Cedric Russell Portals out to Ohio State

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Originally Posted by RaginDave

He was speaking about the team with Marquetti, Stroman, Bartley and Gant, I believe.

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correct .. I keep forgetting we have lost out of the second round over 9 times

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Originally Posted by Hatch

Harper was on the team last year as a 4 Star as well.

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While he may have been a 4 star in HS, Harper has a long way to go to living up to that rating.

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Originally Posted by CajunJeaux

While he may have been a 4 star in HS, Harper has a long way to go to living up to that rating.

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Dude when your coach sucks…you don’t improve.

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Originally Posted by CajunJeaux

While he may have been a 4 star in HS, Harper has a long way to go to living up to that rating.

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While I don’t disagree it was a unique situation last year where he thought he would be playing prep school ball and then a few weeks later he was on the floor here as soon as he joined the team 1/4 of the way into the season. I would expect to see some improvement this year, will be interesting to see if it happens.

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Originally Posted by Hatch

While I don’t disagree it was a unique situation last year where he thought he would be playing prep school ball and then a few weeks later he was on the floor here as soon as he joined the team 1/4 of the way into the season. I would expect to see some improvement this year, will be interesting to see if it happens.

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It all depends on what Marlin does offensively. One good thing is, we won't have Russell to rely on so he will have no choice but to get into sets and actually run real offense. We didn't do much of any playcalling last year. Harper will be good.

Hatch, do you or Cajunsmike has any info on the recent Marlin extension?

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Originally Posted by zephyr

Hatch, do you or Cajunsmike has any info on the recent Marlin extension?

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It hasn't changed anything, it is understood with Marlin that he has to win this year.

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Originally Posted by cajuns80

It hasn't changed anything, it is understood with Marlin that he has to win this year.

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It is understood between Marlin and who?

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Originally Posted by CajunVic

It is understood between Marlin and who?

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Administration and fans.

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Originally Posted by zephyr

Hatch, do you or Cajunsmike has any info on the recent Marlin extension?

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No insider info here but I didn’t really read anything into that seeing as it appeared to be blanket extensions across the board for all coaches. I agree that it is known expectations are high.

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Originally Posted by Hatch

No insider info here but I didn’t really read anything into that seeing as it appeared to be blanket extensions across the board for all coaches. I agree that it is known expectations are high.

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Every coach on campus got an 1 year extension due to Covid. Nothing much to be read into that formality. Expectations are high from everyone and that includes players and staff. Difference between them and others is they have extreme confidence they will be successful. I would not want those in my program to think any other way. From the social media posts I have seen one of the reasons for optimism is the attitude being instilled by the new strength coach, Oliver Winston. He was with Chris Beard at Texas Tech where he was part of a lot of success. Maybe his work will help with the problem the team has had in recent years in finishing shot attempts near the basket.

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Originally Posted by Cajunsmike

Every coach on campus got an 1 year extension due to Covid.

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That seems exuberant.

'<i>Nobody gets fired because of Covid</i>' seems rational.

One thing people may have missed from the article is that Cedric will finish his degree at Louisiana in the next few days. Therefore he will always be part of the Ragin Cajuns family. He indicated as such in his Twitter note announcing his decision. I for one wish him well on his next journey.

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Originally Posted by Cajunsmike

One thing people may have missed from the article is that Cedric will finish his degree at Louisiana in the next few days. Therefore he will always be part of the Ragin Cajuns family. He indicated as such in his Twitter note announcing his decision. I for one wish him well on his next journey.

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I wish him well also. I just don't think it was a very smart decision as others have posted as well. He probably won't get the same playing time or exposure.

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Originally Posted by moorecajun

I wish him well also. I just don't think it was a very smart decision as others have posted as well. He probably won't get the same playing time or exposure.

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It depends how you define exposure. Is it appearing and getting playing time in March Madness?

In his years here, that has not happened for him.

One more theory on Russell that is just my own thoughts. It was mentioned in the article the steady increase in production he showed year after year while here. It is possible he didn’t want a decrease in minutes/scoring on his resume in a fifth year in the same program. I’m not saying he would have been riding the bench here next year by any means but with Williams, Harper, and Jones all competing for minutes at the guard spots a slight decrease in production would not have been out of the question, and for a scout simply looking at numbers that may raise an eyebrow. Cedric was practicing against those guys for 3 weeks so he knew what he was up against. For his numbers to go down moving from the mid major level to a national championship contender would be expected, and of course he gets the experience of playing on that kind of stage. I may get some flack for that opinion but I don’t care.

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Originally Posted by Hatch

One more theory on Russell that is just my own thoughts. It was mentioned in the article the steady increase in production he showed year after year while here. It is possible he didn’t want a decrease in minutes/scoring on his resume in a fifth year in the same program. I’m not saying he would have been riding the bench here next year by any means but with Williams, Harper, and Jones all competing for minutes at the guard spots a slight decrease in production would not have been out of the question, and for a scout simply looking at numbers that may raise an eyebrow. Cedric was practicing against those guys for 3 weeks so he knew what he was up against. For his numbers to go down moving from the mid major level to a national championship contender would be expected, and of course he gets the experience of playing on that kind of stage. I may get some flack for that opinion but I don’t care.

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The staff was definitely not expecting a decrease in production from Cedric. They WERE expecting his statistical numbers to go down however due to Williams and Jones coming on board. Part of that would be due to him simply playing fewer minutes. That would not have been a bad thing however as he was forced to play too many minutes here the last two years. Going forward the staff still has to deal with keeping 14 scholarship players and two scholarship worthy walkons engaged. That will be a challenge. Once the rotation starts to be pared down (at conference play time), how those who have time lessened respond may determine what type of year they have.

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Originally Posted by cajuns80

Administration and fans.

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Bro the fans quit on Lil Big Guppy 5 years ago.

That’s the point I was trying to make. To have minutes and scoring numbers consistently go up and then decrease a bit in a 5th year in the same program might not be the best look. It was mentioned before he was influenced by an agent, that might have been part of the agent’s advice, just speculating.

He may also want exposure in the big dance.

As returning leading scorer, Cedric was primed to be Levi Lewis' counterpart as leader of the basketball team.

Elfrid Payton says Louisiana provides plenty of necessary exposure.

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Originally Posted by Turbine

As returning leading scorer, Cedric was primed to be Levi Lewis' counterpart as leader of the basketball team.

Elfrid Payton says Louisiana provides plenty of necessary exposure.

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To be fair. Elfrid got put on the map playing and starting on team usa U19 squad with a bunch of future pros

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Originally Posted by Hudsheen#Fired

To be fair. Elfrid got put on the map playing and starting on team usa U19 squad with a bunch of future pros

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Fair enough.

To be extra fair it was Elfrid's play at Louisiana that provided enough exposure to get him noticed for the U19 squad.

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Originally Posted by Hatch

That’s the point I was trying to make. To have minutes and scoring numbers consistently go up and then decrease a bit in a 5th year in the same program might not be the best look. It was mentioned before he was influenced by an agent, that might have been part of the agent’s advice, just speculating.

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I agree with you Hatch but it seems that Russell is leaving mainly due to exposure which he felt he could get at OSU. He's going to a team that may be ranked in the top 10 to start the year so there is obviously going to be talent on that team at his position. I'm just saying, how are you going to perform for the scouts and team executives if you are playing 8 minutes a game on a loaded team? Or at least how are you going to outperform what you did here I guess is my question.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E55Z4vmX...jpg&name=large

Cedric's goodbye / hello speech to UL / Ohio State