The Book: 2007-08 Ragin' Cajuns Basketball

[Cajunsmike]

Huge win getting a head start in the conference race, hopefully this team can gel even more on the trip to Hawaii. I personally wouldn't have taken the redshirt off of Bureau and saved him for next year but he was big in the 2nd half.

Although they haven't done it every game this year there are a bunch of different guys on this team that can score, lets just hope at least two of them can get hot on any given night. Millsap and Dees weren't even on the floor at the end, just an example of the depth.

With the amount of turnvovers Milsap suffers, I would not have had him in at that point. That is not to say he should not play earlier in the game. If he is in at the end, I don't want him handling the ball. I would have him rebouding. Dees and Milsap were not in because the other guys were the ones who got us back in the game and they deserved a chance to win it.

[cajunlove]

_ Huge win. Congrats to the team and to Coach Lee. Keep it up guys. I love the taste of Crow. _

I hope that they can keep it up. Check your PMs.

[Cajunsmike]

Knee jerk reaction a win wasn't worth the cost long term.

One win is not worth the cost. However, he may be the difference in 5 or 6 wins which will allow the coach to keep his job. That may be why he made the move. Also, our school needs something positive in the worst way right now as we embark on an effort to raise funds for athletics. I was for redshirting Bureau too. However, the problems we were having scoring indicated to me we would have been looking at a season with about 5 or 6 wins total without another guy being able to score on the floor.

[cjntgr]

WHOO HOOO!! What a big road win against the conference favorites! Way to go guys!

[CajunCharlie]

_ Huge win. Congrats to the team and to Coach Lee. Keep it up guys. I love the taste of Crow. _

Especially in a sauce piquante! Jambalaya so-so.

[NewsCopy]

MONROE - Time slowed to a crawl as UL freshman Chris Gradnigo watched his last-second shot sail toward the basket Sunday. "When it left my hand it looked good," Gradnigo said. "It didn't have a lot of rotation on it, but it felt good." Now, so do the Ragin' Cajuns. Gradnigo drilled the go-ahead 3-pointer with 11 seconds left as UL stunned UL-Monroe, 68-67, to snap a six-game losing streak and win its first Sun Belt Conference opener in four years. The late-game theatrics by Gradnigo, who finished with a team-high 15 points, ended two other losing streaks for the Cajuns (2-6 overall, 1-0 SBC): They had lost three straight at ULM (4-6, 0-1) and nine straight in December dating back to last season. "We defended him well," said ULM coach Orlando Early, whose Warhawks trail the all-time series 39-16. "But he made a tough shot." ULM, the preseason favorite to win the SBC's West Division, saw its 15-game winning streak at Fant-Ewing Coliseum - the nation's sixth-longest active mark - end after blowing a 12-point lead in the second half. The rest of the story Joshua Parrott jparrott@theadvertiser.com

[geo_cajun]

"We defended him well, he just made a tough shot"

I LOVE that!!

[DestinCajun]

WHOO HOOO!! What a big road win against the conference favorites! Way to go guys! _

A tough opponent with some very impressive OOC wins already that was on a long home court win streak and picked first in the SBC West.

As they use to say on Bedico Creek, "It just don't get any better'n that".

[rhineaux]

_ "We defended him well, he just made a tough shot"

I LOVE that!! _

Is it official? Are you legit now?

[Cajun Express]

_ One win is not worth the cost. However, he may be the difference in 5 or 6 wins which will allow the coach to keep his job. That may be why he made the move. Also, our school needs something positive in the worst way right now as we embark on an effort to raise funds for athletics. I was for redshirting Bureau too. However, the problems we were having scoring indicated to me we would have been looking at a season with about 5 or 6 wins total without another guy being able to score on the floor. _

CM, You and I see it totally different. Redshirts in basketball may have some benefit if your team is loaded and doing well. I mean think about this. We were saving this guy by redshirting for something that might be of value five seasons in the future. Not a chance. Play your best basketball players in almost every case.

You also made a comment somewhere that Bureau might not have wanted to play this late in the season. I highly doubt that. These good players are highly competitive and motivated. I know he might even say the accepted thing about redshirting, but down deep these young men want to play. Maybe if we were over half way into the conference season he may want to maintain his redshirt status. That is not the case, the season is not nearly done from a numbers standpoint.

[CajunKahouna]

Great win. Congratulations to the team, Robert and staff.

We all needed that! Could this be the start of someting BIG?

[RaginFan2]

Is it official? Are you legit now?

Depends on what you mean by "legit"! He does indeed now have diploma in hand. Also, today he started his "gainful employment" segment of life. His dad & mom are proud! BTW, Z, he has joined SSOOT! Hope he doesn't bring down the "standards"!

