GDT: @LaSalle

[A10Ref]

Pretty hilarious - La Salle listed attendance at 1,121. No way they had 500 folks at the game.

[Cowboy II]

-LaSalle had fantastic stats available for view during the game, including a shot chart

-we have too many times where our guys when helping break pressure dribble and pick up in that imaginary half circle  area from the timeline to the sideline where it is easy to trap and tough to get the ball out of, just go a little deeper or get to the middle of the floor, this happens to TJ imo because he is not the best ball-handler and is not comfortable or can't take that extra couple of dribbles or keep alive his dribble until finding an open guy

[Old guy]

4 hours ago, A10Ref said:

Pretty hilarious - La Salle listed attendance at 1,121. No way they had 500 folks at the game.

Absent season ticket holders perhaps?

[Taj79]

@Old guy--- could be however if 500 fans were there and attendance was listed at 1121, that's 600+ folks who stayed home.  Which also means support for their program is also abysmal.  They need to downgrade and go off to the MAAC, Colonial or Patriot League.  Maybe they could replace Stony Brook.

One final note from me on this one ----- when was the Gola Mausoleum built?  Pretty oild right?  1998 ---- it's only 24 years old.

[Old guy]

I agree this is a pretty dismal level of attendance, but the arena is pretty small or so I believe. Each school plans and manages its facilities differently. They built this thing in 1998 so they probably think this place is fine for their needs, who am I to say?

[billikenbill]

4 hours ago, Old guy said:

I agree this is a pretty dismal level of attendance, but the arena is pretty small or so I believe. Each school plans and manages its facilities differently. They built this thing in 1998 so they probably think this place is fine for their needs, who am I to say?

If they built it in ‘98 as an upgrade, hard to imagine how bad the gym was prior to that. Rammer calls it, among other things, a “garbage pit.” Cracked me up when he referred to it a few years ago as “Tom Gola Arena and Pickleball Courts.” At the time, I didn’t know there was a game called Pickleball. Still have never seen a Pickleball court or any equipment for it.

[Old guy]

2 hours ago, billikenbill said:

If they built it in ‘98 as an upgrade, hard to imagine how bad the gym was prior to that. Rammer calls it, among other things, a “garbage pit.” Cracked me up when he referred to it a few years ago as “Tom Gola Arena and Pickleball Courts.” At the time, I didn’t know there was a game called Pickleball. Still have never seen a Pickleball court or any equipment for it.

Pickleball is a racquet sport similar to tennis played by generally older folks. The ball used is a whiffle ball (plastic hollow ball with holes), the courts are small. I do not know the actual size but 0.25 acre holds up a fair number of them with extlra area for restrooms and walkways. My wife likes it a lot, she used to play tennis before going into pickleball.

[MusicCityBilliken]

3 hours ago, billikenbill said:

If they built it in ‘98 as an upgrade, hard to imagine how bad the gym was prior to that. Rammer calls it, among other things, a “garbage pit.” Cracked me up when he referred to it a few years ago as “Tom Gola Arena and Pickleball Courts.” At the time, I didn’t know there was a game called Pickleball. Still have never seen a Pickleball court or any equipment for it.

I play pickleball all the time. They have 9 courts where I live and about 300 members in our pickleball club. Three things about pickleball 1) It's a lot of fun. 2) It's great  exercise 3) To be good at it, is not easy.

https://www.today.com/news/sports/pickleball-popularity-soaring-see-today-show-team-play-rcna4421

[Old guy]

Back to pickleball, my wife corrected me in some of the things I said. This may have been a sport for older people but at this time they have competitions, including tournaments for children 8 to 14 or something like it. She is taking our grandchild to a tournament in Fenton. The kids play hard, the ball moves fast and she thinks he will love it.

My grandchild has played at the Y with adults and can hold his own.

[almaman]

5 hours ago, billikenbill said:

If they built it in ‘98 as an upgrade, hard to imagine how bad the gym was prior to that. Rammer calls it, among other things, a “garbage pit.” Cracked me up when he referred to it a few years ago as “Tom Gola Arena and Pickleball Courts.” At the time, I didn’t know there was a game called Pickleball. Still have never seen a Pickleball court or any equipment for it.

keep your eye on local tennis courts. it's happening on a lot of them.

[RUBillsFan]

13 hours ago, Taj79 said:

One final note from me on this one ----- when was the Gola Mausoleum built?  Pretty oild right?  1998 ---- it's only 24 years old.

This makes me feel really old, but I'd say 24 years old is actually kind of old-ish for a sports arena if it hasn't been updated / renovated at all.

