La Salle basketball's fall from grace landed here. This humble blog chronicles the Explorers' ascent back to greatness with news, analysis, and the occasional post about real lions.
Here's a random article from Beverly, Mass about their newest Hall of Fame Inductees. It's a cute little article. Especially this part....
Russell Rollins Sr.
When Russ Rollins, Class of 1956, entered Beverly High School people knew that he would be an outstanding basketball player. ........
While in the military service, he played basketball against outstanding teams and individual players. One such player, Tom Gola, was a five time NBA All-Star player for Philadelphia. Russ scored 29 points against Gola while holding him to 50.
WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE! He don't wanna shoot. He scared. Yeah, you scared Tom. Shoot dat shoot dat....BRICK!....ok, you lucky..you offensive fouled me though. That was a push off. Do that shit again....do that shit again.....this here is called Tenacious Rusty...yeah...shoot dat....ok...you lucky again.....
Here's a nice video of Gola wearing a ridiculous shooting shirt. Has anyone considered bringing back the old shooting shirts? I feel like that could be our hook. We make it some sort of rule that you have to wear these ridiculous shirts when you play the Explorers. Maybe short shorts? We were very successful in these things. I don't see the Yankees giving up on the pinstripe.
Rasual Butler re-signed as free agent, originally acquired in a trade with Miami. Butler has been an enigma. After starting 57 games last season, leading the team in made three pointers, and setting career high in scoring and rebounding, “Sual Bop” looked like another underestimated pickup by Bower and the Hornets. But, he has not even played in 58 games this season. Inconsistent shooting is at the root of the problem (just 33% from three point range, 35% overall), and the Wells and James pickups probably prevent him from moving back into the lineup anytime soon.
This is not good. I can't deal with Sual not getting any burn. I've seen a handful of Hornets games and it seems like Sual is content to just be a pure shooter which I never really viewed him as. I did talk to CP3 about it. I asked him to tell Sual to drive more. It doesn't seem like that took.
About the same time he was accepting the National Player of the Year award, Lionel Simmons was just finishing up cinematographer work for a film called "No Apologies" - which is ironic since the L-Train would light up his opponents on the court with 'no apologies'.
Just 4 years later, in the spirit of the French La Sallian tradition, he goes to work on "Âge des images II: L'écran invisible, L' - which translated in English means, "I'm glad Derrick Coleman signed on to promote BK Dymacel shoes instead of me because their slogan ("Your welcome") was completely dreadful".
Senior Forward Haminn Quaintance of Kent State gets a little home cooking from the Cleveland Plain Dealer here. Apparently, "Q" reached a milestone in points, rebounds, blocks, steals, assists, and lost cell phone numbers never before seen in NCAA basketball. The "closest", according to the article, was national player of the year Lionel Simmons:
According to research by Kent State, since the NCAA began keeping track of blocked shots in 1986, 'Q' is believed to be the first player to achieve 1,200 points (1,297), 800 rebounds (867), 250 assists (286), 250 blocks (261) and 200 steals (211). The closest were 1989-90 national player of the year Lionel Simmons of La Salle - who later played for the NBA's Sacramento Kings (3,217 points, 1429 rebounds, 355 assists, 248 blocks and 239 steals)...When 'Q' first got to Kent State, he said he lost over 500 phone numbers off his cell phone.
What? Umm, Lionel had 2,000 more points, 500 more rebounds, more steals, more assists, and it's not even fair to compare lost phone numbers.
Brandon Marshall's McDonald's bag injury has sparked some discussion about the strangest sports injuries. This list has got some great athlete nemesises - Wade Boggs and cowboy boots. Nolan Ryan and coyotes. The L Train and Tetris.
Sacramento Kings rookie Lionel Simmons missed some games during the 1991 season when he developed tendinitis in his right wrist from playing too many video games, primarily the Nintendo GameBoy.
I'm going to give Lionel a pass but every other injury wreaks of sexual deviance. Nolan, that was no Astrodome coyote. That was a Four Seasons cougar. Rar.
It doesn't take a Saint Joe's grad to realize that there is no better number than 22.
