New Arena, Good. Terrorists, Bad.

Our friends over at http://www.lasalle-explorers.com/ have an interesting post up about a proposed new arena and terrorists.

First up, the Islamic terrorists - we need to defeat them no matter what the cost. It will be a great day when the world is free of Islamic terrorists and we can all drive to work in our space cars eating dippin dots.

Screengrab via lasalle-explorers.com

Until then, we should probably get a new arena.

Lionel's Den is on board with the new arena idea and will donate real hard earned money to see this happen. We were all at school when Gola opened and the first time we walked in we said......"Dude?" In a bad way. Like "Dude, tell me this is the practice court."



This informal survey that La Salle-Explorers did is pretty spot on. We co-sign all this too.

Informal surveys have indicated that LaSalle alums have listed the following needs for the new arena:
1. seating behind the baskets
2. an arena where most seating you walk down to
3. chairbacks with cupholders except for behind the baskets where bleachers are preferred by students
4. an above court scoreboard with 4-sided video feed
5. outside corridor with local vendor food concessions - (steak sandwich, hoagie, pizza, salad);
6. at least 6 luxury suites (center court and corners).

I'd like the joint to be terrorist-proof it possible.

By the way your name's Maalik

(Cue Dr. G in the voice of Phife)

By the way, your names Maalik
The six-foot one freak
Lets say we get together by the end of the week
He simply said, no, labeled me a hoe
I said, how you figure? You haven't been to the tourney since 1990 and my friends tell me so.


Maalik Wayns goes to Roman and is nasty. We've had two dudes come out of Roman in recent memory - they were also nasty. Good news - Maalik is coming to La Salle!...ummm...no.

Handing it over to Northstar Basketball:

NB: What went into your decision to commit to Villanova?
MW: I [have been] watching them play since I grew up, and [it is] . . . like my dream school, so when . . . the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it.

NB: What were some of the other schools that were offering you and were looking at you?
MW: Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, . . . [and] North Carolina St.

NB: When the offers first started rolling in, and the interest first started rolling in, were you . . . planning on making your decision before your senior year, or was it just something that, the time felt right?
MW: The time felt right. . . . It’s a great school, great tradition, and I just, when I visited it, I liked it a lot, and I [have been] around the program a lot, so it just felt right.

NB: What about attending Roman Catholic for high school? . . . With all the private schools . . . around Pennsylvania, what made that school the most appealing to you?
MW: The tradition. A lot of great players [have] went there, Eddie Griffin, Rasual Butler, players like that went there before me, so I just wanted to follow the tradition.

Rasual's name in there breaks my heart.

I hardly think that my college process was analogous to Maalik's. Yours wasn't either. But you had choices and you chose La Salle for one of two reasons.

1) The reputation of the school. Which for basketball, is severely tarnished.Last time we were in the tourney he didn't exist. Now if he wants to be a nurse.....

2) You made some type of connection with someone. A professor, a fellow student, an alum. Someone that made you think, "Yeah, this could be the spot for me."

So the question is - did we make a personal connection to Maalik? Did Dr. G say hello? Did Rasual call him? Did Donnie text him from Athens or wherever Donnie is? Legler? Glenn from North Dining? Anybody? Did anyone do anything besides complain on a blog at 1:05 after drinking four Sierra Nevadas?

Dr. G. Prefers Prose to Pros

While Dr. Giannini penned this feel good article about the importance of assistant coaches, Martelli and Wright were out pounding the pavement inking recruits. Can you name the last great PhD coach? You can stop thinking after you get to Dr. Naismith and Dr. Jack Ramsey.

Lionel and some other dudes

Here's a copy of Sporting News from March 20, 1989. (Go buy it from this dude on Ebay.)

The copy below Lionel's pic is...."PRIZE PUPIL Lionel Simmons has helped bring La Salle closer to the national spotlight."

I can't tell what I like most about this. Lionel, seeing Jordan III's in action, or an article titled..."The Image of Jose Canseco."

Jerrell Will Be Warm

Jerrell Williams, our freshman star in the making, is no longer jacketless. We're expecting big things out of Jerrell now that he doesn't have to battle swarming defenses and the Philadelphia winter.

Lionel for the Philly Sports Hall of Fame

We have many interconnected goals here at Lionel's Den and we should never lose sight of our magnetic north - calling on LaSalle basketball to return to greatness. However, we need small wins when we can get them.

The Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, founded in 2002, is dedicated "to developing a sports hall of fame for Philadelphia as a means to preserve and promote the rich history of Philadelphia sports." Pro legends and college phenoms, players and coaches, arenas and stadiums - the Philly HOF is designed to recognize greatness in all forms.

What's LaSalle's corner of the yet to be built hall look like? Tom Gola, in. Joe Verdeur, LaSalle gold medal swimmer, in. Lionel? Shockingly, the namesake of this blog has yet to be enshrined. You can understand him not going ahead of Gola, but come on, the fourth class just welcomed a field hockey player and a soccer player.

You can try to ignore 3,217 points, but you can't ignore that many emails. I just submitted a nomination form and the response said "Thank-you. Your nomination has been received. Your choice is now eligible for consideration for Inductee Class IV." Is that all it took? Is it possible no one nominated him the past 5 years?


Use this link to lobby Lionel for the PHOF

Lions v Hippo

I didn't realize how big hippos were. You always hear about hippos being assholes so as a species, they've had this coming.

Sual Kinda on Kimmel

Sual's sitting on the sidelines at Kimmel during CP3's interview.



First spotted at Hornets Hype.

1999 - The Year That Could Have Been

1999 "Potential" Starting Roster

4 K'Zell Wesson F-C 6-7 254 SR
5 Julian Blanks G 6-2 181 FR
12 Donnie Carr G 6-3 212 JR
33 Kobe Bryant F 6-7 191 JR
45 Rasual Butler F 6-7 185 FR

Coming off the Bench…
25 Victor Thomas F 6-7 178 SO


No team in the A-10 could have even come close to this one in 1999. The starting line-up would feature 2 NBA players (Rasual Butler, Kobe Bryant), one First Team All-A-10 (Donnie Carr), and two solid players (Julian, and K'Zell - who at 254lbs. is still the largest vegetarian I know.) Victor Thomas could have come off the bench and we would be talking about that La Salle team that made a run into the Sweet 16 right now.

All because Kobe decided he was too good to be an Explorer.

I like Lionel's Den More Too

I know I know. "Lionel's Den" has a much better ring to it. Problem is, this dude already has it. Word came down from marketing that we should change the title to the URL because "No one else has a blog that's a different name than the URL." Don't shoot the messenger.