Williams duo returns to Cajuns tonight

<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Availability of Southall, Greene, Mitchell remains unknown.</b>

LOUISIANA La. — One day after the deadline for university professors to post grades for the fall semester, it is still uncertain exactly who will be playing for Louisiana’s basketball team tonight at Dayton.

The Ragin’ Cajuns meet the 6-0 and 25th-ranked Flyers at 7 p.m. at Dayton Arena, and the status of five members of the Cajun squad — senior Chris Williams, juniors Michael Southall, Cedric Williams and Orien Greene and sophomore Dwayne Mitchell — remains in doubt.

None of the five played in the Cajuns’ first two games, a 79-45 loss to 10th-ranked Georgia Tech and an 89-57 win over Loyola-New Orleans. All were awaiting results of fall semester classes to regain their eligibility.

Danny Cottonham, director of Louisiana’s Student-Athlete Center, said that grades were due to be posted by 10 a.m. Monday, but as of Monday afternoon many were still outstanding.

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Dan McDonald
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“Traditionally, instructors have had until Tuesday to post grades,” he said, “and many are still going by that. There are a lot of grades not there yet, not just our kids.”

A source close to the basketball program said Monday evening that Chris Williams and Cedric Williams had been cleared to play and flew to join their teammates in Dayton late Monday evening.

The Cajun squad, minus the questionable quintet, head coach Jessie Evans and two other coaches departed Lafayette Regional Airport for Dayton at 11:15 a.m. Monday.

Assistant coach Robert Lee remained in Lafayette to coordinate last-minute travel and flew to Dayton late Monday.

The university has made no official statement or released any information on the eligibility status of the five, citing privacy laws that prevent release of any student’s academic status. All five are listed in the team’s official press guide and are on the roster in the school’s press notes for tonight’s game.

A source in the athletic department said that Southall would not be play in the spring semester because he did not complete academic requirements to regain eligibility. Members of the coaching staff would not confirm Southall’s status.

Four of the five were ineligible to begin the season due to either a shortage of completed semester hours or a too-low grade point average. Mitchell, a transfer from Auburn, was academically eligible but had to sit out for a year due to the NCAA’s transfer rule.

But even Mitchell’s status is unclear until all of his grades are posted, which hadn’t happened by late Monday afternoon.

Southall is a two-year starter and a two-time All-Sun Belt Conference selection as well as the league’s Freshman of the Year in 2001-02. He also missed the first three games of last season due to academic shortcomings.

Greene transferred from Florida prior to the 2002-03 season and sat out all of last season to restore his eligibility, but was academically ineligible for the fall semester.

Chris Williams, one of four seniors on the Cajun squad, played in only nine games last year. Cedric Williams, though, averaged over 21 minutes per game last year and finished his sophomore season averaging 8.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game along with shooting 60.3 percent from the floor. He was fifth on the squad in scoring and fourth in rebounding.

“We expect to have some added depth,” Evans said of the Dayton game, his team’s first on the road since the Georgia Tech loss in the Preseason NIT opener. “They will all impact what we do both offensively and defensively, and that’s going to certainly help us.”

Dayton, which won the Maui Invitational in November, broke into the AP Top 25 poll for the first time Monday, coming in at No. 25. The Flyers won their sixth straight game Saturday, 67-65 over Wagner.

“They’re playing well,” Evans said, “and this will be a good test to see how much better we’ve gotten since Tech. We’ve made some progress and we’re doing more things creatively on offense and defense. This team is going to get better down the road ... we’re not the team yet that we’re going to be when we start conference play in January.”


Cajuns (1-1) at Dayton (6-0)



7 p.m. today, Dayton Arena (13,266), Dayton, Ohio


RADIO: KPEL-AM (1420) and KRKA-FM (107.9), 6:45 p.m.

TELEVISION: None locally, TimeWarner Dayton in Ohio.


PROBABLE STARTERS:


UL Lafayette — G Antoine Landry (5-11, 170, Sr., 10.5), G Brad Boyd (6-6, 195, Sr., 13.5), G Laurie Bridges (6-4, 206, Sr., 10.5), F Brian Hamilton (6-6, 186, Jr., 7.5), C Chris Cameron (6-11, 256, So., 12.5).

Dayton — G Ramod Marshall (6-2, 180, Sr., 17.6), G Mark Jones (6-1, 180, Jr., 10.4), F Monty Scott (6-6, 226, Sr., 8.6), F Keith Waleskowski (6-8, 231, Sr., 15.0), C Sean Finn (7-0, 240, Sr., 14.0).

NOTES: First game for the Cajuns in over two weeks, since an 89-57 home win over Loyola-New Orleans on Nov. 24 ... UL holds all-time 2-0 win over Dayton with the last meeting in 1977 ... Flyers are playing third game of a five-game homestand and are off to their best start since 1999 ... Dayton Arena has hosted part of the NCAA Tournament in 17 of the last 34 years.

NEXT: Cajuns host McNeese State Monday, 7:05 p.m., Cajundome.