Actually, 3,217 is a pretty good one, considering that's how many points L-Train scored in his career.
Next to Tom Gola and with due respect to Guy Rodgers, there was simply no better Big 5 player than Lionel Simmons. Shoot, rebound, block shots, eat 7 Explorers Den cheesesteaks in 2 minutes and kept everything down...the man simply did it all.
He makes us remember a time when you could go to the Convention Center or the Palestra and EXPECT that La Salle was going to win the game.
And yet, somehow I didn't get that feeling when Brian Flickinger took the court at Gola Arena.
Wherever you are Lionel, please have offspring and send them to 20th and Olney.
Scout.com reports that Speedy Morris recruited Mike Gizzi, offered him a scholarship, and then told him he should go play at Philadelphia Textile. Good thing he didn't listen as he racked up nearly 1,500 points before going on to play pro ball in Italy and marry Lady Explorer Laura Newhart. Great article on the failure of LaSalle recruiting to capitalize on the Simmons Era.
This five-year period may be many of La Salle fans biggest complaints. If it isn’t it probably should be. Sure 1990 brought a 30-2 record and NCAA bid. 1991 and 1992 brought an NIT and NCAA bid respectively. Still this era should have laid the groundwork for a stronger and more viable La Salle basketball program. This was a time when facilities should have been upgraded, better players recruited, and a more successful program prepared for the long-term. It did not happen. Once La Salle exited 1992 it would not see the post-season again.
USA Today reports that a winning sports program is not a determining factor in prospective student applications.
The study "refutes the so-called 'Flutie Factor,' (which holds that) intercollegiate athletics and winning teams have a major impact on enrollment decisions," says Rick Hesel, who did the poll by Art & Science Group of Baltimore. Widely known in admissions circles, the Flutie Factor refers to a surge in applications to Boston College after its quarterback, Doug Flutie, made his fabled touchdown pass to beat Miami in 1984. Applications rose 30% in two years.
Hesel said students rated jobs, internships, clubs and community service as more important extracurricular interests. The findings are based on telephone interviews with 500 college-bound high school students last spring — just after the men's national basketball championship tournament. Most respondents could not even recall which team won, Hesel said
LaSalle has seen a surge in applications - more than 93% - since basketball star and convicted drug dealer Kareem Townes left campus in 1995. Presumably because prospective students felt safer.
Our old friend Billy Hahn is into the Sweet 16. The Washington Post nicely recaps of his time at 20th & Olney. And by nice I mean kick in the throat painful.
The road Hahn took to this year's round of 16 was, to say the least, difficult. After spending 12 years as Gary Williams No. 1 assistant at La Salle. He had earned the chance to be a head coach again, and he believed he could revive a program that had been Philadelphia's best in the early 1990s, when Lionel Simmons was the national player of the year.
Two good recruiting classes later, Hahn thought he had the program in position to make a move. "We had four starters coming back," he said. "I thought we could be a 25-win team in the Atlantic 10. It was right where we wanted it." And then all hell broke loose.
Yeah, hell breaking loose never helps a program. We shouldn't ever play AC/DC just in case hell starts feeling frisky again.
South Carolina's "The State" puts Lionel in the same sentence with Nova's Scottie Reynolds. This article is probably on Reynolds' fridge.
If history is an indication, Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, who averages 15.6-points per game, has the makings of a pro player. In five of Clemson’s previous six NCAA tournament games dating to 1990, the Tigers faced an opponent with at least one player who went on to play in the NBA.
Beyond their most recent appearance — a 1998 first-round loss to Western Michigan — Clemson played against Bobby Jackson, Michael Ruffin, Wally Szczerbiak, Shandon Anderson, Scott Burrell and Lionel Simmons in consecutive tourney games.
Don't quote me on this but Scott Burrell threw the ball to Tate George for one of the most famous shots in tourney history. Tate went pro too. Fair chance I name my kid Tate George.
When I was ten years old, I was forced to go to a family christening during March Madness. If it was the first weekend, the scheduling oversight could have almost been forgiven, but this was Elite Eight weekend, and #1 Temple was playing #2 Duke.
