Cajuns hoops crowds top SBC

[BirdofParadise]

Nah, man, I made it all up to make Coach Marlin look better. I'm just an excuse maker...right Crazy?

[Duggie35]

"Crazycajun" = The most appropriate username on Ragin Pagin!

[Cajunsmike]

Nah, man, I made it all up to make Coach Marlin look better. I'm just an excuse maker...right Crazy?

Evidence that the community does not care much about basketball these days comes in the lack of a response to a question I asked in a previous post. I asked if folks who normally do not attend basketball would do so if we pulled an upset in a road money game. Not one person said they would. That means winning is not enough. As Just1More said, we would need to win BIG for several years in a row in order to significantly improve support. Of course this can be done and should be a goal. However, do not lose sight of how much of a challenge that is in a day when virtually no mid majors are getting at large bids. One reason for that is highlighted in the Washington Post article linked in an earlier post-virtually no teams in power conferences go on the road in pre conference these days. I say once again this is just not a UL issue. It is part of today's culture when college basketball does not have that much interest in the Deep South.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Mike we started having great attendance at the same time as LSU in the Maravich era, for different reasons. They went to see a great player who was showtime, we went to see great basketball. IMO in spite of non division one games we might be at that point, the point where Winkler gave way to Lamar. No doubt we have to win big, win often, and make noise. I think LSU will be making some noise this year as well.

You say lack of interest, I say mired in mediocre success and lots of failure in the last decades has reduced fan support. You are right we have to outplay our conference and the South.

[Cajunsmike]

Mike we started having great attendance at the same time as LSU in the Maravich era, for different reasons. They went to see a great player who was showtime, we went to see great basketball. IMO in spite of non division one games we might be at that point, the point where Winkler gave way to Lamar. No doubt we have to win big, win often, and make noise. I think LSU will be making some noise this year as well.

You say lack of interest, I say mired in mediocre success and lots of failure in the last decades has reduced fan support. You are right we have to outplay our conference and the South.

There is no doubt that the inconsistent play in the last several years contributed to basketball losing support. We had not had a winning season for D1 games only since 2005 before 2014. That was 8 consecutive years of disappointing results. When you lose fans in such a situation, they are not likely to come back unless you offer them something special. When you combine those results with the current cultural lack of interest in general for the sport, you realize the challenge we are facing. The facts that it is now virtually impossible to get a TV school to your place and the difficulty mid majors have in getting at large bids makes it even more difficult to regain interest. However, we have an opportunity to have a pretty good team this upcoming season. We have all eight of our top regulars back and another good recruiting class coming in. The overseas play for some of our guys and the Pan Am games experience for Long should allow all of them to improve their basketball skills as well as help their maturity level. There are legitimate reasons to expect a good year and hopefully those folks who stopped following the program will return as we build towards our third consecutive winning season.

[Boomer]

I think that an early winning streak and good games against the biggies on the schedule will bring very good crowds back to the dome in a hurry!!! Agree that only post New Year games will result in this prediction!!!