LaSalle sees great opportunity

We were very pleased with our last win in St. Louis where the Billikens were 14-2 at home going into the game with wins against outstanding Dayton and Boston College teams. Now, we have the difficult task of beating them again in the A-10 Tournament. While we are please with a fifth-place finish in the tough Atlantic 10, we are certainly not satisfied. We have a great opportunity ahead of us and we know a few more wins in the regular season would have helped our postseason chances.

We are playing with an "edge" again. In our first 21 games we outrebounded teams 16 times. Then, we hit a bad stretch where we lost games and were outrebounded in those games. We are back to outrebounding our opponents and winning in our last four games. I believe rebounding is a measure of effort for our team. In a very long season, I think we lost some of that "edge" in practice a couple of weeks ago. We responded by making our practice scrimmages competitive and rewarding winning teams with an opportunity to start the next game. It has really helped our intensity and preparation.

With our win at Saint Louis, Paul Johnson, our first recruit, will leave La Salle with a winning career record and his degree. The most important goals for any student-athlete should be to receive a great education and have a winning experience. Paul set the standard and we feel we will continue to give our student-athletes successful experiences on and off the court.