ul vs fau

[chauncey]

I agree! Gradnigo should come off the bench. Its fairly obvious the team plays better without him. He seems to be the problem with the team. He has improved less than 10% in his basketball skills during his stay but has gained a lot of attitude, poor leadership, and poor work ethic.

[HoustonCajun]

_ I agree! Gradnigo should come off the bench. Its fairly obvious the team plays better without him. He seems to be the problem with the team. He has improved less than 10% in his basketball skills during his stay but has gained a lot of attitude, poor leadership, and poor work ethic. _

I watched the game live on CSS here in Houston. The tv announcers called us Louisiana the whole game. But the graphics had us as UL L and Louisiana-Lafayette.

The announcers said coach Lee had a voluntary shootaround at 8:00 Sat. Morning. The ONLY players to show up were Tyren Johnson and a walk-on. Johnson is proving why he is the best player and team leader. NO ONE else showed up. That says a lot about why this team will not excel this year and has not up to now. They looked pretty good vs. FAU, but FAU started 4 freshmen and is not that good, yet we could have easily lost that one. I wonder what a coach like Jarvis would do at UL.

I also watched part of the Lady Cajuns on ragincajuns.com. They are SLOW, can't defend, run no offense and are horrible to watch. If this teams finishes with 5 wins it will be a miracle. Time to change coach NOW. Coach Hall is still waiting for a call. It likely won't happen in the middle of the season and that is unfortunate, because this is horrible after what Coach Hall left us when he departed. We could get it all back in a hurry if he returned.

[ULouisiana]

_ I watched the game live on CSS here in Houston. The tv announcers called us Louisiana the whole game. But the graphics had us as UL L and Louisiana-Lafayette.

The announcers said coach Lee had a voluntary shootaround at 8:00 Sat. Morning. The ONLY players to show up were Tyren Johnson and a walk-on. Johnson is proving why he is the best player and team leader. NO ONE else showed up. That says a lot about why this team will not excel this year and has not up to now. They looked pretty good vs. FAU, but FAU started 4 freshmen and is not that good, yet we could have easily lost that one. I wonder what a coach like Jarvis would do at UL.

I also watched part of the Lady Cajuns on ragincajuns.com. They are SLOW, can't defend, run no offense and are horrible to watch. If this teams finishes with 5 wins it will be a miracle. Time to change coach NOW. Coach Hall is still waiting for a call. It likely won't happen in the middle of the season and that is unfortunate, because this is horrible after what Coach Hall left us when he departed. We could get it all back in a hurry if he returned. _

"I watched the game live on CSS here in Houston. The tv announcers called us Louisiana the whole game".

I watched too, and also noticed that Louisiana or University of Louisiana was used for every reference the entire game on Comcast Cable here in Houston Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS) channel 129.

Question................................. for folks that saw the Louisiana broadcast on Cox Sports TV (CST) - What did the Cox Sports announcers use for our reference?

Also - on ESPN 360 it was the Comcast announcers so they used Louisiana the entire game.

[UL_Cajuns]

_ I watched the game live on CSS here in Houston. The tv announcers called us Louisiana the whole game. But the graphics had us as UL L and Louisiana-Lafayette.

The announcers said coach Lee had a voluntary shootaround at 8:00 Sat. Morning. The ONLY players to show up were Tyren Johnson and a walk-on. Johnson is proving why he is the best player and team leader. NO ONE else showed up. That says a lot about why this team will not excel this year and has not up to now. They looked pretty good vs. FAU, but FAU started 4 freshmen and is not that good, yet we could have easily lost that one. I wonder what a coach like Jarvis would do at UL.

I also watched part of the Lady Cajuns on ragincajuns.com. They are SLOW, can't defend, run no offense and are horrible to watch. If this teams finishes with 5 wins it will be a miracle. Time to change coach NOW. Coach Hall is still waiting for a call. It likely won't happen in the middle of the season and that is unfortunate, because this is horrible after what Coach Hall left us when he departed. We could get it all back in a hurry if he returned. _

I also heard the announcers say that about the Shoot Around. Everyone of those players should have been at that shoot around no excuses.

[zephyr]

_ I watched the game live on CSS here in Houston. The tv announcers called us Louisiana the whole game. But the graphics had us as UL L and Louisiana-Lafayette.

The announcers said coach Lee had a voluntary shootaround at 8:00 Sat. Morning. The ONLY players to show up were Tyren Johnson and a walk-on. Johnson is proving why he is the best player and team leader. NO ONE else showed up. That says a lot about why this team will not excel this year and has not up to now. They looked pretty good vs. FAU, but FAU started 4 freshmen and is not that good, yet we could have easily lost that one. I wonder what a coach like Jarvis would do at UL.

