Is Bob Marlin's seat even starting to warm up?

[CajunEXPRESS]

I'm not going to give credit beyond what he's done and it ain't much. Pretty much a .500 record. If that's your level of acceptance OK. Me I expect a lot more after years 4,5, and now 6.

ULMOST does have an outstanding coach.

[cajun4life]

Marlin is +/- 3 games of .500 basketball. He is making over 400k a year. He sucks.

[CajunRebel]

I'm not going to give credit beyond what he's done and it ain't much. Pretty much a .500 record. If that's your level of acceptance OK. Me I expect a lot more after years 4,5, and now 6.

ULMOST does have an outstanding coach.

You obviously didn't read my first paragraph.

[Turbine]

Right now Marlin is on a scouting trip on his own team.

He is playing musical chairs in a season where he shouldn't have to, not with all the returning starters he has.

He is pulling a Hud, fortunately basketball season (because of its length) allows for internal scouting expeditions and depth development.

Football not so much.

[CajunEXPRESS]

You obviously didn't read my first paragraph.

You're absolutely wrong. First of all I have zero likes or dislikes in Bob Marlin the person. Bob Marlin the coach is without doubt over his head.

The longer he's here the more irrelevant our basketball becomes. I want him gone. Would love to be wrong. It's never good to pick a failed coach be his name Marlin or Hud.

Even scarier FarmerBROWN picking replacement. We saw how that's gone with Harris. He's taken four months putting together a reseating plan you could have accomplished in thirty six hours. I'm pretty sure we're in a deep freeze on monies.

[VObserver]

Going into this season Marlin's record with the Cajuns is 88-77. Of those 88 wins the following are RENT-A-WINS in my opinion:

2014-15: Louisiana College, Oral Roberts, Jackson State, Centenary, Milligan College, Incarnate Word, and Sam Houston State.

2013-14: Louisiana College, McNeese State, Oakland, Coastal Carolina, Northwestern State, Centenary, and Central Methodist

2012-13: Oakland, Southern NO,

2011-12: Northern Arizona, Houston Baptist, McNeese, Dillard,

2010-11: Louisiana College, Centenary

Take those 24 wins off the table and his record at UL is 64-77.

14 of his RENT-A-WINS came in his two most successful seasons so when you take scheduling into consideration his two best seasons are average at best.

To please people like me this season they added Miami, Alabama, UCLA and Pepperdine to the pre-conference schedule so that we could be better prepared going into the Sunbelt Schedule. This also gives us a chance to see how we stack up against major competition, and we could gain some notoriety so that we could possibly get a better seed "when we make the tournament", and let's not be fooled, there is only one tournament that counts.

I don't see our team developing into a power Mid-Major. I see our two best players having great natural talent, but they had to go under the tutelage of the coaches on the national teams in order to develop into fine players. I'm not understanding what people are seeing that Marlin is doing for our team?

My personal choice would be to see Marlin replaced when his contract runs out (no more contract extensions and no more raises) unless our team makes the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament, or he has at least two seasons where we make the round of 32. He has been here long enough for this to be 100% HIS TEAM. We now know what he can do, or should I say what he CAN'T DO.

Our football team is overpowered by the major schools, but our baseball and softball teams compete on a high national level. The ladies basketball team has made major strides under our current coach, and the future for them looks like what we have in baseball and softball. When are we going to ask our very highly paid mens basketball team for the same results?

To answer my own questions:

1) What is an acceptable final season record for this team?
22 overall wins (including Springhill and Mississippi College which the NCAA considers exhibition wins)
2) What is an acceptable finish in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament?
Season is unacceptable if we do not win the Regular season Sunbelt title and get an at-large birth into the NCAA or the Conference Tournament earning an automatic bid.
3) Is our season not successful if we are not in the NCAA Tournament?
Yes
4) If we make the NCAA Tournament how far do we think this team SHOULD go?
at least one-win
5) If we do not make the NCAA Tournament what is an acceptable finish in a second or third tier tournament?
Win the entire tournament.

I am not a Marlin apologist, but what others said about your 'rent-a-win' list is true. I agree with you that his seat should be hot.

