Cajuns face another road task
<blockquote><p align=justify>No one said this was going to be easy, but Robert Lee was hoping his first year as Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns head basketball coach would go better than this.
Lee's Cajuns were overwhelmed 96-51 at No. 2 Kansas last Saturday night to fall to 3-4, and when they return to the court at 8 p.m. today against unbeaten North Carolina State they'll be without senior point guard Orien Greene.
If there was a player the Cajuns could least afford to lose, it would be Greene.
Until Greene's broken leg heals, either junior Spencer Ford or freshman Derek Gray will have to direct a team that is defending a Sun Belt Conference championship.
"I guarantee somebody will step up," Lee said. "I'm just not sure who that will be."
Doing so against N.C. State (7-0) is a tall order. The No. 12-ranked Wolfpack slapped visiting Liberty 94-60 last Saturday and tonight's game marks the final step in a season-opening, 8-game homestand for coach Herb Sendek's squad.
The Wolfpack, which bested the Cajuns 61-52 in last year's NCAA Tournament in the only previous meeting between the two schools, was led past Liberty by the 27 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists of 6-foot-7 senior Julius Hodge.
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Bruce Brown
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"I may not be the strongest guy, the best passer, probably not the best ball handler or the best post-up guy, but I do a lot of things very well," said Hodge, the reigning ACC Player of the Year.
"One of my best attributes is posting up, and today I did a good job of getting some easy baskets in the low post and getting some other guys easy baskets. I know my game and I play to my strengths.
"I may not be the best shooter, but I'm the best looking."
"He was brilliant today," Sendek said. "He just took over the game. He was dominant. All the players on our team also benefited."
Lee got an up-close look at Hodge in last year's NCAA contest in Orlando, when the Wolfpack star hit just 5-of-13 shots and had 14 points in the victory.
"Hodge plays point guard a lot, so we'll have to see if we can contain his penetration," Lee said. "We had some success against him in the NCAA, but some of those guys are not here.
"Hodge is a tremendous player, but I'm just as concerned about their other players. They have so many guys who can shoot from the perimeter, and we've shown we don't do a good job in that area. That's my main concern."
N.C. State is on the kind of early roll that could stamp the Wolfpack as a contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference, although tougher opposition is on the way.
"I'm going to be a little bit greedy and say we still need to be a much better rebounding team," said Sendek, whose team out-rebounded Liberty 44-38 last Saturday.
"I don't think we're anywhere close to where we need to be. The offensive rebounding was a positive, but we still have up too many in the second half."
The Cajuns are getting 17.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game from East Tennessee State transfer Tiras Wade, who has led UL in scoring in every game including 12 at Kansas, when he tied senior Brian Hamilton for high honors.
Wade's 6-of-11 shooting against the Jayhawks was a bright spot on a night in which the Cajuns hit just 19-of-59 as a team.
Kansas led 54-22 at halftime and the picture didn't brighten measurably in the final 20 minutes.
The picture for the season turned gloomy with Greene's broken leg early in that game. The test for Lee's team will be how it responds.
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Rematch could be mismatch
<blockquote><p align=justify>RALEIGH -- N.C. State will try to fatten its record tonight at 9 in the RBC Center when the No. 12 Wolfpack (7-0) takes on Louisiana-Lafayette (3-4).
The Ragin' Cajuns bear little resemblance to the 2004 Sun Belt Championship team that gave N.C. State a battle in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Orlando, Fla., last March.
Since that game, Louisiana-Lafayette has lost two head coaches and its three best 3-point shooters.
Jessie Evans, who guided the Ragin' Cajuns to three straight 20-win seasons, left to become head coach at San Francisco. He was replaced by Oklahoma State assistant Glynn Cyprien, who was fired in July after school officials learned of some George O'Leary-like mistakes on his résumé.
Evans' top assistant, Robert Lee, inherited the job. Lee will bring an experienced team to Raleigh, even though starting point guard Orien Greene, who scored eight points against the Pack last year in Orlando, is out of action with a broken leg he suffered in a 96-51 loss at No. 2 Kansas.
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The Cajuns do have one significant newcomer. Tiras Wade, a 6-6 transfer from East Tennessee State, has led Louisiana-Lafayette in scoring in every game this season. He is averaging 17.7 points a game while shooting 50.5 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from 3-point range.
The game with Louisiana-Lafayette will mark N.C. State's seventh straight home game (six in the RBC Center, one at Reynolds Coliseum). The overall record of the Pack's first eight opponents is 21-33, and Manhattan (4-2) is the only one with a winning record.
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Re: Cajuns face another road task
Quote:
Originally posted by NewsCopy
Until Greene's broken leg heals, either junior Spencer Ford or freshman Derek Gray will have to direct a team that is defending a Sun Belt Conference championship.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Spencer Ford listed as a forward? Would he really play point guard. I'm assuming that Dwayne Mitchell will play a little point guard too.
I'd also like to see a little more of Ross Mouton now that there is a shortage in the guard area. As a fellow STM grad, I have been much more impressed with him than I thought I would be. Keep it up, Ross...
Re: Re: Cajuns face another road task
Quote:
Originally posted by BabbForHeisman
I'd also like to see a little more of Ross Mouton now that there is a shortage in the guard area. As a fellow STM grad, I have been much more impressed with him than I thought I would be. Keep it up, Ross...
His vertical leaping ability has really surprised me.
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