Final: Louisiana (77) at Arkansas State (76)

[Cajunsmike]

I sure am glad UNO reversed their decision and decided to stay D1 because I don't know if I could handle beating 4 non D1 teams.

Note, the UNO scrimmage was not a true game. Every school gets a chance for two exhibition games or one exhibition game and a scrimmage against another D1 team. We chose to do one exhibition and one scrimmage. Rules are that results of the scrimmage are not supposed to be publicized which is you don't hear about them in the press.

[BirdofParadise]

Ok Partner.......sorry you think that I am not excited about last night or this season....I guess the fact that in spite of living in Houston my wife and I have bought 4 Basketball priority season tickets for the last 3 seasons and have been able to attend a grand total of 2 games this year and 8 games total over those 3 seasons means nothing.....and yes, we make sure that our tickets are used by family members when we cannot be in attendance. But that's ok....I am not excited about last night or this season......have a nice day....and Geaux Cajuns

I apologize for offending you. I know about your support for this university and this program. It's just hard to get a great win and get to 20 regular season wins for the first time in eleven years and then read (paraphrasing) "Yeah, but we should be better."

We've won eight of our last ten. The two losses were by three points each against the top two team sin the league ON THE ROAD with a chance to go to OT on the last possession.

I cannot ask for more out of this team.

The whole idea is to play your best basketball at the end of the season. And, we are. That may or may not be good enough to win the tournament. We'll see.

Since our league isn't close to being what it was, there's no longer a chance of being an "at large" NCAA team. MTSU won 28 last year and played in the NIT.

Therefore, it's all about the four days this weekend. The games against non-D1's don't matter. Neither do the losses to Jackson State and ULM. (Had we won that ULM game, we would still be the #3 seed.)

Now it's all about winning three in a row.

We can ALWAYS play better. But right now we are playing pretty damned well.

[MelRock]

Middle made the NCAA Tournament last year, they were an 11 seed. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...nament/bracket
March 19, 2013
11 Middle Tennessee 54
11 Saint Mary's 67

[cajunfan337]

I think people are misinterpreting BB's comments. From what I can tell, imo, it seems like he/we all know what this team is truly capable of. When we are on absolute fire, we are wonderful and can DESTROY teams. He/We want to see that happen all the time but sometimes we stumble, hence narrow victories/defeats.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Mike be that as it may, I only count games that the NCAA counts for seeding. Those three are indeed wins, will forever be wins, and I am totally happy we easily beat them AT HOME. I still feel that for many, myself included, a twenty win season is very superior and I kind of want it against 1A foes.

Why won't teams come here? Do not know, Lord knows LTU@RustON has been able to get that job done for years. Absolutely I think there are plenty of teams we had a 99% probability of beating in the dome or in their places that are 1A teams. Maybe we just should have gone to those locations. To this day I never consider non 1A wins more than exhibitions emotionally.

You know if we had won 23 games I would say hey it really is more like 20. If we had won 31, I would say it is more like 28, and so would the NCAA for seeding. I may have been spoiled, but until we have a team that can get a at large bid there will be some level of disappointment.

[Turbine]

Mike be that as it may, I only count games that the NCAA counts for seeding. Those three are indeed wins, will forever be wins, and I am totally happy we easily beat them AT HOME. I still feel that for many, myself included, a twenty win season is very superior and I kind of want it against 1A foes.

Why won't teams come here? Do not know, Lord knows LTU@RustON has been able to get that job done for years. Absolutely I think there are plenty of teams we had a 99% probability of beating in the dome or in their places that are 1A teams. Maybe we just should have gone to those locations. To this day I never consider non 1A wins more than exhibitions emotionally.

You know if we had won 23 games I would say hey it really is more like 20. If we had won 31, I would say it is more like 28, and so would the NCAA for seeding. I may have been spoiled, but until we have a team that can get a at large bid there will be some level of disappointment.

I'm sure there are ranking arguments out there, but I have never read anywhere someone has looked back at past seasons with that viewpoint.

Watch it happen like crazy now.

[BirdofParadise]

Middle made the NCAA Tournament last year, they were an 11 seed. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...nament/bracket
March 19, 2013
11 Middle Tennessee 54
11 Saint Mary's 67

You are correct. Thanks.

[Boomer]

You are correct. Thanks.

----Got to be careful on the RPin and cover your butt!!!

[Cajunsmike]

Mike be that as it may, I only count games that the NCAA counts for seeding. Those three are indeed wins, will forever be wins, and I am totally happy we easily beat them AT HOME. I still feel that for many, myself included, a twenty win season is very superior and I kind of want it against 1A foes.

Why won't teams come here? Do not know, Lord knows LTU@RustON has been able to get that job done for years. Absolutely I think there are plenty of teams we had a 99% probability of beating in the dome or in their places that are 1A teams. Maybe we just should have gone to those locations. To this day I never consider non 1A wins more than exhibitions emotionally.

You know if we had won 23 games I would say hey it really is more like 20. If we had won 31, I would say it is more like 28, and so would the NCAA for seeding. I may have been spoiled, but until we have a team that can get a at large bid there will be some level of disappointment.

No doubt having a team strong enough to garner an at large bid would be tremendous progress. When you are capable of doing that you will have a team people will want to watch. However I think that has only happened twice in our league in the last decade and perhaps longer. In fact, it has only happened to us once since the great teams of the 70's and that was in 1983 during the Paschal years. All our other NCAA tournament teams since the probation (82, 92, 94, 2000, 2004, 2005) were conference tournament winners Now that does not mean we cannot put together a team capable of garnering an at large bid. I only wanted to demonstrate how difficult it is for a southern mid major to have such a squad. Who knows, if all our guys come back and our recruits contribute early, we may be able to have such a squad as early as next season.

[CajunEXPRESS]

My goals are always the highest standards. I will give credit for lower attainment if we do all we can to attain the highest goal. Regardless I will never, ever get excited about beating a non scholarship program. You might view it different because we actually lost to such a program, but losing to that program says something as well.

I am not going back to being happy we are bowl eligible now that we have been to three, same in basketball.

In basketball you do not actually have to be an at large to deserve to be an at large. I would say seeded 11 or better gets you an at large regardless of winning the tournament or not.

[Cajunsmike]

My goals are always the highest standards. I will give credit for lower attainment if we do all we can to attain the highest goal. Regardless I will never, ever get excited about beating a non scholarship program. You might view it different because we actually lost to such a program, but losing to that program says something as well.

I am not going back to being happy we are bowl eligible now that we have been to three, same in basketball.

In basketball you do not actually have to be an at large to deserve to be an at large. I would say seeded 11 or better gets you an at large regardless of winning the tournament or not.

I was not excited about any our non D1 wins and wished we did not have to play them. One is enough of those but I was pleased we did not have to sweat any of them and happy the walkons got some actual playing time in a real game. We could not have gone on the road to play more D1 games due to the conference rule that says you can only play one more game on the road than at home. Plus if you did that our guys would have been on the road 18 times vs 13 at home and that is not fair to them to have to travel that much. McNeese had to do that this year due to finances and thankfully we are not at that level. I agree the goal should be to have a team capable of an at large bid but the only team we have had that would have garnered one of those was the 1982 team that won the Great Alaskan Shootout, the SLC regular season title, and the SLC tournament title. None of our other tournament teams would have been close to getting an at large bid. There are almost no southern mid majors who play FBS football who can regularly get at large bids. That would be a significant accomplishment but I agree it is one we should aspire to and I agree it is possible for us to reach that level. Let's start next year.