Can We Build an NCAA champion?

[lasalle89]

I know we can't build a team like Kentucky but can we build a team with the talent level of UConn? Their strength was guard play, they had a bunch of role players, and played great team defense. Even though I am not a fan of UConn their win left me thinking G might be able to build a final four team.

[lasallescreamer]

If u can recruit a guy like Napier, the answer is YES. What a great NCAA performance. If we had beaten Wichita, we could have beaten Ohio St and gone to Final 4 and then Ramon's profile would have been elevated.Thus, 1 great guard plus 2 good guard and a couple of rebounders plus luck(always needed)= Final 4. Lets go do it.

[MisterD]

Probably not. When's the last time a non-major won it?

[thehawkisdead]

I'd settle for coming within a half-court heave, Butler style.

[big5explorer]

Consider: the last 2 teams to beat St. Joe's, each won by 8. One was the National Champion which needed OT on a neutral court. The other team was LaSalle.

So yeah, I think we can.

[JoeFedorowicz]

Apr 8, 2014 19:20:22 GMT -5 big5explorer said:

Consider: the last 2 teams to beat St. Joe's, each won by 8. One was the National Champion which needed OT on a neutral court. The other team was LaSalle.

So yeah, I think we can.

If only that was how it worked.

I think La Salle loses to Kentucky 10 out of 10 this year.

[MisterD]

Apr 8, 2014 19:20:22 GMT -5 big5explorer said:

Consider: the last 2 teams to beat St. Joe's, each won by 8. One was the National Champion which needed OT on a neutral court. The other team was LaSalle...

who lost to Northern Iowa who lost to Bradley so maybe Bradley can win it all?

[jellybean]

I spoke to someone who knows about these things and for laughs asked what would be the spread on La Salle vs. either UK or UCONN. He told me the following.

Kentucky - La Salle ( neutral site La Salle +14 and at Rupp +18)
UCONN -La Salle (neutral site La Salle +17 and away +19)

That is the opening line and of course the public would then factor into it. BTW, UK fans are HUGE bettors. That line could inflate big time after it opens.

[MisterD]

Right, and how many double digit games would we have had before that? Its a nice thought, but no single mid-major has a realistic shot. One might fluke in, but it'll be just that.

[luhoopsfan]

Apr 9, 2014 6:59:30 GMT -5 JoeFedorowicz said:

Apr 8, 2014 19:20:22 GMT -5 big5explorer said:

Consider: the last 2 teams to beat St. Joe's, each won by 8. One was the National Champion which needed OT on a neutral court. The other team was LaSalle.

So yeah, I think we can.

If only that was how it worked.

I think La Salle loses to Kentucky 10 out of 10 this year.

try 11 out of 10 times they would lose. If you tell me that's impossible I'll tell you so are La Salle's chances of winning.

[big5explorer]

The title of the thread is Can we build a champion. My point with the comparison using St. Joe's is that this team isn't all that far away. A player or two. I don't it's impossible to luck into getting an L-train quality recruit the team can build around.

[MisterD]

Right, and my counterpoint is that even those Simmons teams never got through the first weekend.

[ltrain38]

Apr 9, 2014 9:19:49 GMT -5 big5explorer said:

The title of the thread is Can we build a champion. My point with the comparison using St. Joe's is that this team isn't all that far away. A player or two. I don't it's impossible to luck into getting an L-train quality recruit the team can build around.

But the comparison doesn't make that point. It's not like St Joe's was one win against UConn away from winning a national championship. They were one win against UConn away from losing to Villanova. Beating one contender for the title is not the same as beating six. With a Simmons-type player and some help, we could theoretically do it, sure. But those types of guys are always a long shot.

[theneumann64]

I don't think that's something we could ever see. I looked back at the last 50 NCAA Champions. The question posed is winning the NCAA Championship, not being good enough to feel like we could do it, but I actually doing it. Forget mid-majors, here's the list of Champions that I would consider not part of "the club" that have won titles, meaning not the uber-elite UCLA and Duke's of the world:

2002- Maryland
1994- Arkansas
1990- UNLV
1977- Marquette
1966- Texas Western

That's 50 years. Those are the only schools I'd consider outcasts that won it all. I'm not talking how low a seed a team was in an individual year, more just the stature of the program. In other words, no matter how bad say Indiana is this year, if I told you they'd be good enough to win an NCAA Championship in 5 years, you wouldn't really be surprised.

