet to be proven. With that said, I think Crawford was a good take.

Martin is a good replacement for Handlogten. No complaints.

The problem that many of us had is that we made zero attempt to move non-productive bench players to a lower level of basketball with still an opportunity at a full ride. I would really like to hear the justification to keep players that played in 6 to 8 games this season other than "Dan is loyal and likes these guys". That is a poor justification. Yes, this past season we won 24 games. But the weakness was clearly depth and lack of defenders who could stop dribble penetration. We had a chance once the season ended early in March to work with some of our less productive players and use our contacts with D2/NAIA coaches and move these players. We had a chance to bring in some older players that could rectify some of our problems on the floor. The coach refused to go in this manner. The coach knows he can pull out some excuse cards next season and there will be a contingent that will fully buy into to those flimsy excuses.

In closing, the problem isn't the two portal players that he brought in. The problem is two-fold: (a) the recruiting philosophy of the head coach is passe' in this era and (b) the coach wants to ride into retirement by sleeping well every night knowing he has a couple of bench players that will go to class, love ole' Dan and not get into any trouble.....in turn, we won't take a chance on a transfer with some toughnesses and grit, we won't take a chance on an "inner-city kid" who has a little edge to him, etc. etc. etc. It just appears that all is well if Danny's mindset is okay and not stressed out.

[chris88]

I think someone suggested we use reverse NIL for BB....pay some players to go elsewhere thus opening up scholly's.  Although I am not convinced that some of the players on bench couldn't be significant contributors if given some PT and a specific role.  Who is going to develop getting zero PT? They kept saying Early was a liability but he was probably best defensive guard and had some really good games.  It should be no shock young players are inconsistent but when they never play they have no chance of developing consistency. It's really not the players fault that the HC cannot build a balanced roster vs 8 guys (tall/skinny) with roughly the same skill set and liabilities.

As I said before, I fully expect women's BB to finish higher in overall standings than men's BB or football in year one. Stephens teams at Glenville went to NCAA tourney in all 7 yrs there.  That might be a bridge too far in year one in SB as it is a big jump in competition but it wouldn't shock me either.

[coalherd]

This thread was for women's hoops news. I didn't want to go here, but I am afraid I must.

We replaced the Conference Player of the Year and a 20 ppg scorer with a transfer from Indiana State that has shown little production in game situations. I am not saying Crawford won't succeed here. I think he can. But he is yet to be proven. With that said, I think Crawford was a good take.

Martin is a good replacement for Handlogten. No complaints.

The problem that many of us had is that we made zero attempt to move non-productive bench players to a lower level of basketball with still an opportunity at a full ride. I would really like to hear the justification to keep players that played in 6 to 8 games this season other than "Dan is loyal and likes these guys". That is a poor justification. Yes, this past season we won 24 games. But the weakness was clearly depth and lack of defenders who could stop dribble penetration. We had a chance once the season ended early in March to work with some of our less productive players and use our contacts with D2/NAIA coaches and move these players. We had a chance to bring in some older players that could rectify some of our problems on the floor. The coach refused to go in this manner. The coach knows he can pull out some excuse cards next season and there will be a contingent that will fully buy into to those flimsy excuses.

In closing, the problem isn't the two portal players that he brought in. The problem is two-fold: (a) the recruiting philosophy of the head coach is passe' in this era and (b) the coach wants to ride into retirement by sleeping well every night knowing he has a couple of bench players that will go to class, love ole' Dan and not get into any trouble.....in turn, we won't take a chance on a transfer with some toughnesses and grit, we won't take a chance on an "inner-city kid" who has a little edge to him, etc. etc. etc. It just appears that all is well if Danny's mindset is okay and not stressed out.

Well, right now MU's BASEBALL program is something like 16-32 and 5-20 in SBC play.  Meaning it is going to take more than just a new baseball facility to make that HERD program relevant and competitive in SBC play.  It also means, I hope, that our Head Coach, having been at Ohio State, won't sit on his hands and tolerate very long non-production from some on his squad who are getting scholarship aid.  Lets hope Coach Beals, unlike our basketball "leader", has the STONES to replace some of his deadwood with players who are more competitive and productive!!!

[Herdmeister]

They kept saying Early was a liability but he was probably best defensive guard and had some really good games.

It was his defense or lack thereof that kept him off the floor. He like Marco had wonderful offensive skills shooting the ball. They both however allow their men to go around them for easy scores at the other end. We wee it at  practice everyday

[GreenWhite]

It was his defense or lack thereof that kept him off the floor. He like Marco had wonderful offensive skills shooting the ball. They both however allow their men to go around them for easy scores at the other end. We wee it at  practice everyday

I know you go to practice and are at all the games, but this just doesn't make sense. Taylor and Curfman allowed the opponent to drive past them all the time during games. For the most part, this has been a problem with the guards D'Antoni has brought to Marshall. It usually meant our bigs would have to leave their man to cover the guy who blew past our guards. This would lead to either an assist by the opponent guard or a foul on our big man. I just can't buy what you said HM.

[svherd]

It was his defense or lack thereof that kept him off the floor. He like Marco had wonderful offensive skills shooting the ball. They both however allow their men to go around them for easy scores at the other end. We wee it at  practice everyday

Marco is truly a D2 player. We need to realize that

[MUonium]

this player doesn't seem to be a difference maker.  that doesn't mean a new team can't bring the most out of them, whether it be women's or men's transfers.  role or 6 thru 9 players at the least, but we hope they emerge to be more than that.

[herdfan129]

Marco is truly a D2 player. We need to realize that

Some of us realized it the first day.

[chris88]

this player doesn't seem to be a difference maker.  that doesn't mean a new team can't bring the most out of them, whether it be women's or men's transfers.  role or 6 thru 9 players at the least, but we hope they emerge to be more than that.

Coach knows what she is looking for and this player has had some flashes that show you the potential with some of her better games vs the better competition they played. First glance she is a pretty good outside shooter especially for women's game. Time will tell.

[Daherdboy]

From my recollections, Coach Stephens has one assistant coach to hire and one more scholarship to fill.
Being a big Olympic Sports fan (as if people don't know), I check the MU Women's Basketball twitter account along with Coach Stephens twitter account daily to see if there are any up to the minute additions to her staff or roster. 

Sure would like to see one post player taller than 6' 1" and another assistant with a big time recruiting background.  (One can wish.....can't he?).  😀