2008-09 Men's Hoops Slate

[CajunCanaille]

_ I still don't understand why you have to call me a moron and ask me not to support the team. I understand the difference you are implying. However, the result is the same.... we are starting the season without our full compliment of players! Not having all our players will probably cost us some wins.
You act like my comments are out from left field. MANY people feel the same way I do. Whatever the circumstances have been, Lee has presided over a horrible 3 year stretch of basketball. If he was at a big name university he would already be fired. Luckily for him he has adminitrative support and may ultimately successful. Believe it or not I hope he wins big this year. _

Didn't say you were a moron......just said your statement was moronic.

As for asking you not support the team....I am simply tired of all the negative talk when there is no negative talk necessary. The BB team is improving all around. Unfortunately this takes time. Our talent has improved and our academics have improved yet our fan support has dropped. I just don't understand how people don't see these improvements. I believe that Lee has built a solid team. I expect us to win the SBC W and hopefully win the conference. I also expect us to get a NCAA bid (outright or at large). I am just of the mind set that if a coach decides to start all over and rebuild, he needs the chance to rebuild. I think he has done that and this is the year he MUST win. He has proved that he can build a team and now he has to prove he can coach what he has built. People were calling for his head way too early and it just bothers me when Lee is talked about negatively. Fans complained b/c while Evans put together pretty good teams, they all had criminal records. Now Lee is trying to give the people what they want in a good team that has their head on straight and people want to hang him before his project is completed. So I don't judge his career on wins and loses prior to this season. From this season on I would expect nothing less than a major increase in win percentage. But hey, we'll see.

[reddot]

_ Fans complained b/c while Evans put together pretty good teams, they all had criminal records.

I think you may have over generalized with that statement, almost to the point of the statement being moronic.
I think the majority of the student-athletes that played under Evans were good kids.

[zephyr]

_ LOL!
My Dad was avoiding me after the USM debacle. Wonder why?
As you can guess I am not a fan of Lee. I still support the program, but I have a feeling he is not up to the task. That said, I would love to be wrong. _

Funny how when coach Lee had some nice talent, this team played better than any team I can remember in recent memory. He has had a rediculously young but talented team that now has quite a bit of experience behind the youth for which to build on. I am behind coach Lee and like what he has done with the program bringing good Defense back and providing a much more disciplined team in general. I like our chances this year. I also find that it may take us a little while to develop a chemistry with all of the new faces that are going to see a lot of minutes this year. You can bank that it will take several games to see any type of consistent rotation and coach has to use it as an evaluation period of sorts. I think this team is going to be deadly in 2009!

[Cajunsmike]

I still don't understand why you have to call me a moron and ask me not to support the team. I understand the difference you are implying. However, the result is the same.... we are starting the season without our full compliment of players! Not having all our players will probably cost us some wins.
You act like my comments are out from left field. MANY people feel the same way I do. Whatever the circumstances have been, Lee has presided over a horrible 3 year stretch of basketball. If he was at a big name university he would already be fired. Luckily for him he has adminitrative support and may ultimately successful. Believe it or not I hope he wins big this year.

Here is a point of clarification, we will only get one big man on Dec. 15th. That is Adeife. We will have three big guys to start the season. They are JC transfer Barrr, JC transfer Batiste, and Courtney Wallace. Note Batiste will have three years of eligibility despite being a JC guy as he only played one year there. The other transfer from UNLV is Lamar Roberson. Although he is in the 6'7" to 6'*" range, he plays on the periimeter more than on the inside. Thanks for your contributions to the Rebounders Club. In my view, people who do things like should be respected when they voice concerns. It is difficult in your case to know the complete story in some cases as you don't get to see many games due to living out of town. Perhaps you will get to view a few games online this season.

[DestinCajun]

I think you may have over generalized with that statement, almost to the point of the statement being moronic.

I think the majority of the student-athletes that played under Evans were good kids. _

Evans brought in so many great kids and players we can't sit down and count them all.

The one I will never forget that he didn't bring in was Bo McCaleb
....aaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhh!

[MetryCajun]

_ Here is a point of clarification, we will only get one big man on Dec. 15th. That is Adeife. We will have three big guys to start the season. They are JC transfer Barrr, JC transfer Batiste, and Courtney Wallace. Note Batiste will have three years of eligibility despite being a JC guy as he only played one year there. The other transfer from UNLV is Lamar Roberson. Although he is in the 6'7" to 6'*" range, he plays on the periimeter more than on the inside. Thanks for your contributions to the Rebounders Club. In my view, people who do things like should be respected when they voice concerns. It is difficult in your case to know the complete story in some cases as you don't get to see many games due to living out of town. Perhaps you will get to view a few games online this season. _

Thanks Mike,
You know I love Cajun basketball and want nothing but the best for us. Part of my pessimissim is that I seem to catch the Cajuns on a lot of "bad nights". I have probably seen about 10-12 games over the past 3 years. To my recolection they only won 3 of those games. One win was @UNO last year which was hardly a thing of beauty.
One thing I did notice last year was the return of athletism to the team. Most of the guys can really jump and have long arms. What was missing was being able to finish. Hopefully a year of maturation will benefit these guys so they can shoot a higher percentage.
The other thing I am looking for is for someone to assume leadership of this team. Who will be the go-to guy? Logic would say Gradnigo, but will he defer to some of the upperclassmen.
All interesting stuff..can't wait until the season starts.

[zephyr]

_ Thanks Mike,
You know I love Cajun basketball and want nothing but the best for us. Part of my pessimissim is that I seem to catch the Cajuns on a lot of "bad nights". I have probably seen about 10-12 games over the past 3 years. To my recolection they only won 3 of those games. One win was @UNO last year which was hardly a thing of beauty.
One thing I did notice last year was the return of athletism to the team. Most of the guys can really jump and have long arms. What was missing was being able to finish. Hopefully a year of maturation will benefit these guys so they can shoot a higher percentage.
The other thing I am looking for is for someone to assume leadership of this team. Who will be the go-to guy? Logic would say Gradnigo, but will he defer to some of the upperclassmen.
All interesting stuff..can't wait until the season starts. _

Robert Lee has also had this much talent only once since he's been here and he had a tremendous year and lead us to the tourney that year and almost beat Louisville. This team is much more athletic than recent teams and while Gradnigo is a go-to guy we also have others who can step up and hit big shots like Daigle, T. Johnson and Bureau.

If you are looking for beauty in your wins, I believe you're being a bit picky. Right now, like football, we need wins period. You had the 3rd youngest team in D-1 last year. I'm not sure how you expect them to be consistent or play without errors. If you want to judge coach Lee which I don't get, start this year. 2009 is the year that I would judge him since all of this young talent will have lots more experience and I expect them to accomplish some special things.

[CajunAmos]

Evans brought in so many great kids and players we can't sit down and count them all.

The one I will never forget that he didn't bring in was Bo McCaleb
....aaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhh!

Maybe it's just me, but I seem to remember Gen. Lee had McCaleb in hand, and Jesse wanted a guy from the wrong LA.

[DestinCajun]

_ Maybe it's just me, but I seem to remember Gen. Lee had McCaleb in hand, and Jesse wanted a guy from the wrong LA. _

I think it was Kevin Bell who ended up playing at Fresno St. but he was no Bo McCaleb.