I also watched part of the Lady Cajuns on ragincajuns.com. They are SLOW, can't defend, run no offense and are horrible to watch. If this teams finishes with 5 wins it will be a miracle. Time to change coach NOW. Coach Hall is still waiting for a call. It likely won't happen in the middle of the season and that is unfortunate, because this is horrible after what Coach Hall left us when he departed. We could get it all back in a hurry if he returned. _

I'm glad you brought this up. I went to the game and it was the first of the year for me. It doesn't take me long to see there are some fundamental problems with them. They do NOTHING to resemble anything close to a team. Go watch a UNC, Duke, Michigan State or any successful program and you see a certain attitude of playing for the team and hustling for your teammates. You see guys help other guys off the ground after a play, you see them huddle everytime there is a foul or stop in play to make sure they are on the same page. You see guys talking on the court during play and during stoppages. You also don't see players who are not dressed out with their cell phones on their pants, laughing and teasing with each other during timeouts etc... You even see teams, and this is a small but clear point to me, that make their players wear the same shoes, tuck their shirts in etc... Everything you do is a statement to who you are and what type of team you are by your actions and these guys don't show much of a team spirit.

Now, to the game. The first two minutes of the game made me a Gradnigo hater as well. This guy has no heart and gives nothing to his team. If he's playing poorly, he's in the tank and he's bringing everybody with him. This team, while it actually played REALLY well for a ten minute stretch to end the first half, has some problems and they are all fundamentals and attitude. They are talented enough to win the whole conference, there is no doubt in my mind but they play with the worst fundamentals of any D-1 team I've seen. They get sloppy with the ball when in traffic or driving, they make terrible passes and play NO helpside defense when in man to man. I've never seen so many PG's who can beat their man and get to the hole unobstructed. With good teams, they are always playing helpside and put themselves in position to play the second and third passes.

Not all was negative though. I actually saw some nice offensive sets yesterday and good ball movement. I'm not sure how many 3's we shot but every one of them was an open look after several passes and I will take those all the time. There were very few forced shots that I saw and we hit the boards hard, especially for how small we are. I thought that Batiste actually looked like a college basketball player and played like a big man. He hit the boards and altered shots and didn't shoot unnecessary shots. I thought that Bureau played well and even played hard on defense at times and had a very crucial hustle rebound where he chased a ball down while falling on the ground. He also had times where he didn't fight through picks to get to his man and they consequently scored. I liked what I saw out of our guards as they didn't turn the ball over and got everyone involved.

Johnson is the man and I wish we had him another couple of years. My favorite player on this team is by far La'Ryan Gary. This kid is tough as nails and has fallen on bad times with injuries. He still gets in every timeout and helps his team with his emotion and truly has a sense of team unlike some of his teammates. I can't wait until he comes back

All in all, I was more impressed than I thought I'd be with the overall play but FAU is also not very good. They are small and not overly athletic but they play good fundamental ball. We should run trapping, pressing defense all game and run a 1-3-1 to take advantage of our length. We obviously struggle with man to man fundamentals and just give up too many easy baskets as a result.

By far the most deflating thing I saw out of the entire game was the severe lack of talent on the cheerleading squad. Whoa!!!!! Pretty embarrassing. The dance team continues to pick up the slack but my goodness, the cheerleaders are brutal.

[Turbine]

. . . _

Wow Zeph this reminds me of the short lived series with Christian Slater it was called "My Own Worst Enemy"

[Cajunsmike]

_ I'm glad you brought this up. I went to the game and it was the first of the year for me. It doesn't take me long to see there are some fundamental problems with them. They do NOTHING to resemble anything close to a team. Go watch a UNC, Duke, Michigan State or any successful program and you see a certain attitude of playing for the team and hustling for your teammates. You see guys help other guys off the ground after a play, you see them huddle everytime there is a foul or stop in play to make sure they are on the same page. You see guys talking on the court during play and during stoppages. You also don't see players who are not dressed out with their cell phones on their pants, laughing and teasing with each other during timeouts etc... You even see teams, and this is a small but clear point to me, that make their players wear the same shoes, tuck their shirts in etc... Everything you do is a statement to who you are and what type of team you are by your actions and these guys don't show much of a team spirit.

Now, to the game. The first two minutes of the game made me a Gradnigo hater as well. This guy has no heart and gives nothing to his team. If he's playing poorly, he's in the tank and he's bringing everybody with him. This team, while it actually played REALLY well for a ten minute stretch to end the first half, has some problems and they are all fundamentals and attitude. They are talented enough to win the whole conference, there is no doubt in my mind but they play with the worst fundamentals of any D-1 team I've seen. They get sloppy with the ball when in traffic or driving, they make terrible passes and play NO helpside defense when in man to man. I've never seen so many PG's who can beat their man and get to the hole unobstructed. With good teams, they are always playing helpside and put themselves in position to play the second and third passes.

Not all was negative though. I actually saw some nice offensive sets yesterday and good ball movement. I'm not sure how many 3's we shot but every one of them was an open look after several passes and I will take those all the time. There were very few forced shots that I saw and we hit the boards hard, especially for how small we are. I thought that Batiste actually looked like a college basketball player and played like a big man. He hit the boards and altered shots and didn't shoot unnecessary shots. I thought that Bureau played well and even played hard on defense at times and had a very crucial hustle rebound where he chased a ball down while falling on the ground. He also had times where he didn't fight through picks to get to his man and they consequently scored. I liked what I saw out of our guards as they didn't turn the ball over and got everyone involved.

