The Book: 2006-2007 Ragin' Cajuns Basketball

[Just1More]

By the time that transfer would be eligible Dees would be gone and the freshmen would be seasoned.

I think that is a good answer to the posed question. But, I would not, nor would I think Lee, overlook a transfer addition. It isn't that we will not compliment the team with a transfer. It is that Lee is not going to build a program around them.

As for spreading around the scoring, and taking pressure off of Dees and Mouton, that can be done now. I think Lee needs to put a couple of the big (taller) guys thru some one on one with each other and figure out which ones have the heart and nads to mix it up.

[Tripple Threat]

I think that is a good answer to the posed question. But, I would not, nor would I think Lee, overlook a transfer addition. It isn't that we will not compliment the team with a transfer. It is that Lee is not going to build a program around them.

As for spreading around the scoring, and taking pressure off of Dees and Mouton, that can be done now. I think Lee needs to put a couple of the big (taller) guys thru some one on one with each other and figure out which ones have the heart and nads to mix it up.

I really think that Wallace, Hart, or Milson could be good for 8 to 10 pts if they were isolated. I noticed that they fight for position, but don't get the pass when they're open. As everyone has been saying, a lack of confidence will make a player think twice before making a play. The bigs are getting frustrated, because they aren't getting looks.

[Oldman]

you are now seeing the surge of what jesse evens left.........think about this at the end of jesse's stay here he was not recruiting any young players for the future of the program they were either transfers, non-qualifers, and trouble makers no one else wanted and now we are paying for it and coach lee is getting the brunt of it, please stop and think about this and look back and ask yourself what did coach jesse left here to build on, turbine, do your research? coach lee is doing it right building a foundation give the coaches a break (good coaches) and stick with them.
i spoke to a player last night at the girls game and they want to win as bad as anything so lets all get behind these guys. GEAUX CAJUNS

[MiamiCajun32]

you are now seeing the surge of what jesse evens left.........think about this at the end of jesse's stay here he was not recruiting any young players for the future of the program they were either transfers, non-qualifers, and trouble makers no one else wanted and now we are paying for it and coach lee is getting the brunt of it, please stop and think about this and look back and ask yourself what did coach jesse left here to build on, turbine, do your research? coach lee is doing it right building a foundation give the coaches a break (good coaches) and stick with them.
i spoke to a player last night at the girls game and they want to win as bad as anything so lets all get behind these guys. GEAUX CAJUNS

If Jesse Evans had stayed the 20+ win seasons would have continued.... As long as Lee is here, the 20+ loss seasons will happen. There is talent on the team now, certainly enough to win a few sunbelt games and avoid 40 point blow outs to the likes of Stephen F. Austin, but this is what is happening.

It was Lee that tried to bring in the transfers last year en masse, but then realized that he would actually have to figure out a way to mold those very talented but somewhat troubled young men into good students and players. Evans did this year after year and Lee thought he could too, as head coach, just as he helped Evans do while he was an assistant.

Lee proclaimed last year's team to be sweet 16 material going into the season. Then, during the season he proclaimed that Marques Cooke would be the best player in the sunbelt the moment he stepped on the floor for the first time. Lee was just as excited about transfers as Evans ever was, if not more so.... Then Lee's transfer project failed miserably, then Lee cancelled the scholarships of those guys, then he decided to recruit 4 year players.

The team is arguably the worst in Cajun basketball history, and worst team in sunbelt today, even though the talent level is better than average in sunbelt and better than the the few other Cajuns teams that had a losing record since joining D1 35 or so years ago.

Do you honestly believe that Lee will turn a 3 to 5 win team, in the lowly sunbelt, into a sunbelt championship team (what Evans already provided or came close to providing year in and year out) simply with a couple of years maturation process of the young guys now? These freshmen and the other more experienced players on the team are already good enough to compete in the sunbelt but it is not happening because of poor coaching. The team was good enough to compete with Tennessee, Nevada and Cal State Fullerton at the very beginning of the season (at a time when coaching is not as important as raw talent) but now could not possibly come within 30 points of those teams and cannot possibly get out of the cellar in the sunbelt. So why all the optimism about this team and program next year or the year after? Will the talent level be so high then that the team can continue to underperform and yet still win games and make NCAA tourney run?

Ironicaly, the best player by far on this current team is a transfer, Dees. Even more ironically is that if Cooke had stayed in school, the best two players would be transfers. So much for the 4 year plan.

