Joe Scott for head Basketball Coach

[zephyr]

_ we got the talent from this state, to run and gun and press and score 80 and 90 a night, right now we have abunch of long athletic gazelles on the team and we do none of this, no press, not many fast break points... no pressure trapping defenses, nothing.... Man sky is the limit wiht this team, but they stay anchored down _

Brad, offense is good and all but if I want to see 90 points a night, I'll go watch tapes of when Fletcher was coaching here. However, there's a small problem. That is his teams never played any defense. It does no good to score 90 a night if you're giving up 90 a night as well. I'd prefer a balance of the two. We certainly need to move our scorers around and free up our scorers while playing hardnosed defense on the other end. The problem with some of these guys, they don't put as much effort on the defensive end of the floor.

[zephyr]

_ I don't even think you need to run and press, just get down and guard in the half court, or play full court man.

Look at what Purdue did to West Virginia yesterday. _

Brad has a point. With a team that is vertically challenged like we are, you have to use your certain strong traits wisely. I think this team is filled with a lot of guys who are more suited for transition play and I've found that when we do start speeding the game up, we've played much better. While I love a good half court defensive team, I think we would be using our personnel wisely by putting them in pressure defenses and allowing their length to create turnovers and scoring opportunities.

[cajun4life]

_ we got the talent from this state, to run and gun and press and score 80 and 90 a night, right now we have abunch of long athletic gazelles on the team and we do none of this, no press, not many fast break points... no pressure trapping defenses, nothing.... Man sky is the limit wiht this team, but they stay anchored down _

Bingo! I have been saying this for 3 years. We have a roster full of #3 guards, all of the can run and jump. Plus we are deep enough to play 8-9 guys 20 minutes or so a game and play run and gun. Press the entire game, 3/4 court traps, half court traps and create turnovers. Play transition basketball and we might actually win some games due to our ATHLETICISM! Every coach in the Belt says the same thing about the Cajuns "they are very athletic, with rangy athletes who can jump and run." Yet Lee wants to play a half court game with no inside presence and no real outside threat. That is why we can't win.

Lee is an Idiot! Who can not evaluate the talent on his own team and play a style of basketball that fits their ability. That is why we have had the worst 5 year stretch in UL basketball HISTORY!

[CajunZ1]

Press the entire game, 3/4 court traps, half court traps and create turnovers. Play transition basketball and we might actually win some games due to our ATHLETICISM!

My guess (I don't really have anything to back this up) is that perhaps Robert Lee tried this approach in practice and found out a couple of things:

1. The players are athletic, but lazy. Therefore Robert Lee is a poor motivator/can't get his players to play for him.

2. The players are athletic, but soft. They do not have the aggressive style of play needed to be successful with transition and press.

Or maybe I'm wrong and RL never thought to try the strategy you're suggesting. In which case he's a worse coach than we all thought.

[playincajun]

Defense is far more important than offense. If you score 90 and the other team scores 91 you loose. If you score 50 and the other team scores 40 you win. This team could be a great trap defensive team. It seems like they only run it in the last 2 minutes of every game???? They have 4 guards who are the under 6'3 variety who can run, jump and trap. They have 5 other guards who are of the 6'4- 6-7 varitey that could well play the middle and back on any type of trap. The three big men could play back if need be.

They are not a real good half court team as few of them understand and play true help defense. I do think that hands in the passing lane is not a quote used often.

You might want to ask one of the players about practice. They all say they do not practice like they will be playing on game day so that should answer a whole lot of WHATS and WHYS we all have.

[headragincajun]

_ Defense is far more important than offense. If you score 90 and the other team scores 91 you loose. If you score 50 and the other team scores 40 you win. This team could be a great trap defensive team. It seems like they only run it in the last 2 minutes of every game???? They have 4 guards who are the under 6'3 variety who can run, jump and trap. They have 5 other guards who are of the 6'4- 6-7 varitey that could well play the middle and back on any type of trap. The three big men could play back if need be.

They are not a real good half court team as few of them understand and play true help defense. I do think that hands in the passing lane is not a quote used often.

You might want to ask one of the players about practice. They all say they do not practice like they will be playing on game day so that should answer a whole lot of WHATS and WHYS we all have. _

DEFENSE AND REBOUNDING WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS PERIOD. YOU BETTER DEFEND AND YOU BETTER REBOUND.

HEADRAGINCAJUN

[Duggie35]

I would be in favor of any coach who's team can score at least 1 more point than the opposition, regardless of style!!!!!!!!!!!

[zephyr]

_ Defense is far more important than offense. If you score 90 and the other team scores 91 you loose. If you score 50 and the other team scores 40 you win. This team could be a great trap defensive team. It seems like they only run it in the last 2 minutes of every game???? They have 4 guards who are the under 6'3 variety who can run, jump and trap. They have 5 other guards who are of the 6'4- 6-7 varitey that could well play the middle and back on any type of trap. The three big men could play back if need be.

They are not a real good half court team as few of them understand and play true help defense. I do think that hands in the passing lane is not a quote used often.

You might want to ask one of the players about practice. They all say they do not practice like they will be playing on game day so that should answer a whole lot of WHATS and WHYS we all have. _

I agree. I've said it for two years now that we do not play the passing lanes at all. I think Robert is afraid of getting backdoored to death but the problem there is that we do not know how to play helpside defense. And no, you do not have to be a fast, guard oriented team to play a high pressure, man to man defense. Duke and UNC are two of the better man to man defensive teams in the country that practice tremendous team defensive principles that allows them to put tremendous pressure on the ball even if it is 35 feet from the goal, play passing lanes and still help out in the paint and take charges.

I also remember the Fletcher days and we scored a ton of points. The problem is, they drove the fans crazy because we played no defense and no team was out of the ballgame against us, no matter how much we led by. It also made for a long day when we faced a good defensive team who could slow the pace against us because we couldn't defend in the half court. I think a bit both worlds would benefit us more.