The Book: 2006-2007 Ragin' Cajuns Basketball

[Cajunsmike]

If I could fix one more thing, a healthy Mo Barksdale would have helped. If we'd have won half of those close games we lost, we'd be looking at a totally different season even in a down year.

In retrospect, in a few days even the coaches will be glad this very tough season has ended. They can now move on to preparing the new talent to come on board. Last night's result was really cast one week ago at FIU. Had we won that game, I think we would have won Saturday and played at home last night. At FIU, in addition to missing free throws, we missed 13 layups. That is when the season really ended. BOP has said all year that NT has the best talent in the league. With hindsight, we can see that we were lucky to be competitive with them the first two times. Scoring 78 points and making 80% of our free throws will win most of the time. Last night it wasn't good enough not because of a lack of effort, but because the opposition played to their potential. Watch for UNT to do well in Lafayette.

Plan for the spring-monitor the guys sitting out and insure they earn eligibility, find a quality big man and sign him in April, and insure Gradigno passes the ACT/graduates with the needed GPA. He made a 16 the first time he took the ACT without preparing and you need a 17. He may have earned the 17 by now so this may be a moot point. Plan for the summer-get as many guys in summer school as possible and give them a set of basketball improvement needs to work on. Unfortunately, they probably won't have the indoor facility for this aspect as it may not be ready until late summer. They will do their summer work at Bourgeois where they will compete with regular students for the court. I hear we will have as many as nine kids in summer school, including all four who sat out this year.

Finally, it is obvious if you know Coach Lee only on an acquaitance basis, that he is fiercely competitive. It had to be really hard on him to go through this season with the hope he is building something for the long term by making the decisions he did. He knows that results of this year are not acceptable again.

CajunsMike

[MiamiCajun32]

In hind sight I think it would have served this young team well to have had a patsy out of conference schedule.

I might be wrong but I think with just a little more confidence going into conference play the team would have gotten a couple more victories early on.

jmo

This team would not lost most games against patsies too. Just too inconsistent and misguided to have confidence. Sunbelt play was mostly patsies in itself, but did not matter. Got on a roll there towards the end, but not enough organization and confidence to keep from collapsing down home stretch. This team is capable of losing by 40 to any team on any given night, no matter from the southland or ACC conference. Hopefully things will be better next year, but I think the days of consistently winning 20+ each season is unfortunately over. Two more seasons of this coaching staff will make it very difficult for the next staff to turn things around and keep a great winning tradition going when it has by that time been sidetracked by 4 horrible seasons.

Last night's elimination game against North Texas was case in point about how poorly prepared this team has been.

For all those that think all of this change is for the good and that the program is actually being saved by Lee, from the alleged destruction by Evans, just remember this: 9-21 in 3rd season. No excuse.... If cupboard was bare when Evans left, then Lee had an entire year to recruit for replacements needed and now we are two years past that point. If he thought going after high school talent was best, then he should not have recruited all the transfers and then proclaimed sweet sixteen before last season, then dumped all those guys. But it is not just about talent. There is young and experienced talent on this team, but the perception and propaganda out there is that there is no talent. There always has to be an excuse with this program these days after all. This team is more talented than most sunbelt teams but that did not translate to victories anyways.

What will be the excuse next year? Then again the winning tradition has been replaced by mediocre goals and expectations so an improvement to, let's say 13-15, will be cause for celebration for this coaching staff and most of the people on this board (but not for most of the poeple represented by those empty seats in Cajun Dome).

[Turbine]

This team would not lost most games against patsies too. Just too inconsistent and misguided to have confidence. Sunbelt play was mostly patsies in itself, but did not matter. Got on a roll there towards the end, but not enough organization and confidence to keep from collapsing down home stretch. . . .

UL's first 5 opponents have a combined record of 100-40 that is an average of 20 wins and only 8 losses between UL's first 5 opponents.

This was the wrong year to have a brutal out of conference schedule. In my opinion getting beat down causes a player to over-think situations it causes coaches to keep starting over in the middle of a season at a point when they should be working on small things.

Early in the season at a point that you may know it is the toughest early schedule in school history, you have no idea they will have a 100-40 record. So what happens is you regroup when you should stay the course. You lost to a much better team not because you were bad; except at that point in time you do not know this.

In my opinion, a young team should be coddled, not tested. By the time UL got into conference play they had no idea who they were if they were coming or going.

So why the tough schedule? It was recommended by Wright Waters and implemented by David Walker.

[NCAA or BUST]

Hindsight? Milsaps should have been redshirted.

[RCAJUN90]

In hind sight I think it would have served this young team well to have had a patsy out of conference schedule.

I might be wrong but I think with just a little more confidence going into conference play the team would have gotten a couple more victories early on.

jmo

I would have considered McNeese and SFA to be patsies in basketball.

[AstroCajun]

I would have considered McNeese and SFA to be patsies in basketball.

You'd be wrong about McNeese when the game is at McNeese. We've had much better teams leave LC with a last second loss (due largely to the home cooking).

[Cajunsmike]

This team would not lost most games against patsies too. Just too inconsistent and misguided to have confidence. Sunbelt play was mostly patsies in itself, but did not matter. Got on a roll there towards the end, but not enough organization and confidence to keep from collapsing down home stretch. This team is capable of losing by 40 to any team on any given night, no matter from the southland or ACC conference. Hopefully things will be better next year, but I think the days of consistently winning 20+ each season is unfortunately over. Two more seasons of this coaching staff will make it very difficult for the next staff to turn things around and keep a great winning tradition going when it has by that time been sidetracked by 4 horrible seasons.