I can think of several professional sports venues that opened in the 1990s that have been vacated by their main tenant / team (Turner Field - MLB Braves, Ballpark in Arlington - MLB Rangers, Edward Jones Dome - NFL Rams, Georgia Dome - NFL Falcons, ).  Enterprise Center in St. Louis has been been heavily renovated since it first opened.

[Box and Won]

45 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

This makes me feel really old, but I'd say 24 years old is actually kind of old-ish for a sports arena if it hasn't been updated / renovated at all.

I can think of several professional sports venues that opened in the 1990s that have been vacated by their main tenant / team (Turner Field - MLB Braves, Ballpark in Arlington - MLB Rangers, Edward Jones Dome - NFL Rams, Georgia Dome - NFL Falcons, ).  Enterprise Center in St. Louis has been been heavily renovated since it first opened.

Yeah, but Gola was designed to be a sh-- hole.  That dump was already functionally obsolete when they held the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

[Old guy]

31 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

Yeah, but Gola was designed to be a sh-- hole.  That dump was already functionally obsolete when they held the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

I agree, but that was what the LaS choose to do. I will agree that it was not a good choice.

[dlarry]

2 hours ago, almaman said:

keep your eye on local tennis courts. it's happening on a lot of them.

Most of the south city parks have converted at least half of their tennis courts to pickle ball.

It’s definitely a fun game.

[almaman]

WG's courts made me notice. players are obviously not playing tennis when u see it happening.

[brianstl]

On 2/10/2022 at 4:03 AM, billikenbill said:

If they built it in ‘98 as an upgrade, hard to imagine how bad the gym was prior to that. Rammer calls it, among other things, a “garbage pit.” Cracked me up when he referred to it a few years ago as “Tom Gola Arena and Pickleball Courts.” At the time, I didn’t know there was a game called Pickleball. Still have never seen a Pickleball court or any equipment for it.

They played off campus for over 40 years before Gola.  Before 1955 they played at Wister Hall.  Wister Hall was and is still part of La Salle's  campus, but it was a literal high school gym.  Wister Hall was built as and at that time was La Salle College High School.

[brianstl]

And while Tom Gola Arena sucks, Tom Gola basketball player was great.  Averaged 20.9 points and 19 rebounds for his career at La Salle.  

[Old guy]

53 minutes ago, brianstl said:

They played off campus for over 40 years before Gola.  Before 1955 they played at Wister Hall.  Wister Hall was and is still part of La Salle's  campus, but it was a literal high school gym.  Wister Hall was built as and at that time was La Salle College High School.

The La Salle brothers know how to spent the least amount possible to get the minimal level of their needs satisfied. The Gola arena reflects this way of thinking.

[Taj79]

I finally found the citation but La Salle left Wister Hall, after their 1954 NCAA Championship season.  Yep --- La Salle won a national title.  And in 1955, they formed the Big Five.  Big Five basketball was huge in Philly with La Salle, Penn, St. Joe's, Villanova and Temple.  Sure, Wilt Chamberlain left Philly for Kansas but a lot of good players stayed home.

La Salle played its home games in the venerable Palestra from 1955 to 1989.  Then at the Philadelphia Civic Center from 1989 to 1996.  And closed out at the old Spectrum from 1996 to the Gola Opening.  

Originally, I was going to say they played all the other years at the Palestra but that's not quite true.  For you old timers, if you thought the ride from SLU to old Kiel was bad, I'd imagine a ride from La Salle to the other three (Palestra/Civic Ceter/Spectrum) was even worse.    For reference sake, Villanova still plays some games at the Wells Fargo Center, the replacement arena on the site of the old Spectrum.  One route takes you 24.9 miles to get there; the other 21.2 miles.  Conversely, SLU to old Kiel was 2 miles.  La Salle to the Palestra was like 9 miles but due to travel routes, it takes almost a half hour to get there.

[Matty Light]

6 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

I finally found the citation but La Salle left Wister Hall, after their 1954 NCAA Championship season.  Yep --- La Salle won a national title.  And in 1955, they formed the Big Five.  Big Five basketball was huge in Philly with La Salle, Penn, St. Joe's, Villanova and Temple.  Sure, Wilt Chamberlain left Philly for Kansas but a lot of good players stayed home.

Wilt leaving Philly to play for Phog Allen is understandable. He did return home to play for the NBA Warriors and 76ers though. I can't imagine how packed the Palestra would have been if he played in the Big 5.

[Taj79]

I was scheduled to go see the Sixers and Wilt play at the Spectrum in 1967.  Opened in autumn 1966, the roof blew off either the day of the date or the night before.  My only in-person view of Wilt was later in 67 when they were forced to relocate to the Civic Center.  I remember standing thissoclose to WIlt after the game to get his autograph.  He cut his time short before ZI got there,  I had to settle for Matty Goukas.