The Book: 2006-2007 Ragin' Cajuns Basketball

[MiamiCajun32]

You may disagree with all of these points or none. I know you are a fan, because I went through the same feelings with other coaches in the UL program at some point. Here are some things that I think Robert is doing right.

1) Signing top local talent. Robert and staff have gone out and signed some of the best local talent in the state. Is some of it ineligible, yes. If the players were eligible out of high school would they have gone to University of Louisiana, probably not. Recruiting is hard. Recruiting top high school players is even harder. Many times the transfers that we signed had no other options left, so they were easier to get. Will Willie Lago be the next Orien Greene, proably not. Will Elijah Millsap be the next Brian Hamilton, possibly. Whats the difference, we have these guys for four years. For those who went to the A-State game Lago, played extremely well. He is slowly coming into his own. He will be an excellent point guard for three more years. I think we can all see the benefits of having Millsap for three more years. Tyren Johnson will continue to figure things out and be an athletic specimen before it is all over. Another thing that may pain us to think about. If Rick Majerus keeps the USC job, Ryan Francis is a Ragin' Cajun right now. Tim Floyd is good at what he does. Think we should have been able to keep Francis even with Floyd, ask the other general Bobby Knight about Jeremy Barr.

2 Home schedule. When Jesse was winning one of the complaints was the home schedule. We played Mobile, Bethune Cookman, Birmingham Southern (who we lost to by the way). This season the Cajun fans have gotten to see two All-Americans play in the Cajundome and two top 25 teams. I think high school recruits would rather play somebodies than beat DII's. It helps your recruiting.

3. Building the progam to last. Players are going into the community. The team GPA this fall was the highest it has been in 20 years. We have young talented players. We are rebuilding recruiting ties with Louisiana players that we did not have since we didn't recruit Louisiana players for the last four years. If Robert Lee was the coach four years ago, Bo Macaleb would be a Ragin' Cajun. Instead, our point guard, Kevin Bell, never made it to campus and now plays at Fresno State.

4. The transfers were nice. Orien, Tiras, Brian, Dwayne, Mike, were great. But then there were the ones who never made it, Carlos Hurt, Jimmy Inglis, a player who left then started at Oregon, a player from Chicago who got kicked out. Jesse did a great job while he was here. We got to the tournament twice. And a third time with his players. But, Robert coached them.

We will get back. I don't think it is a program collapse. I thnk the only thing Robert did wrong is not take high school kids after his first year. We tried to strike it big with some JUCO guys and it didn't work out. You must also remember that Robert did not sign, Fobbs, Pesoli, Mouton, James, they were here already. Maybe I am wrong and I have too much faith. Maybe my rose colored glasses fit just right. We are a mid major program that stopped relying on transfers there will be some growing pains. I think we will pull through, but I respect your opinion.

I appreciate all the constructive feedback from all those that have dished it out. I did not intend to post so many times, but was responding to posts calling me a moron, etc. In any event, I certainly appreciate the positive points explained, and I will hold out hope for a turn around. However, I feel that the program is at an all-time low when a rebuilding year equals losses to very low level programs. Going all the way back to the first Marty year, even rebuilding seasons were winning seasons and highly competitive sunbelt / Am South / Southland seasons. The sunbelt is not nearly as good as it has been in year's past. There is no fringe top 25 team, as there used to be most years. A lot of teams, such as ASU and UNO have been playing very poorly in non-conference play. So I don't think it is acceptable for a rebuilding year to include a blow out loss to SFA and consistent losing to the bottom half of the sunbelt, a weakened sunbelt at that. There are veteran players on the court too, not just freshmen.

