The Book: 2006-2007 Ragin' Cajuns Basketball

[RustyR]

In every sport, not all of your recruits make it, football, baseball, etc. The fact that the General is starting from scratch and getting 8/9 fresmen recruits is a step in the right direction. If only 4 of them make it, then so be it...but that is 4 players playing in our system for 4/5 years! Then next season the General will get 4 or 5 more high schoolers and half of them wont make it, then the next year, etc. Do you see a pattern? We dont need to have 1 class play for 4 years then start over.

Coach Lee has already shown us what happens if you dont live up to standards...bye! Realistically, all the Cajuns will need from this point on is 2 or 3 players from each class to make. Then before we know, every year we will be playing players that have been in the system and are familiar with it! THis is how a program builds.

Just because a kid doesnt qualify doesnt mean he is a troubled recruit. Blane Harmon was a great player for us and he was in the same boat as these guys. As a mid-major to win a game or two in the tournament you need two guys that can score (Gary next year, the kid from Lake Charles) a good PG (Leggo, Daigle) A banger inside (Watson) and some role players Johnson, Milsap. I know they might not be qualified now but all we need is Gary to qualify this kid is special. Just my opinion but I have seen most of these kids play and have known a few others that played major college ball and these kids are the real deal. We just have to be patient. Not saying all of the transfers we have had in the past werent great players. But wouldnt you rather have Tiras Wade, Brian Hamilton and those other guys for 4 yrs instead of 1 or 2 yrs.

[MiamiCajun32]

What are you talking about??? Do you not remember his first year? I think it was something like 20+ wins, a conference championship and an NCAA bid. And arguably the team that played the eventual bracket winner the toughest! They win that game against Louisville if it was anywhere but where it was!

"oh, but what about last year?" What about last year? Jesse hardly recruited any High School players, so Coach Lee had to get what he could to fill holes. Not to mention the recruits from the previous year WERENT EVEN HIS RECRUITS, they were Cyprien's!! ANd they were the ones that were awful. We all love Dwayne Mitchell, but he did not have the skills to be the main focus of the team like he was last season.

Now the General goes out and gets some of the better recruits around the state, cleans house of the problems on the team and is now in building mode. And you wanna say that he has a team declining???????

Teams dont win Championships by bringing in transfers! How many transfers do you hear about Duke, UNC, Kentucky, etc.? Look at George Mason, they had 4 of the 5 starters were 4 year seniors!

Uh.... Cajuns won a few sunbelt championships there with those crazy transfers.... If you think the team is on the upswing and not in decline then I guess you are unaware that Cajuns basketball has had mostly winning seasons for decades. This season is likely a losing season for the second year in a row. And here is a news flash: The recruiting class is nice, but none of those guys have the talent of Orien Greene and other transfers cajuns have had in recent years.

I am a stickler for won and loss records and also for winning an ever weakening sunbelt conference (gone are the days that Western Kentucky was a top program and knocking on top 25). It is a mediocre conference and Cajuns are struggling to compete in it now. But, wow, they sure do have discipline and these are some young guys that will compete for sunbelt in a year or two or three (if they remain eligible and stay when Lee is likely fired).

[MiamiCajun32]

some of you can't see the forest through the trees and are just _____ing just to _____ because that is what you do. That's fine if you think the sky is falling, but if you are gonna do that, then make arguments, and not statements why.

don't fool yourselves. what was happening when Evans was here was rebuilding. Especially those last couple years. All of those transfers, especially with their academic status' always took so long to come around. Then once they did, they were leaving or graduating or whatever.

What happened in the off-season with removing the problems from the team is tearing down. This is rebuilding. The act of getting out there every night with a couple "veterans" along with several young, raw players is rebuilding. And, we won't have 9 seniors graduate at the same time. I think that being we have half (give or take) of them ineligible right now is not that bad. their departures will be staggered. Next year's class will include true freshman Gradnigo, and maybe a couple others. The year after that, a couple more high quality freshmen. the current freshmen will be juniors then and these couple years of "growing pains" will make them a very tight, cohesive group and their leadership will weigh heavy on influincing the incoming players.

Wow, it sure is better to have 2 to 3 losing seasons and then ramp up to the one ok season. That is much better than the nonsense Cajuns fans had to deal with during other past years, when conference championships were always possible. Now we can go watch a team slowly develop over the years into an average team (that is if the freshmen last 4 years and the 4 players ineligible become eligible).

[MiamiCajun32]

In every sport, not all of your recruits make it, football, baseball, etc. The fact that the General is starting from scratch and getting 8/9 fresmen recruits is a step in the right direction. If only 4 of them make it, then so be it...but that is 4 players playing in our system for 4/5 years! Then next season the General will get 4 or 5 more high schoolers and half of them wont make it, then the next year, etc. Do you see a pattern? We dont need to have 1 class play for 4 years then start over.

