http://www.fanhouse.com/news/main/la-salles-giannini-gets-multiyear/1103282
Interesting after such a disappointing season in which the Explorers were picked 4th in the preseason vote. But no denying all the injuries that really took their toll on Dr. G’s senior-laden squad. Next year’s team could be pretty formidable with:
[ul] [li]2010 A-10 All-Rookie 6-10 C Aaric Murray (12.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 2.3 bpg)[/li]
[li]Medical redshirt senior 6-6 G Ruben Guillandeaux (10.1 ppg, 3.1 apg in 2008-09)[/li]
[li]Rutgers transfer junior 6-5 G Earl Pettis (4.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg in 2008-09) [/li]
[li]Senior 6-8 F Jerrell Williams (10.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2.7 apg)[/li]
[li]Senior 6-8 F Steve Weingarten (5.4 ppg, 4.4 rpg)[/li]
[li]Sophomore 6-8 F Devon White (2.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg)[/li]
[li]Frosh 6-0 PG Tyreek Dureen (13 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 6.5 apg/3rd team all-state/2010 Pennsylvania AAA state champions)[/li]
[li]Frosh 6-3 PG Sam Mills (17 ppg, 4 rpg, 7 apg, 4 spg/1st team all-state/2010 Florida 4A semifinalist)[/li]
[li]Frosh 6-3 SG Cole Stefan (19 ppg/team captain/2008 Minnesota state champions) [/li][/ul]
More…
GoExplorers.com: La Salle University and Basketball Coach Dr. John Giannini Announce Agreement
I’m still waiting for Lasalle to fulfill their preseason potential. A decent recruiter who’s players seem to have poor fundamentals and play relatively disorganized and haven’t gotten much postseason play lately gets a contract extension. Where have I heard this story before? Wonder if they’ll regret it.
I was wondering about this myself, but I’m giving Dr. G a break on last season. It was one thing to lose 6th man Guillandeaux after 4 games (9.5 ppg at that point), but then to also lose starters Barrett (13.4 ppg) and Mekongo (11 ppg, 5.5 rpg) to injury, as well as reserve Terrell Williams to off-the-court issues, was just too much. In looking over the season stats, only 3 players saw action in every game - Green, Murray, and Weingarten - the latter a walk-on transfer from a non-DI program!
Anyway, congrats to Mekongo for being named both the 2010 national NACDA Division I-AAA Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the 2010 A-10 Men’s Basketball Scholar of the Year. May graduates included Barrett, Green, Goodridge, Guillandeaux, and Mekongo (the Philly Inquirer ran a nice story on this).
Yes, I agree that at some point Dr. G has got to get the Explorers into postseason play. The glory years of 1990 national POY Lionel “L-Train” Simmons are becoming a distant memory!