[Zeebart21]

Depends on what you mean by "legit"! He does indeed now have diploma in hand. Also, today he started his "gainful employment" segment of life. His dad & mom are proud! BTW, Z, he has has joined SSOOT! Hope he doesn't bring down the "standards"!

geo,Rhineaux, Me, Hammer, Cajunsmike, Crawfish, etc., all members of SSOOT. Its a great class of people.

Z

[RaginFan2]

geo,Rhineaux, Me, Hammer, Cajunsmike, Crawfish, etc., all members of SSOOT. Its a great class of people.

Z

Sounds like a great group to me!

[NewsCopy]

Fresh off the heels of a thrilling 68-67 win at ULM Sunday, Louisiana looks to build on the momentum of its 1-0 conference start when it faces the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors in game two of the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic Wednesday night at the Stan Sheriff CenterLouisiana leads the all-time series with Hawai’i 6-5, with the Rainbow Warriors winning the last three meetings.All 11 previous meeting have come on Hawai’i’s home court. However, only the last two meetings have come in a tournament setting.Wednesday’s game marks the first meeting since Dec. 27, 1998, when the Rainbow Warriors edged the Ragin’ Cajuns 54-51. Reginald Poole scored 13 points, while pulling down a game-high 21 rebounds in the three-point loss.Wednesday will be Robert Lee’s second meeting with Hawai’i, but his first as head coach. Lee was an assistant coach for Louisiana when the Cajuns played in the 1998 Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic.During Sunday’s one-point win, head coach Robert Lee assembled his sixth straight different starting lineup.Since scoring a career-high 26 points vs. UAB, Elijah Millsap is averaging 7.8 points in his last four games. During that span, Millsap is shooting 24 percent from the field (7-of-29), while hitting 75 percent of his free throws (15-of-20).Rookie point guard Randell Daigle has made at least one 3-point basket in each of his last six games, leading the team with 13 triples. After shooting a dismal 56 percent from the free throw line as a team in the first games of the season, UL has shot 71.9 percent in its last four games. UL has also shot 70 percent or better in two of its last three games. Hawai'i Preview. Hawai’i enters the Rainbow Classic with a 3-4 overall record - all three wins coming at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Warriors are averaging 74.7 points per game in their three victories this season, while posting just 69.0 points per game in their four losses.Bobby Nash leads the Warriors with a 17.0-point-per-game average, while Riley Luettgerodt is second with 15.0 points per game.Hawai’i is 72-57 (.558) all-time in 43 years of the Rainbow Classic. UH, however, has won 11 titles, including five of the last six. Hawai’i has advanced to the championship bracket 11 straight years.Hawai’i has won its last three home games and defense has played a big part. UH has held its last three opponents - Alcorn State, Coppin State, Long Beach state - to 56.7 points per game, with none of them cracking the 60-point barrier. During that same stretch, UH’s opponents have shot just 35 percent from the floor and have been out-rebounded 42-33.UH got off to its first 0-2 start in 14 years with both losses coming at home (San Diego, Illinois). The last time UH lost its first two home games of the year was during Riley Wallace’s first season at UH in 1987-77, when they lost four in a row. UH’s loss to Illinois was only its eighth in 50 non-conference games at the Stan Sheriff Center since the start of the 2001-02 season. The last time UH lost back-to-back games came in the 2000-01 season when it fell to Tennessee and UTEP. After Facing Hawai'i in Rainbow Classic. After facing the host Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors Wednesday night, Louisiana will face either the Ohio Bobcats or the St. John’s Red Storm. If the Cajuns play Ohio, it will be the fourth school that both the football and men’s basketball teams have played this season in non-conference action.Louisiana’s football and men’s hoops teams have also played McNeese State, UCF and Tennessee. Unfortunately, all three resulted in losses for both teams. Louisiana's Last Visit to the Rainbow Classic. This week will mark Louisiana’s second trip to Outigger Rainbow Classic. The Cajuns made their first appearance in 1998, when they were still known as Southwestern Louisiana.In Louisiana’s last trip to Outrigger Rainbow Classic, the Ragin’ Cajuns went 0-for-3, falling to Hawai’i (54-51), Murray State (81-68) and Mississippi State (62-58). Bench is More. In Sunday’s huge win at ULM, Louisiana’s bench out-scored ULM 45-12! Even more impressive is that the Cajuns’ reserves scored 40 of their 45 points in the second half.Of those 45 bench points, 38 came from a trio of Cajuns rookies - Chris Gradnigo (15), Randell Daigle (12) and Travis Bureau (11).In the second half, the trio scored 33 of its 38 points in the second half. The Freshman '15'. Freshman Chris Gradnigo scored a career-high 15 points, including the game-winning shot to knock off the ULM Warhawks 68-67 Sunday in Monroe. Gradnigo, who also wears jersey No. 15, has scored a career-high 15 points three times this season - two of them coming in victories.Gradnigo’s other 15-point performance came in Louisiana’s 98-70 loss at No. 11 Tennessee, when he held Tennessee’s Chris Lofton to seven points. RaginCajuns.com