Without understanding the tradition of the Big 5, I knew that it was special for a local school to have a shot at the Final Four, and I refused to miss history. As the tip-off coincided with the anointing, I had a 4-inch black and white screen on my lap, an earpiece, and a small huddled mass of fathers over my shoulder.
From the men in my family I learned that being a good Catholic meant regularly attending services, but maybe even more importantly it meant being a basketball fan. Temple lost that day, but through its run in the tournament and the nervous anticipation I felt before each game, I can identify that experience as my baptism into the Big 5.
Over the next eight years, I found myself pulling for all the Philadelphia schools when they made it to the tournament – Temple with Macon or McKie, Villanova with Kittles or Alvin Williams, and LaSalle with Simmons or Woods.
When it came time to apply to college, it was a choice between Villanova and LaSalle. While recruiting class or post season prospects did not factor into my decision to attend LaSalle, it didn’t hurt that I fondly remembered Lionel’s 29-1 season or practiced his jumpshot in my driveway.
I never saw the Explorers play in the tournament my four years at LaSalle, and eight years later, I still haven’t had to decide how many rounds deep they will go in my bracket. That tough choice is reserved for St. Joe’s, Villanova, and Temple. It’s okay, I said, we don’t really belong with those teams anyway. They have the better tradition of excellence.
I’m not sure if turning 30 has made me more of a student of history, or I just need a reason to feel passionate about something again, but I want to love LaSalle basketball. There are many reasons to love it, and the more you read, the more you realize it takes a backcourt to no one in tradition and contribution to the game.
North Carolina. Kentucky. UCLA. Indiana. LaSalle Explorers? It may seem odd to include the Blue and Gold in a list of storied basketball traditions, but the other schools all have one thing in common – they have less National Player of the Year awards than the ballers of 20th and Olney. In fact, Duke (6) is the only school with more NPYAs than LaSalle (3).
Before Garrett Bragg, Mike St. John, and a bunch of out-of-state guys who averaged single-singles filled out the roster, LaSalle recruited local blue chips Gola, Cannon, Brooks, Simmons, Overton, and Woods who would define five decades of hardwood glory. LaSalle is one of only 17 schools to win both NCAA and NIT Championships (but they might as well have two NCAA titles as NIT Champion was the more prestigious honor back when they won it).
Consider this fact: There are only 12 players in the history of NCAA Division 1 basketball who have more than 4,000 combined points and rebounds in their career. LaSalle accounts for three players on that list - #1 (Tom Gola with 4663), #2 (Lionel Simmons with 4646), and #12 (Michael Brooks with 4000). When you see that the Big O, Elvin Hayes, Pistol, and Bird are part of this fraternity, you begin to understand how special these players were to the game.
Hell, even Bill Raftery (’63) is a LaSalle grad and there are few commentators who call a more exciting tournament game or whose voice you’d rather hear as a big fella goes in for a monster dunk…
When LaSalle won its 1,000th game in 1992, it did so in the fewest seasons (62) of any school. The more you examine LaSalle’s mark on the game, the more depressing it is to bear witness to its fall from grace.
A tragic thing happened to LaSalle basketball after Simmons walked out of the Hartford Civic Center in 1990, his last as a collegiate, after losing a heartbreaker to Clemson in the second round of the NCAA tournament: it stopped being relevant.
How did we go from the L-Train to the latrine over the last 20 years?
This year marked the first year that a graduating high school senior was not born while Lionel played here. I’m sure it helped Lionel to see Michael Brooks roaming the paint in blue and gold as a young boy, just as Brooks grew up with Ken Durrett. Who has the local Catholic league or public league star grown up watching? Donnie Carr? Rasual Butler? Darnell Harris? Exciting and memorable players for sure, but none can make the claim that LaSalle basketball rose from the ashes under their leadership.
The following local schools have all made the tournament since the Explorers last dance in 1992: Temple (10 times), Penn (10), Villanova (8), Princeton (5), St. Joe’s (5), Delaware (3), Drexel (3), Rider (2), and Lafayette (2). Yeah, Drexel has made it three times. If it doesn’t make you mad that an engineering school somehow engineered multiple runs to the tournament and LaSalle can’t muster a single bid, then you never watched Olaf Landgren get meaningful minutes.