Please note that the 35 years of consistent winning teams is being run into the ground now by the current program. This is happening almost overnight. This year's team is arguably the worst team in 35 years and arguably the worst team in a very weak conference. The young team is showing so much progress that after losing to CSF by a few points they turn around a month or so later and lose by 40. After being competitve against a few teams that would run all over the sunbelt, the Cajuns can't win a sunbelt game and it is no surprise when they lose to teams like SFA and Monroe by 20 to 40 points.

Cajuns may be the worst team in D1 today. So the future is bright?

Evans had 20+ win seasons year after year and that was terrible?

Whoever gave Lee the 5 year guaranteed contract should be fired on the spot. imho, Lee was not a bad hire, given the circumstances at the time, and he deserved a shot at the time. However, why give 5 year guaranteed deal when Lee had no other head coaching jobs coming to him and there was no great demand for him? It was an experiment, he was getting a shot that he deserved, but why not make it a two or three year deal? Why 5? That was flirting with dissaster, and was a negligent decision, especially for a program that apparently cannot afford to buy out contracts.

[CajunKahouna]

........................
Please note that the 35 years of consistent winning teams is being run into the ground now by the current program. This is happening almost overnight. This year's team is arguably the worst team in 35 years and arguably the worst team in a very weak conference. The young team is showing so much progress that after losing to CSF by a few points they turn around a month or so later and lose by 40. After being competitve against a few teams that would run all over the sunbelt, the Cajuns can't win a sunbelt game and it is no surprise when they lose to teams like SFA and Monroe by 20 to 40 points.

............................

Thanks for the post. I could not agree more.

I would add that the last time this university was 2-12 in men's basketball was 1931!

And to think we may have two or three more years left of this misery!
:o

[campo118]

I'm sorry to inform you, but if you think coach Evan's was a good coach then you must have missed everything that went on behind the scenes. If winning is all that matters, then you have your priorities wrong. Evans got wins, and thats about it. He made UL look like a home for those that needed to be in rehab somewhere other than the basketball court. Evan's recruits for the most part were thugs. I don't know how well coach Lee will turn out to be, but it can't be much worse than Evans. But of course, all of you will disagree with me because you are all blinded by the wins. From what I've seen, coach Lee has his players in the system now. Critique him 3 years down the road. There is one thing I can promise. I bet Lee has a much higher graduating rate than Evans did. But once again, the final record at the end of the season is all that matters, because we are spoiled fans that only care about winning... certainly reminds me of a school 50 miles away.

[cajunpepper]

Evans left the program in disarray when he left to go to San Francisco. You have to know absolutely NOTHING about college basketball to not realize that 2 straight years of not bringing in a single recruit will hurt you.

If Evans was such a great coach, why could he only make a lateral move when he got offered a job? How come he didn't get a bigger program? Maybe its because the bigger programs saw the way he ran his teams. Yes Evans brought in good players when he was winning games, but they were only here for one year.

[DaddyCajun]

I'm sorry to inform you, but if you think coach Evan's was a good coach then you must have missed everything that went on behind the scenes. If winning is all that matters, then you have your priorities wrong. Evans got wins, and thats about it. He made UL look like a home for those that needed to be in rehab somewhere other than the basketball court. Evan's recruits for the most part were thugs. I don't know how well coach Lee will turn out to be, but it can't be much worse than Evans. But of course, all of you will disagree with me because you are all blinded by the wins. From what I've seen, coach Lee has his players in the system now. Critique him 3 years down the road. There is one thing I can promise. I bet Lee has a much higher graduating rate than Evans did. But once again, the final record at the end of the season is all that matters, because we are spoiled fans that only care about winning... certainly reminds me of a school 50 miles away.

I would have to agree with you Campo. Coach Lee did try to get things off with mostly JC guys but that was after he lost out on TWO very good recruits coming out of HS. Once these guys came onto the team and a few were a cancer to the team, he got rid of them and Cooke as they were not what he thought they were and/or should be to the team and program once on campus.(in and out of classroom)

He will take his licks this year, but hopefully starting tonight against Denver we will start to see more of at least the effort of the team at the begining of the season!!