There's a few more teams that lost NCAA title games that I'd consider "outsiders" but still not many. My point here is that even for half the ACC or Big 10, an NCAA Title is really not a realistic goal, let alone a middle of the pack A-10 school with an enrollment of our size.

To me, best case scenario for a La Salle year would be like 28-4, something like 15-1 in league (whatever that was) and good enough to get like a real high seed, a 3 or 4. If I see that once, I think that would be the best I could ever hope for.

[luhoopsfan]

As a matter of perspective...in the last 60 years, 43 Titles have been won by 8 teams that have won 3 or more each. Obviously UCLA skews this #, but it is what it is. That means 17 titles were up for grabs...there are 300+ teams.

[thehawkisdead]

Apr 9, 2014 15:28:16 GMT -5 theneumann64 said:

To me, best case scenario for a La Salle year would be like 28-4, something like 15-1 in league (whatever that was) and good enough to get like a real high seed, a 3 or 4. If I see that once, I think that would be the best I could ever hope for.

You pretty much just described 1990, with 30-2, 16-0 and a 4 seed. And we got bounced in the second round.

Sure, anything CAN happen, but will it? Put me down in the "never" category if the question is building a national championship team. We'd need every possible domino to fall in our favor to win the whole thing. As amazing last year's run was, we still needed to win four more games to win the championship.

[coachd]

Yep, I am sure Tom Gola laughed when he was told La Salle could never win a NiT or NCAA championship.

If we had a healthy Zack last year and made the Final 4 .... Anything is possible, it is just not probable.

[theneumann64]

Apr 9, 2014 20:47:28 GMT -5 coachd said:

Yep, I am sure Tom Gola laughed when he was told La Salle could never win a NiT or NCAA championship.

If we had a healthy Zack last year and made the Final 4 .... Anything is possible, it is just not probable.

That was a different world. CCNY had won the Championship a few years prior. Think they have a good shot to do it again? Or how about Holy Cross from a few years before that?

[mts]

Anything is possible. Butler had a shot rim out at the horn against Duke in the national title game and the year after that they led UConn at halftime. If Wichita State doesn't lose an incredible game against Kentucky maybe they win it this year. In 2013 Wichita State was beating Louisville by 10-12 points before Henderson the walk-on for Louisville hit those two huge threes and turned the game around.

Never said never. Mid-majors have proven it CAN be done! One day a true mid-major will cut down the nets!

[broderickpresident]

One thing is certain: it will never happen playing at Gola.

A mid-major certainly can win it. You could argue UConn is in a mid-major conference now. And I'd argue Wichita state was the best team I saw this season. Took the most talented team in the country playing their best game of the season to beat them by a point.

And for those that say the 1990 team didn't do anything, I'll add that they were Final Four caliber. Clemson game is still hard to think about, but we'd beat them 7 times out of 10. They then lost to Uconn at the buzzer, who then lost to Duke at the buzzer, both shots still famous.

[golasalle]

Apr 10, 2014 7:28:23 GMT -5 broderickpresident said:

You could argue UConn is in a mid-major conference now.

Um, what? Last time I checked, the AAC was 100% BCS schools which is the opposite of a "Mid Major" conference. Pretty much agree with everything else you said. I would add that BYU came within a missed layup with a couple of seconds left of knocking off Clemson in the first round and La Salle would have destroyed BYU. If, If, If....

[coachd]

I think we would have faced Duke at the Spectrum that year had we beat Clemson and won the next game.

[broderickpresident]

If you want to consider the AAC "major", be my guest, but I don't have to. Just a collection of schools clinging to football that no one else wanted.

And coachd, the 1990 East Regionals were at the Meadowlands. Spectrum in 1992

[jellybean]

Let's start with winning the Conference Championship and then being in the hunt for it every year.