Coach Lee has already shown us what happens if you dont live up to standards...bye! Realistically, all the Cajuns will need from this point on is 2 or 3 players from each class to make. Then before we know, every year we will be playing players that have been in the system and are familiar with it! THis is how a program builds.

If the system is a losing one and the players are not as talented as teams in the past, what is your point? Are there special spots available in NCAA tourney for teams that have 4 year seniors? You must have been really disgusted with the two recent NCAA Cajuns teams, including the one that Lee was along for the ride with.

[MiamiCajun32]

How many tournament games did we win in that time?

This team Lee has now could stick together for 8 years and not be able to compete against a 3rd or 4th seed in the NCAA tourney. If you think that 3 years of rebuilding will turn out a special team that can win NCAA tourney games (rather than fall short with competitvie games, like previous Cajuns teams), you are really kidding yourself.

[Sonsissymia]

What are you talking about??? Do you not remember his first year? I think it was something like 20+ wins, a conference championship and an NCAA bid. And arguably the team that played the eventual bracket winner the toughest! They win that game against Louisville if it was anywhere but where it was!

"oh, but what about last year?" What about last year? Jesse hardly recruited any High School players, so Coach Lee had to get what he could to fill holes. Not to mention the recruits from the previous year WERENT EVEN HIS RECRUITS, they were Cyprien's!! ANd they were the ones that were awful. We all love Dwayne Mitchell, but he did not have the skills to be the main focus of the team like he was last season.

Now the General goes out and gets some of the better recruits around the state, cleans house of the problems on the team and is now in building mode. And you wanna say that he has a team declining???????

Teams dont win Championships by bringing in transfers! How many transfers do you hear about Duke, UNC, Kentucky, etc.? Look at George Mason, they had 4 of the 5 starters were 4 year seniors!

without researching, so there's probably more, but i recall ky winning it all with star transfer Kyle Macy, unlv winning it with star transfer larry johnson, and let's not forget the greatest transfer of them all, bird, being runner-up with basically a 1-AA team on his back.

[CDeb]

Some of you folks need to get out of the 1970's, fast.

[RustyR]

This team Lee has now could stick together for 8 years and not be able to compete against a 3rd or 4th seed in the NCAA tourney. If you think that 3 years of rebuilding will turn out a special team that can win NCAA tourney games (rather than fall short with competitvie games, like previous Cajuns teams), you are really kidding yourself.

Have you seen any of these kids play? Just a question.

[geo_cajun]

From the two games I have seen so far, the talent is raw at best. Wallace is much sloppier than I thought he would be, but he has size he can use inside. Hebert can confidently hit open shots, but is too short to hit with a man in his face. Mouton got the memo, cause his shooting is vastly improved. He was hitting tough off balance shots. Other than him we are not a very good shooting team, again. Also these guys just started playing together, so lets give them some time to develop chemistry and maybe they will suprise us.

No matter what their record, I WILL be attending every game I can, as should everyone in acadiana. The attendance has been appalling, for a cheap night of family fun why are there so few people at the games. For me pride goes deeper than winning and losing. I just wish more people felt that way. Geaux Cajuns! As a student and a fraternity member I was embarassed by the absolute absense of students. I personally went to the Intrafraternity coucil meeting and challenged every fraternity on the row to get all of their guys to the game, so I think we will have a better student turnout next time. When that dome has even just 5-7000 people in it there is a fun atmosphere, but my goal is more like 10000 people. Man, I am going on a rant here, sorry. I'll shut up now.

[MiamiCajun32]

Have you seen any of these kids play? Just a question.

You got me on that one. I don't live in Lafayette so support program from afar. But win and loss record really does not lie. Results are results. In the business world we have to be accountable, as does Lee for the very rapid decline of the program, especially one that he is blaming on past transfers, although he brought some in last year and declared that team to be sweet sixteen worthy (before taking away those scholarships and going another route - so indecisvie).

Overall losing records are very bad when you plan in sunbelt. And Cajuns basketball has been a successful program and the flagship of the sunbelt conference in recent years.

It seemed like a gutsy performance against Ole Miss, but Ole Miss may be in cellar of SEC this year. I hope that all us naysayers are completely wrong. I would love to meet up with the optimists at the NCAA tourney and have pie thrown in my face. But unfortunately, I think us naysayers are right. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the program has fallen rapidly to its lowest level in at least 20 years and probably longer.

[Ewhite]

I hope that all us naysayers are completely wrong. I would love to meet up with the optimists at the NCAA tourney and have pie thrown in my face. But unfortunately, I think us naysayers are right.

I'm thinkin a Key Lime pie....

[Oldman]

This program has been in steady decline since Robert Lee took over. You might not like what I just said, but I just don't think Robert Lee is the Coach you need to get the good players to UL.

YOU'RE ANOTHER IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!