New "Youth" plan has coach Lee encouraged

[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.

[Mineshaft]

_ 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. _

18 wins will never happen next year.

[Zeebart21]

expert analysis, please... we cant wait.

Z.

[MiamiCajun32]

_ 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. _

I agree that 18 div 1 wins is needed. If it takes 3 years of rebuilding in order to win the sunbelt or compete for sunbelt title once every 4 years, then the program has taken a huge step backwards. But I am cautiously optimistic things can turn around in a hurry this year, especially with all the players qualifying and a decent recruiting class. But building for a few years just to do once every four years what the cajuns used to do almost every year - compete for the sunbelt title - is not acceptable, especially with the sunbelt being weaker than ever.

When is the last time the Cajuns had 3 straight losing seasons? My educated guess is a number of decades ago, if ever... So that can't happen and things be ok just because the team is young and looking to improve next year.

[Cajunsmike]

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.

The guys who sat out will be called red shirt sophomores. They will be called seniors twice, as was Chris Cameron. You have to earn 80% of your degree to get your fifth year if you are a non qualifier. NCAA doesn't allow you to petition for it until your fourth year is done.

[Cajunsmike]

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.

Coach Lee himself has said improvement is expected. In fact, he said that if another year like the one we went through last winter occurs, he expects to be looking for another job. He did not predict a no., only a general statement that he expects to be improved.

[DestinCajun]

_ 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. _

Lemme guess, you're a DUKE fan.

[BirdofParadise]

_ IMO Coach Lee should be on "final-notice" to make some significant improvements to our basketball program.

Coach Lee has players who are all eligible. He's signed virtually all Louisiana players. His kids go to class. His kids care about an education. His team no longer has APR problems.

He's already made significant improvements to the basketball program.

Now, you talk about W and L and I understand that's where you were coming from.

But let's not bury our heads in the sand about SIGNIFICANT improvements already made.

[Cajunsmike]

_ Coach Lee has players who are all eligible. He's signed virtually all Louisiana players. His kids go to class. His kids care about an education. His team no longer has APR problems.

He's already made significant improvements to the basketball program.

Now, you talk about W and L and I understand that's where you were coming from.

But let's not bury our heads in the sand about SIGNIFICANT improvements already made. _

BOP, all the improvements you list above had to occur before we can expect long term success. Where MiamiCajun and I disagree is that he belives this approach will yield a championship team every four years as a class matures. By redshirting a couple of guys next season, we may be able to have a stable program for the long term. One in which half of your guys are upperclassmen and the remainder are contributing with expectations to be the main guys down the road. We all agree that improvement on the court has to occur next year for Coach Lee to maintain support. How much improvement has to occur is open to debate. Personally, I hope we have a winning season. That would mean 15 and 14 during the regular season with at least one win in the tourney. Winning 18 D1 games in the regular season would mean a 19 and 10 record as we have one D2 team on the schedule. That may be a little optimistic due to all the youth but I don't think it is impossible. Achieving a record like that would mean significant contributions from the guys who sat out last year and that is extremely difficult to project. All in all, I think we would all take a 19 and 10 record at this this time, no questions asked.

[BrockMeaux]

Coach Lee has players who are all eligible. He's signed virtually all Louisiana players. His kids go to class. His kids care about an education. His team no longer has APR problems.

He's already made significant improvements to the basketball program.

Now, you talk about W and L and I understand that's where you were coming from.

But let's not bury our heads in the sand about SIGNIFICANT improvements already made.

Exactly. And I think where people get a little blinded by the lights is when they look back at the glory days of Jesse Evans' tenure when we were in postseason play almost every year on nothing but transfers, whereas things have taken longer to develop with Coach Lee and his strategy of recruiting and developing players. Yes, those were fun times under Coach Evans, but what's lost on most people is that success like that with the program Evans ran would be impossible today. Every year we had at least one or two players academically ineligible, guys left early or just didn't graduate, and after they were done here we just moved on to the next set of transfers. If that were happening today, our basketball program would get the axe because the severity of the APR violations would get us very strict action from the NCAA. I'd love to be able to go back just for fun and estimate the APR every year for the basketball program while Evans was here.

We may not get 19 wins next season, but it will be hard to dispute the quality of the players on this team, both in the class room and on the court. The freshmen and sophomores next year will be supremely talented physically, possibly to the point of being the most athletic team in the Sun Belt. Once these guys all pick up the system and start playing together, the sky will be the limit. We're just missing one or two pieces, and the way Lee's recruited will allow us time to fill those pieces in while still maintaining quality starters for years at positions of strength like PG and SG. I've said from day one when Coach Lee got the job, the best years of this basketball program are ahead. I'm looking forward to enjoying the rewards of that faith in the next couple years.