When they closed the 1930s with 103 victories against 56 losses, the Explorers began a 70 year run of never having finished a decade with a losing record. With two seasons left this decade, LaSalle will enter 2008-2009 with 103-136 record. That’s unacceptable.
In the words of Rick Pitino, Lionel Simmons is not walking through that door. Tim Legler and Doug Overton are not walking through that door. But maybe they should. As ambassadors, as coaches, as alumni who care about LaSalle’s return to relevancy.
LaSalle has an amazing tradition of excellence. For a school with such a great reputation as a Communications School and such a rich story to tell about our impact on the game, you sure wouldn’t know it by looking at the website or visiting the campus. How about producing a video narrated by Bill Raftery that showcases the LaSalle tradition and play it for incoming recruits when they visit Gola Arena? How about erecting a statue of Lionel Simmons outside of Gola ala Michael Jordan at the United Center?
There is a lot to be proud about LaSalle from the Catholic tradition and the Brothers to its faculty and alumni who are leaders in medicine, education, financial services, non-profit, government, sports, and media. It’s time to start being proud of LaSalle basketball again.
Who knows, maybe one day my eight-year old nephew will get to experience a Big 5 christening by watching the Explorers play on a 4-inch screen in March.
Nice report here from College Hoops Heaven on the Big 5 coaches camraderie and the country's most underrated breakfast.
As the coaches ticketed for the Dance called one another, Drexel's Bruiser Flint, La Salle's John Giannini and Penn's Glen Miller all applauded the selection of their neighbors to the field of 65. Then, Monday morning, all six joined together and ate French toast on the Palestra's storied hardwood alongside one or two hundred of their fellow Philadelphians. It sounds strange. And quite frankly, it is strange. But that's how things are done here.
Here's a fun game for you when you're bored and thinking about killing wild animals. Here's the situation - your parents go away on a week's vacation and in the mean time, every animal in the wild kingdom has gathered in a park near your house.
The animals are all ranked in order of their toughness. So the first animal is a mosquito and the last is a grizzly bear.
You job is to fight one animal every day to the death. No weapons. Whatever you normally wear. If there's rocks and stuff in the park you can use them but nothing crazy.
Every animal fights as hard as it can. At the end of every fight, your health goes back to 100% and you retain the knowledge of fighting all these animals.
So first day you fight a mosquito. Pretty easy. Next day you've got a cockroach, etc etc. After a week or so, you start to have some real fights on your hands. Swans, foxes, etc.
So the question is...what is the last animal you kill and what is the animal that finally kills you?
The answer usually comes out somewhere around the bobcat. Maybe you're tougher. Anyways, my buddy and I had this conversation and he was convinced - convinced - he could kill a giraffe.
My life is where it is, for better or for worse, because of Lionel Simmons' jump shot.
When I was a teenager, I went to see Tate George and the UConn Huskies play an early tourney game at the Hartford Civic Center. The game before that, I watched a great team play a great game against Clemson. That team was the La Salle Explorers.
When I got a mailing from La Salle a few years later I thought, "Oh, I know La Salle. If the L Train went there it can't be all bad." Admissions to Brother Gerry to application to St Francis to Letterman to graduation to newspaper to New York City where I get paid to watch sports and think of things. Not a bad gig.
This all started at the tournament. As you might have heard the tournament just started and the La Salle Explorers aren't in it. This makes me mad and sad.
That's where Lionel's Den comes in. We'll chronicle all things La Salle basketball and we won't stop until somebody in the blue and gold is in the One Shining Moment piece.
PS - And oh yeah, there will also be posts about lions.
Lionel's Den is written by three frustrated La Salle alums who are tired of watching teams like Davidson make it deep into the tourney. We have never watched La Salle in the dance and drank a beer at the same time. We thought beer was disgusting in 1990.
The Lionel's Den crew consists of two former Collegian columnists and one former Collegian sportswriter. Leave your comments. Send your tips, questions, and let's grab a beer offers to: mufasa.simmons@gmail.com
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