Cajun basketball

[I_Bleed_RED]

Btw--are you guys even going to game and supporting

I've been to almost every game

[I_Bleed_RED]

This is a bunch of straight BS! Yes i'm ticked off, because there is no reason for all of these excuses. Attrition... Marlin has been here for three years, those were "his" kids. Next, how in the fudge did we let this guys talk the program into giving him a raise. He gave himself job security and the program nothing but a hopeless dream so far. I'm sorry, diehard or not, there is no reason to continue to support or pay for a bad product. It's simple economics. If UL wants to play with the big boys, time to start treating the program like a big time program. No way we should be losing to Robert Morris and McNeese.....period, this would not happened under Fletcher,Lee, Evans or even J. Kelly Hall!

Whoaa there buddy. Did you forget that we lost to Mobile under Lee? MOBILE!!!

[Turbine]

. . . No way we should be losing to Robert Morris and McNeese.....period, this would not happened under Fletcher,Lee, Evans or even J. Kelly Hall!

I agree, bad loss.

However, except for J. Kelly Hall all of the coaches you mentioned were handed the baton of a stable winning program. Key word being 'program.' I'll have to look it up but I think Fletcher left Evans a team with a record worse than Marlin has put out the last two years.

I agree with MetryCajun "I think being young and bad works against us in keeping players"

Even J. Kelley Hall inherited the stable situation of having a future Olympian to build and build around.

Marlin was handed a program buried 6 years under, and we want him to did his way out in 2.5

The fact (I think, will check) that he got us above Fletcher "end status" in his first two years is amazing.

Of course even though I sprinkled some facts, it is still just opinion, but it helps me be patient.

[BrockMeaux]

Sorry for cross-pollinating sports, but the situation with basketball reminds me of every Saints loss this year if you frequent saintsreport.com. After every loss, the board is chalk full of people ready to post "I told you so's" about Mark Ingram, Drew Brees, the Defense as a whole, etc. and ready to abandon ship; while those things may be true for this season, the Saints are also in uncharted territory this year, and barring the head coach leaving, will show tremendous improvement next year just by virtue of it being the next season. I think the Cajuns are in the same boat. No, we're not winning as many games as we'd like. But if you go to games, even when we don't play well and we don't win, it's obvious that things are being done the right way. For one, there are actual offensive sets being run to get guys open shots; most of the time, we've got good looks, we just don't knock them down. I remember Marlin's first game...we were amazed to see motion and funneling because it was something we hadn't seen in years under Lee and very seldom under Evans. Those teams won almost exclusively on athleticism. Also, you don't see guys pouting when they come off the floor. They always make contact with the teammate replacing them, and the coaches go right to coaching once they hit the bench. Two things are indisputable with this team: first, we're not winning as many as we'd all like. Second, they ARE a very young team, and if you expected us to win 20 games with only 1 senior who hadn't seen a lot of court time, that's great for you but not entirely realistic. And like the Saints, I think we'll see tremendous improvement from this bunch next year (and even as this year goes forward), just by virtue of it being next year, with everybody a year older and a year wiser. That said, there are valid concerns about roster attrition in the past. I'm hopeful that that's over with. If it's not, and we lose a few more players this offseason, then I'll be on board with the "something's wrong here" bunch. But I'm not ready to hit the red button just yet.

[22Cajun]

The very young team is a product that Marin created. He has recruited three classes of players. This team could have 4 seniors and 2 juniors and 2 sophomores all experienced players. Whose to say he won't keep this same pattern of loosing players? He already lost one. When do we hold him responsible for his team.

[bustleup]

I've been to almost every game

Good. Wish more people would go. Hopefully after football they get on a w streak in conference

[CajunRed]

First off...Robert Morris is not a crappy basketball team by any stretch. They have beaten Duquesne, Ohio and Cleveland State. Well coached and can shoot. They made 13 three's.

Second...I couldn't have participated in a game thread because I was...AT THE GAME. This is MY team...MY program...and I'm going no matter what. As far as where we are, Marlin is responsible for that. He brought in most of the players we lost, so it falls on him. But at the same time, HE is the coach and HE is in the position of bringing us back, so I will back our program...and him...to work to bring the program back to where it should be. I would not have given him a raise at this time, but that's done, so I'm not going to continue BEECHING about it. Instead, I'm going to buy my tickets and go to games in my small effort to support our rebuilding. Even though he is now responsible for where we are, I still think he can rebuild the program.