As to what I bolded: Let's not get carried away. Brodhead has done a nice job, but we are nowhere on the same planet in women's basketball as we are in softball or even baseball. We have yet to win a conference championship in a very watered down Sun Belt, and Brodhead's teams are 3-8 against the only two quality teams in the Conference. He DID start from nothing, so I give him credit for a great job; but until we get to the sweet 16 in the dance we can't talk about how great we are [at least in comparison to softball].

[oldalum]

10 day update since the last post in this thread:

2015 Ragin Cajuns:

Wins: Mississippi College (exh), Louisiana College, Loyola, McNeese (essentially ZERO WINS THAT COUNT)

Losses: Miami (-16), Alabama (-12), ULM (-11), LA Tech (-13), UCLA (-9)

At best you could say we are 1-5 in games that count.

We all expect a loss to Pepperdine who is currently on a four game winning streak. After that game the Cajuns need to win the vast majority of their games in order to have a 20 win season, and that is the benchmark most fans are looking for this season.

[cajun4life]

10 day update since the last post in this thread:

2015 Ragin Cajuns:

Wins: Mississippi College (exh), Louisiana College, Loyola, McNeese (essentially ZERO WINS THAT COUNT)

Losses: Miami (-16), Alabama (-12), ULM (-11), LA Tech (-13), UCLA (-9)

At best you could say we are 1-5 in games that count.

We all expect a loss to Pepperdine who is currently on a four game winning streak. After that game the Cajuns need to win the vast majority of their games in order to have a 20 win season, and that is the benchmark most fans are looking for this season.

I think most people are expecting 25 wins or it was a disappointment. The money donors are so far up Bobby Big Fish's rear end he is safe as long as he wants to coach here. We will continue to be barely above a 150 rpi program.

[cajunfan96]

I think most people are expecting 25 wins or it was a disappointment. The money donors are so far up Bobby Big Fish's rear end he is safe as long as he wants to coach here. We will continue to be barely above a 150 rpi program.

maybe with an NAIA schedule we can get to 25 wins.

[VObserver]

No way. Bob Marlin deserves all the credit in the world for bringing Elfrid Peyton and Sean Long to Lafayette.

You're right, Elfrid Peyton wasn't on a lot of team's radars. And that's exactly why Marlin should get all the credit in the world for signing him. When every other school didn't see the potential in EP, Marlin did. I don't care what the reasons were. In this case he out recruited every other coach in the South. And as far as Sean Long is concerned, we are one of 6 D1 schools within an hour and a half of his home. He picked us over those other 5 schools, including an SEC school and an AAC school. That's to Marlin's credit. He built that relationship. And if you try to argue that those schools didn't want him, that's also to Marlin's credit because once again, he identified the potential in a player when other schools didn't.

I give him credit for getting EP and Long to UL.

I also blame him for being unable to win a third tier conference with a lottery pick point guard and a likely NBA power forward. With two great players a good coach will win nearly any conference not named the ACC, the SEC, the Big X, the Big XII, the PAC XII or the Big East.

[CajunEXPRESS]

10 day update since the last post in this thread:

2015 Ragin Cajuns:

Wins: Mississippi College (exh), Louisiana College, Loyola, McNeese (essentially ZERO WINS THAT COUNT)

Losses: Miami (-16), Alabama (-12), ULM (-11), LA Tech (-13), UCLA (-9)

At best you could say we are 1-5 in games that count.

We all expect a loss to Pepperdine who is currently on a four game winning streak. After that game the Cajuns need to win the vast majority of their games in order to have a 20 win season, and that is the benchmark most fans are looking for this season.

Twenty win season in this conference is an absolute joke. Nothing less than 25 should even be considered palatable.

There were three games I thought would be absolute losses. Miami, UCLA, and Pepperdine. Splitting ULM,LTUR, and Bama. Clearly I was overly optimistic.

This is the Marlin I've come to count on.

[CajunRebel]

I give him credit for getting EP and Long to UL.

I also blame him for being unable to win a third tier conference with a lottery pick point guard and a likely NBA power forward. With two great players a good coach will win nearly any conference not named the ACC, the SEC, the Big X, the Big XII, the PAC XII or the Big East.

That's not even close to true. It takes way more than two players to win a conference championship. Just look at LSU. They have the best player in college basketball and they're absolute garbage. Basketball is a team game. You can't beat a team that is solid from 1 to 5 with only one stud recruit.

I'm not trying to defend Marlin here. It's his job to go out and recruit good players at every position.