[Cajunsmike]

I appreciate all the constructive feedback from all those that have dished it out. I did not intend to post so many times, but was responding to posts calling me a moron, etc. In any event, I certainly appreciate the positive points explained, and I will hold out hope for a turn around. However, I feel that the program is at an all-time low when a rebuilding year equals losses to very low level programs. Going all the way back to the first Marty year, even rebuilding seasons were winning seasons and highly competitive sunbelt / Am South / Southland seasons. The sunbelt is not nearly as good as it has been in year's past. There is no fringe top 25 team, as there used to be most years. A lot of teams, such as ASU and UNO have been playing very poorly in non-conference play. So I don't think it is acceptable for a rebuilding year to include a blow out loss to SFA and consistent losing to the bottom half of the sunbelt, a weakened sunbelt at that. There are veteran players on the court too, not just freshmen.

I don't think Coach Lee believes the performances at SFA and against ASU are acceptable either. I surmise that from his post game comments in both instances. However, when we say something is unacceptable, we have no ability to change things in the short term. He does and is desperately trying to do so. Admittedly results to date are not there. As I said earlier, unless you are willing to buy out his contract there is not much to be done in the medium term either. There are older players on the court but not much experience. Only Dees was a regular starter at the college level before this year and it was not here. In fact, from an athletic ability/talent standpoint, the young guys have more of it. Hopefully by the time the team plays in Miami when you will get to watch them they will have improved. Although, I think the struggles will continue for awhile, I predict a turnaround in about a month.

[Turbine]

What I did here was take each players total minutes played and divided that by 40. This gave me ficticious 40 minute block of games played. I then took their total rebounds and divided it by the psuedo-games. So the number to the far right is the number of reounds each player is getting in a 40 minute period.

UL's Best Rebounders per 40 minutes played # Player 40 minutes played Rebounds Every 40 minutes 3 Millsap, Elijah 2.5 12.7 45 Hart, Valentino 6.0 11.2 34 James, Adam 4.2 9.2 1 Johnson, Tyren 3.5 8.6 42 Wallace, Courtney 4.1 8.3 21 Dees, David 10.9 6.6 32 Milson, Abray 3.3 6.4 25 Dees, Stephen 0.7 6.2 22 Mouton, Ross 10.5 5.5 33 Gray, Derek 2.1 3.9 13 Williams, Alphonso 0.8 3.8 12 Lago, Willie 5.8 2.8 31 Hebert, Rhett 6.5 2.5

[Turbine]

What I did here was take each players total minutes played and divided that by 40. This gave me ficticious 40 minute block of games played. I then took their total points scored and divided it by the psuedo-games. So the number to the far right is the number of points each player has averaged in their 40 minute segment

UL's Best Scorers per 40 minutes played # Player 40 minutes played Points Every 40 minutes 22 Mouton, Ross 10.5 22.1 21 Dees, David 10.9 19.9 3 Millsap, Elijah 2.5 12 42 Wallace, Courtney 4.1 10 32 Milson, Abray 3.3 9.7 13 Williams, Alphonso 0.8 8.8 31 Hebert, Rhett 6.5 8 1 Johnson, Tyren 3.5 7.7 45 Hart, Valentino 6.0 7.7 33 Gray, Derek 2.1 7.6 12 Lago, Willie 5.8 7.4 25 Dees, Stephen 0.7 7.1 34 James, Adam 4.2 5

[Mineshaft]

who cares

[Mineshaft]

nobody cares dude give it a rest

[Doug]

Almost five averaging double figures i had no idea.

[Doug]

amost five again.

[jhaan79]

UALR 17
Louisiana 24
1:12 1st

Hebert 11
Dees 6

[NCAA or BUST]

24
22

[jhaan79]

UALR 22
Louisiana 24
HALF

Hebert 11
Dees 6

[jhaan79]

UALR 29
Louisiana 26
15:11 2nd

[jhaan79]

UALR 35
Louisiana 32
11:44 2nd

[jhaan79]

UALR 41
Louisiana 38
8:20 2nd

[jhaan79]

UALR 46
Louisiana 42
6:12 2nd

Dees 14
Hart 6

Akins with 6 bombs tonight for UALR