Faced with a six-game losing streak after winning its season-opener, the UL men's basketball team needed a savior.
Four first-year players - freshmen Chris Gradnigo and Travis Bureau and sophomores Randell Daigle and La'Ryan Gary - have shared that responsibility as the Ragin' Cajuns (4-7) have won three of their last four games.
Over UL's last four games, the quartet has combined to score 190 of the team's 279 points. That's more than 68 percent of the team's scoring production coming from two players who were playing high school ball last season (Gradnigo and Bureau) and two players who sat out last season to restore academic eligibility (Daigle and Gary).
"Coach (Robert Lee) expects a lot from us (younger players)," said Gradnigo, whose Cajuns open a three-game home stand at 7:05 tonight against Sun Belt Conference foe Florida Atlantic (4-8). "So far we've proven we can handle the load."
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Joshua Parrott
jparrott@theadvertiser.com
So who is going to the game?
with bells on
The recent shooting woes of UL's Elijah Millsap led to a series of heart-to-heart phone calls and text messages with older brother Paul, a forward for the Utah Jazz.
Now the brothers have something positive to talk about.
The younger Millsap buried three straight 3-pointers in the first half Saturday night, helping propel the Ragin' Cajuns past Florida Atlantic, 71-52, in Sun Belt Conference play at the Cajundome.
"It was a big help," UL's Randell Daigle said of Millsap's 3s. "We didn't have much offense going when he hit those big shots. It gave us a boost.
"Then shots started falling for the rest of the team."
The end result was another balanced scoring effort for the Cajuns (5-7 overall, 2-0 SBC). They have won four of their last five games, snapping a two-game losing streak at home and improving to 2-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
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Joshua Parrott
jparrott@theadvertiser.com
yeah the $5.00 tickets were set before the season, and advertised at least 3 times during the week. I go up to the cajundome to buy tickets on saturday around 1pm and the lady tells me that she didn't know of any such discount. So she proceeds to call two other people and they say no. Granted I was still going to the game, but it was still an inconvience. Later I called and shen then apologized and said there was a discount but only for the 200 level rings, not the 300 section. Well clearly in section 2C it states 200 section rings and 300 level. Also in the saturday paper in section 2C they advertised free pom poms, I brought my family and my little girl was looking forward to them. They were never passed out at the door. My wife went to ask around during the start of the game, and she was told by a women selling UL items on the floor not to always believe what you read. I will always go back to the basketball games as i will with all sports, but i thought the university really dropped the ball on this one.
I don't know if there was ever a time where I was this excited about the cajun basketball program. I know we've had good teams in the past but this is the first in recent memory for me, that we've recruited all of these guys and they will be playing for several years rather than one and done or in trouble.
I'm pumped for the next several years and beyond hopefully!
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