The chances of Cajuns making an appearance at the conference tourney they are hosting are about 5%.Originally Posted by Tripple Threat
I hope Coach Lee is emphasizing this info to the players. If he's looking for motivation, this is it.
"CajunBlog: Road could be where Cajuns’ hoop season ends
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
Four weeks remain before the play-in games for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, and it would take a minor miracle for UL’s men to avoid a road trip for that game. Given the Cajuns’ road struggles, amplified in Saturday’s loss at Middle Tennessee, that’s not a good thing.
The Cajun men lost their 12th straight road game Saturday and did it in ugly fashion, losing to 71-59 to a Middle Tennessee team that hadn’t won at home this year and one that had a losing overall record.
ADVERTISEMENT
The loss puts UL at 3-9 in league play, and that ranks the Cajuns 12th out of 13 league teams ahead of only Denver (2-9), and finishing that low is tantamount to a road sentence in the new alignment for the conference tournament.
The winner of each division and the second-place team with the best league record draw byes in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament, and the fourth through eighth teams in the combined standings host the ninth through 13th teams at campus sites in the first-round game. Those five winners advance to the Cajundome to join the three bye teams in the March 4 quarterfinals.
For UL to get to the magic eighth spot and get a first-round home game, the Cajuns will have to turn around a 3-5 January and win at least four and maybe even five of their six remaining conference games.
That’s doable, with three home games and road contests at the two teams — Denver and Florida International — that currently sit at the bottom of the division standings. But after road losses at Florida Atlantic and Middle last week, it’ll take a big turnaround.
If that doesn’t happen, given what’s taken place on the road this year, it’s very likely the Cajuns won’t make a tournament appearance on its own home court"