New "Youth" plan has coach Lee encouraged

[NewsCopy]

The Ragin' Cajuns had four freshmen who saw significant action last season, and five other players who would have been freshmen - including local prospects Randell Daigle of Northside and LaRyan Gary of Carencro - sat out the 2006-07 season. Lee said that all five are academically eligible for this year.

[NewsCopy]

Since Robert Lee took over as UL's men's basketball coach, his goal has been to somehow achieve roster consistency. The Cajuns' previous hoops administration relied heavily on a string of transfer players, and not too many argued since UL made post-season appearances in four of head coach Jessie Evans' final five years. UL also won the Sun Belt Conference and made it to the NCAA Tournament in Lee's first season as head coach in 2004-05, but the record suffered the last two years (13-16 in 2005-06, 9-21 last season) as Lee brought in a youth movement. Youth will again be the hallmark of the Cajun basketball team this winter, with as many as a dozen sophomores and freshmen, but it's a youth that Lee can live with. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[Cajunfever]

The article mentions we only have 2 seniors returning. Looks like Barksdale will no longer be a part of the team.

[Clutch0364]

_ The article mentions we only have 2 seniors returning. Looks like Barksdale will no longer be a part of the team. _

Coach Lee I believe mentioned Barksdale would be part of the team during his interview on BEV.

[DestinCajun]

"five other players who would have been freshmen - including local prospects Randell Daigle of Northside and LaRyan Gary of Carencro - sat out the 2006-07 season. Lee said that all five are academically eligible for this year.
"

This is remarkable. Let's hope they continue this success and realize an entire college basketball career.

[BrockMeaux]

I know our record's suffered the past couple years and probably won't quite as good as we all want it to be this year, but we've got a really talented corps of quality guys who are getting things done the right way. As soon as these guys learn to play together, we're going to be very, very dangerous.

And we're finally out from under the dark cloud of APR violations. I didn't personally hear it, but the way it was explained to me was that Coach Lee said on Bird's Eye View that if 4.0 was perfect on the APR, we scored something like 4.2 because all of our players did their class work and we had one or two people come back and finish their class work, so we were even better than we needed to be in the classroom.

[Cajunsmike]

The article mentions we only have 2 seniors returning. Looks like Barksdale will no longer be a part of the team.

The hard copy article does mention Barksdale being part of the squad. I don't know why the online version did not.

[J-Town Cajun]

There is no mention of Jr. to be Derek Grey. Is he still on the team? He has already miss time due to grades.

[Cajunsmike]

There is no mention of Jr. to be Derek Grey. Is he still on the team? He has already miss time due to grades.

I am fairly certain Grey won't return.

[rhineaux]

_ I am fairly certain Grey won't return. _

The article said that the incoming guys will be red-shirt seniors? Is that true, or did I misread it? I thought that the ones that sat out last year, with exception to Bloom who is a transfer, would be red-shirt freshmen.

I agree that this year won't measure up to what the team was doing in the early 00's, but i think that in a few years, the early 00's teams won't measure up to these teams. But, a less than average North Texas team made it to the NCAA tourney last season. I think that any team in the SBC, if hot at the right time, could take it down.

It sucked that RL waited an extra year to go this route, but in the end, it will be better. Not to mention, we had 4/5 kids that were academically ineligible last year that all got it done. That is very strong considering that those kids took the responsibility and accoutability upon themselves and got the work done. Plus, it tells parents of recruits what this program is all about and it gives RL a little extra ammo in the gun. And finally, it tells recruits that if they want to play here, then they need to get it done in high school and get eligible because this isn't gonna be a 'stupid' team, and that once they get here, hard work in and out of the classroom will be the norm.

[CajunKahouna]

IMO Coach Lee should be on "final-notice" to make some significant improvements to our basketball program. However, you folks don't seem to agree with that and it appears are willing to stick with him for at least another couple of years to prove himself and I respect those opinions.

But let's "put up or shut up" in the sense of how do you describe a "successful 2008 season" from a W-L standpoint.

IMO the Cajuns need to finish the season with 18 Div. I wins. If this happens I'll be the first to admit that you're right and I am wrong.

[rhineaux]

_ IMO Coach Lee should be on "final-notice" to make some significant improvements to our basketball program. However, you folks don't seem to agree with that and it appears are willing to stick with him for at least another couple of years to prove himself and I respect those opinions.

But let's "put up or shut up" in the sense of how do you describe a "successful 2008 season" from a W-L standpoint.

IMO the Cajuns need to finish the season with 18 Div. I wins. If this happens I'll be the first to admit that you're right and I am wrong. _

a .500 season would be improvement and movement in the right direction. I'm glad you respect our opinions on RL's job, some people don't. My only beef with your statement is that you are only seeing improvements in one area, and that's in the win column. In my opinion, having a very young team/core to build around, that has the potential to be very good, and gets it done off the court, like we will this year, is improvement already. And winning half of their games, including a winning record in conference (not sure what the OOC schedule looks like), would definitely be improvement. I think both are reasonable goals since they lost so many games by only 5 or so points last season. But, I think that if you expect the team to win 18 games this year, that is unreasonable, and you are setting yourself up for a letdown. The team has to learn how to crawl before it can move the ball down court, and i think that next season will go a long way in doing that.

Please don't mistake my opinions as granting RL a free pass.but its isn't like he's losing with no hopes of winning. the program is moving in the right direction and he has worked hard to get it that way, and since he has achieved that direction, i think he deserves a chance to see it through.

[Cajun Express]

_ a .500 season would be improvement and movement in the right direction. I'm glad you respect our opinions on RL's job, some people don't. My only beef with your statement is that you are only seeing improvements in one area, and that's in the win column. In my opinion, having a very young team/core to build around, that has the potential to be very good, and gets it done off the court, like we will this year, is improvement already. And winning half of their games, including a winning record in conference (not sure what the OOC schedule looks like), would definitely be improvement. I think both are reasonable goals since they lost so many games by only 5 or so points last season. But, I think that if you expect the team to win 18 games this year, that is unreasonable, and you are setting yourself up for a letdown. The team has to learn how to crawl before it can move the ball down court, and i think that next season will go a long way in doing that.

Please don't mistake my opinions as granting RL a free pass.but its isn't like he's losing with no hopes of winning. the program is moving in the right direction and he has worked hard to get it that way, and since he has achieved that direction, i think he deserves a chance to see it through. _

It would be unfair to ask him, as the university did, to raise the RPI and not give him a fair shot at the results. You are right, no free pass, but if things in the class, and on the floor show improvements we will be in the win column. Last year we were really close in a lot of games and came up a little short. I think most of those close games will fall the Cajuns way this year.

[BrockMeaux]

For me, an acceptably successful season will be something like 15-20 wins, getting past the first round of the Sun Belt tournament, and keeping everybody eligible. I want 25 wins and an NCAA bid, but I think we're a year away from that. The important thing is that we show clear improvement from last season, and I think we're on the fast track to doing that.

[Just1More]

I will accept nothing short of a basketball national championship next year. not even a final 4 is good enough. That's how tough I am. I also think the rest of you are failing to meet my expectations as fans and should be terminated immediately. I just fired myself for not expecting a 30 point margin of victory in that championship game. I am the toughest of us all.