As far as last night, we just didn't have the punch to get over the hump. Only Mbamalu was hitting from the outside. The rest of he team went something like 1 of 14 from the 3 line. Matter of fact, from our 3 spot, we got exactly 3 points. Yep...between Soto (who started) and AMT, we got ONE field goal. Some said that once he was approved to play, Soto would be our best shooter. NOOOOOOOT!! I know he's young, but frankly he doesn't appear to be even CLOSE to contributing.

With a good recruiting class...including a solid big man...we will be on track to have a good next two years. Hopefully, we're in a better position 12 months from now.

Anyway...that's my two or three or five cents worth.

Red

[CajunEXPRESS]

First off...Robert Morris is not a crappy basketball team by any stretch. They have beaten Duquesne, Ohio and Cleveland State. Well coached and can shoot. They made 13 three's.

Second...I couldn't have participated in a game thread because I was...AT THE GAME. This is MY team...MY program...and I'm going no matter what. As far as where we are, Marlin is responsible for that. He brought in most of the players we lost, so it falls on him. But at the same time, HE is the coach and HE is in the position of bringing us back, so I will back our program...and him...to work to bring the program back to where it should be. I would not have given him a raise at this time, but that's done, so I'm not going to continue BEECHING about it. Instead, I'm going to buy my tickets and go to games in my small effort to support our rebuilding. Even though he is now responsible for where we are, I still think he can rebuild the program.

As far as last night, we just didn't have the punch to get over the hump. Only Mbamalu was hitting from the outside. The rest of he team went something like 1 of 14 from the 3 line. Matter of fact, from our 3 spot, we got exactly 3 points. Yep...between Soto (who started) and AMT, we got ONE field goal. Some said that once he was approved to play, Soto would be our best shooter. NOOOOOOOT!! I know he's young, but frankly he doesn't appear to be even CLOSE to contributing.

With a good recruiting class...including a solid big man...we will be on track to have a good next two years. Hopefully, we're in a better position 12 months from now.

Anyway...that's my two or three or five cents worth.

Red

The problems we are having? Failure to defend the three point shot in multiple games. The failure to make a decent percentage of three point shots over all, and the inability to deal with a zone defense is what is killing this team. All of these things happen to young teams, and often.

Why is this team so young? We know how come, just not the why.

For those not going to the games, and not seeing him play, Wrondowski is a good freshman player.

http://www.ragincajuns.com/cumestats...ball&year=2012

Go read the stats, and it is not surprising that we lose by of only 3.2 per game. We need more good players, and good players who have age, and experience at this level. The stats say we are not that far away as some are saying. Time enough to assign blame and honor later, for sure we have Bob Marlin for three more seasons.

[Zeebart21]

The very young team is a product that Marin created. He has recruited three classes of players. This team could have 4 seniors and 2 juniors and 2 sophomores all experienced players. Whose to say he won't keep this same pattern of loosing players? He already lost one. When do we hold him responsible for his team.

It would be great if he had 4 seniors, 2 juniors and 2 sophomores that weren't Mommas boys..Time to cut the apron strings from Momma and your lame assed Select coaches.. Nikita turned out to be the biggest turd in the punchbowl you could imagine, too..Now go stroke your boys behind the ears...tell em everything will be alright.. You don't have to worry about your attitude cause Momma will make it alright.

Z

[22Cajun]

Z- you are hilarious. You have no clue but funny any way. Those kids are first good kids, second were NEVER asked by anyone in athletic department why and they never cared to find out and third and foremost Nikita did not make them leave Marlin did but hey blame them if it makes you believe he is gonna fix it. Problem is the IT is at his door. He is the HEAD coach, he hired Nikita. He had final say on recruits. He keeps loosing players. Good, bad, mommas boys, whatever makes you happy all are MARLIN approved and signed/hired so as it goes he is where it all comes back.

[Turbine]

I hope Marlin can recruit players like Kevin Figaro.

Figaro was willing to be a defensively minded player -for his first few years- so Andrew Toney could shine.

Then for his senior year Fig was the #14 leading scorer in the country.

Figaro's example was the opposite mindset of what you often see from kids signing out of high school.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Turbine, blaming kids of today is pure crap. You win and lose with the kids of your era, not the late 20th century that also looked far more greedy and self serving than those of the mid 20th century, who were not as good as those from the early 20th century.

It goes back forever, way back when I was young, blah, blah, blah.

Marlin has to win with the players he recruits. So regardless of whose feet you want to lay the blame on, he is responsible for coaches, and players he hired and signed. That is HIS job to make good decisions on coaches and players, not just x & o, not just motivation and game day decisions. Many games are won before the tip off, before the first day of fall practice.

It really is kind of stupid to blame the players who are not here, after all according to so many they were not good citizens anyway.