Johnson is the man and I wish we had him another couple of years. My favorite player on this team is by far La'Ryan Gary. This kid is tough as nails and has fallen on bad times with injuries. He still gets in every timeout and helps his team with his emotion and truly has a sense of team unlike some of his teammates. I can't wait until he comes back

All in all, I was more impressed than I thought I'd be with the overall play but FAU is also not very good. They are small and not overly athletic but they play good fundamental ball. We should run trapping, pressing defense all game and run a 1-3-1 to take advantage of our length. We obviously struggle with man to man fundamentals and just give up too many easy baskets as a result.

By far the most deflating thing I saw out of the entire game was the severe lack of talent on the cheerleading squad. Whoa!!!!! Pretty embarrassing. The dance team continues to pick up the slack but my goodness, the cheerleaders are brutal. _

Zephyr makes some good points here regarding the Cajun basketball team. Like most teams, especially the mid majors, they have some good points and some weaknesses. He did a good job of outlining both aspects. I am not sure I agree they have enough to win the league even if one of the top coaches were leading them. They just don't have enough rebounding for that to occur. Perhaps with Gary and Wallace available, that would not be such a problem.

[zephyr]

_ Zephyr makes some good points here regarding the Cajun basketball team. Like most teams, especially the mid majors, they have some good points and some weaknesses. He did a good job of outlining both aspects. I am not sure I agree they have enough to win the league even if one of the top coaches were leading them. They just don't have enough rebounding for that to occur. Perhaps with Gary and Wallace available, that would not be such a problem. _

Well, the rebounding is certainly an issue as its pretty obvious we are weak in this category. I guess my main point in regards to that is every other team in the SBC will likely outrebound us even though they will be very comparable in size to our team. That means that our issues, are again, fundamental. We all saw good rebounders over the years here that were not necessarily the biggest such as Marcus Stokes, Lonnie Thomas and Brian Hamilton. Rebounding is an attitude and a fundamental that is taught at the lowest levels. If these guys began to play with a passion and focus, I believe they would be an improved rebounding ball club. Will that happen? I have no idea but I certainly think this team is as talented as many in the SBC. The leadership that T. Johnson is showing can be a very good start and maybe could rub off on some of these other guys to perform with more life. I think when Gary comes back, he will likely provide another jolt of life into these guys as he is the hardest worker on the court.

[CajunRed]

I applaud you "Z" on your observations of the team and the game against FAU. That was a pretty extensive write-up. And, yes, Gradnigo has now become my least favorite player. He is down right LAZY.

The only thing I might disagree with is the comment about winning the conference. I just don't think we do the fundamental things (primarily rebounding) well enough to win. If we had more talent than the other teams, that would make up for it... but we don't. At best, we have about the same.

[zephyr]

_ I applaud you "Z" on your observations of the team and the game against FAU. That was a pretty extensive write-up. And, yes, Gradnigo has now become my least favorite player. He is down right LAZY.

The only thing I might disagree with is the comment about winning the conference. I just don't think we do the fundamental things (primarily rebounding) well enough to win. If we had more talent than the other teams, that would make up for it... but we don't. At best, we have about the same. _

Well, I probably look at the word "talent" a little differently than some. I look at potential. Obviously its hard to know the mental makeup of an athlete if you only go by what you see on the court so I typically look at physical attributes and gauge what you can possibly expect from them in the future. From that standpoint, I think we are as talented as most teams in the Belt. We have shooters, we have guys that can get up and down the court in transition, we have athletes who can play really long and you also tend to see the potential for their play to improve as they get more mature and their bodies develop. Such players that come to mind are those like T. Johnson, Bureau, Gradnigo, Roberson, Javan Mitchell etc.... These are some dynamic players in terms of how many positions they can play on the floor and potential matchup problems they pose for teams. We all know that team defense and rebounding are not things that necessarily rely on "talent" but rather a will to compete and is an overall attitude that a team needs to have rather than a few individuals. This team's struggles, as I mentioned in my opinion, is not talent but rather lack of fundamentals in the team defense and rebounding categories. If you watched the game on Saturday, the last ten minutes of the first half, to me, showed that this team has talent and what they can do when focused. Again, I'm not saying that I expect this team to win the conference but I do feel that they have the physical talent to do it, especially when the injured players come back. We will likely be outrebounded in almost every game this season in our conference but most SBC teams have the same size disadvatage we have. If you saw FAU, they were no bigger than we were and were actually a very small team. On the flipside, we were a very big team last year at times depending on personnel on the floor and we were still grossly outrebounded. It has nothing to do with talent but fundamentally learning how to read when and where the ball will come off the rim and having the toughness to establish position and go after the ball. We don't have that.

Shot selection has also been an achilles heel of ours over the past few years with poor offensive scheme and guys not creating enough open opportunities for their teammates. This year, our assists have gone WAY up and I thought we did a good job Saturday of creating an actual offensive scheme and moving the ball around to open shooters. When they did this, they were lethal from the perimeter and showed what can happen when we run an offense.