Last night's elimination game against North Texas was case in point about how poorly prepared this team has been.

For all those that think all of this change is for the good and that the program is actually being saved by Lee, from the alleged destruction by Evans, just remember this: 9-21 in 3rd season. No excuse.... If cupboard was bare when Evans left, then Lee had an entire year to recruit for replacements needed and now we are two years past that point. If he thought going after high school talent was best, then he should not have recruited all the transfers and then proclaimed sweet sixteen before last season, then dumped all those guys. But it is not just about talent. There is young and experienced talent on this team, but the perception and propaganda out there is that there is no talent. There always has to be an excuse with this program these days after all. This team is more talented than most sunbelt teams but that did not translate to victories anyways.

What will be the excuse next year? Then again the winning tradition has been replaced by mediocre goals and expectations so an improvement to, let's say 13-15, will be cause for celebration for this coaching staff and most of the people on this board (but not for most of the poeple represented by those empty seats in Cajun Dome).

This team is not more talented than most Sun Belt teams when you consider experience. I saw just about all the teams and I can make that statement. We may be more talented than most next year. 13 and 15 won't be cause for celebration next year. How do you know that is the best we will do. I have asked this and you have not given me a reason backed by facts that support that statement. How many times do I have to tell you five new people will be coming on board next year as basically freshman. Recruiting is not a big issue for awhile. You obviously never sent BOP your email so as he can give you more info about what is really going on with the program.

[Cajunsmike]

UL's first 5 opponents have a combined record of 100-40 that is an average of 20 wins and only 8 losses between UL's first 5 opponents.

This was the wrong year to have a brutal out of conference schedule. In my opinion getting beat down causes a player to over-think situations it causes coaches to keep starting over in the middle of a season at a point when they should be working on small things.

Early in the season at a point that you may know it is the toughest early schedule in school history, you have no idea they will have a 100-40 record. So what happens is you regroup when you should stay the course. You lost to a much better team not because you were bad; except at that point in time you do not know this.

In my opinion, a young team should be coddled, not tested. By the time UL got into conference play they had no idea who they were if they were coming or going.

So why the tough schedule? It was recommended by Wright Waters and implemented by David Walker.

Part of the schedule was set last year as paybacks for teams coming here last year. Robert also thought the schedule would prepare the team for conference play. You may have a point that it was too demanding. My belief is that when Milsap came in, the team regressed. Thas was a necessary regression when you consider he became freshman of the year and was a move to build for the future.

[CockyCajun]

I would have considered McNeese and SFA to be patsies in basketball.

It was two years ago UL and SFA played each other in a bracket buster game.

[Just1More]

Hopefully things will be better next year, but I think the days of consistently winning 20+ each season is unfortunately over. Two more seasons of this coaching staff will make it very difficult for the next staff to turn things around and keep a great winning tradition going when it has by that time been sidetracked by 4 horrible seasons.

Miami, you haven't been shy about sharing your doomsday theory regarding Lee. In all of your posts, the only thing you have gotten correct is the record you were tracking. Every conclusion you make is based on incorrect premises. You have made it very difficult to counter your posts, because you take off on a rambling stack of premises that interweave our current record (got that) and our past string of good years (got that). Other than that, you keep making many, many incorrect premises and therefore, poor conclusions.

We weren't that talented this year. We are also inexperienced with the talent we do possess. We have more talent in the wings. We did have, the last couple of years, a cash of transfer talent as the core of the team. We are now building a core around highschool recruits. We will supplement the core with transfer talent. This is a process not an event. We will get better. You aren't guaranteed doom, even if you have many back to back losing seasons, so that whine needs to stop. You admitted that you didn't attend games, nor attend practices, so you are totally unaware of Lee's coaching abilities... you only have the record to use as your hammer. Again, we have changed coarses mid-stream, and it is a process, not an event. No Cajun fan is happy with losing.

I heard this claim "where is the NBA talent like we use to have". Tell me who else played in the NBA during the Marty and Bobby years, other than Kevin Brooks. Did we have any other multi year NBA players? Isn't the Marty and Bobby years what you refer to as our past glory years? In the next 20 years, Lee or no Lee, we will put more people in the NBA. We will also see conference championships, NIT and NCAA appearances.

I am very sorry we had such a down year in men's basketball. It is a bummer for all of us. If you and others are going to get on here and hammer Lee, you need to know what you are talking about. If all you are going to do is re-post the same sad story with bad premises, would you mind just posting a simple message, like "I don't like Robert Lee"... and just leave it at that?

[RCAJUN90]

It was two years ago UL and SFA played each other in a bracket buster game.

So you guys are saying our program is so low that we would be at the middle or bottom of the SLC? SFA and McNeese are not even in the top of their conference but then again neither are we. The Belt has sunk in basketball.
http://southland.cstv.com/sports/m-b...skbl-body.html

[Cajunsmike]

So you guys are saying our program is so low that we would be at the middle or bottom of the SLC? SFA and McNeese are not even in the top of their conference but then again neither are we. The Belt has sunk in basketball.
http://southland.cstv.com/sports/m-b...skbl-body.html

The belt is down this year because it is an overall young league. Of the 15 guys on the All Conference team, only three are seniors.