Hang in there Louisiana Fans,
I as well as any know how bad it feels losing(especially hosting this year)
Daddy Cajun

[DestinCajun]

I would have to agree with you Campo. Coach Lee did try to get things off with mostly JC guys but that was after he lost out on TWO very good recruits coming out of HS. Once these guys came onto the team and a few were a cancer to the team, he got rid of them and Cooke as they were not what he thought they were and/or should be to the team and program once on campus.(in and out of classroom)

He will take his licks this year, but hopefully starting tonight against Denver we will start to see more of at least the effort of the team at the begining of the season!!

Hang in there Louisiana Fans,
I as well as any know how bad it feels losing(especially hosting this year)
Daddy Cajun

No matter how many Henny Pennies post their negativity on this forum you never fail to come back with a counter expression of a positive attitude.

IT IS MOST APPRECIATED!!!!

[Cajunsmike]

If Jesse Evans had stayed the 20+ win seasons would have continued.... As long as Lee is here, the 20+ loss seasons will happen. There is talent on the team now, certainly enough to win a few sunbelt games and avoid 40 point blow outs to the likes of Stephen F. Austin, but this is what is happening.

It was Lee that tried to bring in the transfers last year en masse, but then realized that he would actually have to figure out a way to mold those very talented but somewhat troubled young men into good students and players. Evans did this year after year and Lee thought he could too, as head coach, just as he helped Evans do while he was an assistant.

Lee proclaimed last year's team to be sweet 16 material going into the season. Then, during the season he proclaimed that Marques Cooke would be the best player in the sunbelt the moment he stepped on the floor for the first time. Lee was just as excited about transfers as Evans ever was, if not more so.... Then Lee's transfer project failed miserably, then Lee cancelled the scholarships of those guys, then he decided to recruit 4 year players.

The team is arguably the worst in Cajun basketball history, and worst team in sunbelt today, even though the talent level is better than average in sunbelt and better than the the few other Cajuns teams that had a losing record since joining D1 35 or so years ago.

Do you honestly believe that Lee will turn a 3 to 5 win team, in the lowly sunbelt, into a sunbelt championship team (what Evans already provided or came close to providing year in and year out) simply with a couple of years maturation process of the young guys now? These freshmen and the other more experienced players on the team are already good enough to compete in the sunbelt but it is not happening because of poor coaching. The team was good enough to compete with Tennessee, Nevada and Cal State Fullerton at the very beginning of the season (at a time when coaching is not as important as raw talent) but now could not possibly come within 30 points of those teams and cannot possibly get out of the cellar in the sunbelt. So why all the optimism about this team and program next year or the year after? Will the talent level be so high then that the team can continue to underperform and yet still win games and make NCAA tourney run?

Ironicaly, the best player by far on this current team is a transfer, Dees. Even more ironically is that if Cooke had stayed in school, the best two players would be transfers. So much for the 4 year plan.

Please note that the 35 years of consistent winning teams is being run into the ground now by the current program. This is happening almost overnight. This year's team is arguably the worst team in 35 years and arguably the worst team in a very weak conference. The young team is showing so much progress that after losing to CSF by a few points they turn around a month or so later and lose by 40. After being competitve against a few teams that would run all over the sunbelt, the Cajuns can't win a sunbelt game and it is no surprise when they lose to teams like SFA and Monroe by 20 to 40 points.

Cajuns may be the worst team in D1 today. So the future is bright?

Evans had 20+ win seasons year after year and that was terrible?

Whoever gave Lee the 5 year guaranteed contract should be fired on the spot. imho, Lee was not a bad hire, given the circumstances at the time, and he deserved a shot at the time. However, why give 5 year guaranteed deal when Lee had no other head coaching jobs coming to him and there was no great demand for him? It was an experiment, he was getting a shot that he deserved, but why not make it a two or three year deal? Why 5? That was flirting with dissaster, and was a negligent decision, especially for a program that apparently cannot afford to buy out contracts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Authement approved the contract for Coach Lee after Nelson Schexnayder negotiated it. You can't fire Doc and Nelson is no longer in the Athletic Department. By the way, the University of San Fransisco had a 4 and 11 record the last time I looked. I agree that Jessie Evans was a better coach than most Cajun fans realized. However, even he has bad years. Hang in there, this team will improve as the young guys get maturity and we bring in Gradigno (highest rated signee since Brooks), Bloom (transfer from U of H), and Gary (best of our non qualifiers). I am not silly enough to believe that things will get much better this season however. I believe much better days are ahead beginning next season while you see it the other way. There is no way to know right now which one of us is right as neither of us can see the future. I do have the advantage of attending most games and talking to folks who are close to the program.