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

[CajunEXPRESS]

Look, you can go back in this thread and you won't find me taking issue with anyone who thinks we haven't played to our potential these past 5 years. What I take issue with is the way you are constantly choosing to sell our team short. You even do it in this post. We are NOT the 3rd or 4th best team in the conference. We are CLEARLY the 1st or 2nd best team in the conference. And you say we've only beat teams with RPIs over 200. We just beat a team with an RPI of 116 by 15 points and a team with an RPI of 133 by 33 points. Even though the RPI might not say it, this is obviously a top 100 team.

Given the reality of college basketball and the reality of playing in the Sun Belt in 2016 I never expected this team to have a top 60 RPI. If you did you were fooling yourself. Little Rock has only lost two games, beat a bunch of solid basketball teams, and even they can't crack the top 60. I'd love for that reality to be different, but we can only go off what we have to work with. When your conference isn't top 10, when your basketball budget is probably not even top 300, when only 4,000 fans show up for a big Saturday game, when you don't have top 60 prestige, when you don't live in a basketball hotbed, etc. it doesn't matter who your coach is.

You can say I'm making excuses for Coach Marlin all you want. But the fact is that it takes way more than a good basketball coach to have a consistent top 60 program. John Brady had a consistent top 60 team at LSU and a consistent top 200 program at Arkansas State. Do you see what I mean?

I do think you are making mistakes and excuses. We talk about coaches who have their teams in the top sixty RPI not from a basketball conference, and not a P5 conference. Steven F Austin from the SLC comes to mind last year, right now you have Lil'Rock pushing it.

One of the absolute ligit complaints about Bobby BigFish is he absolutely refuses to recruit money to position his program better. Every other successful coach at Louisiana does this, why is he so special that he won't, or is it he cannot? If he can't it is a negative on his ability as a head coach, if he won't it's an even bigger negative.

[BraveCajun]

I do think you are making mistakes and excuses. We talk about coaches who have their teams in the top sixty RPI not from a basketball conference, and not a P5 conference. Steven F Austin from the SLC comes to mind last year, right now you have Lil'Rock pushing it.

One of the absolute ligit complaints about Bobby BigFish is he absolutely refuses to recruit money to position his program better. Every other successful coach at Louisiana does this, why is he so special that he won't, or is it he cannot? If he can't it is a negative on his ability as a head coach, if he won't it's an even bigger negative.

You make a good point about the success of Stephen F Austin's basketball program. But what do you make of Danny Kasper's lack of sun belt success even though he played a big part of Stephen F Austin's recent success?

[ManAboutTown]

You make a good point about the success of Stephen F Austin's basketball program. But what do you make of Danny Kasper's lack of sun belt success even though he played a big part of Stephen F Austin's recent success?

Interesting parallel with Marlin...

[CajunEXPRESS]

You make a good point about the success of Stephen F Austin's basketball program. But what do you make of Danny Kasper's lack of sun belt success even though he played a big part of Stephen F Austin's recent success?

I'm of the opinion that the new coach built on his success. Only much better.

[Parrott]

You make a good point about the success of Stephen F Austin's basketball program. But what do you make of Danny Kasper's lack of sun belt success even though he played a big part of Stephen F Austin's recent success?

Kaspar took a lowly, losing program at SFA and built it into a regular 20-game winner. (He won 21 games in his third and fourth year, then had a down stretch for the next three years before bouncing back and becoming a regular winner.) Underwood has kept the momentum going and won with a mix of Kaspar's players (he recruited last two SLC players of year) and his own.

Kaspar is in his third year rebuilding a struggling Texas State program that lacked the discipline and talent to win in D1. He also turned Incarnate Word into a lower-level winner before going to SFA, so I'd be surprised if he's unable to win at Texas State.

[BraveCajun]

Kaspar took a lowly, losing program at SFA and built it into a regular 20-game winner. (He won 21 games in his third and fourth year, then had a down stretch for the next three years before bouncing back and becoming a regular winner.) Underwood has kept the momentum going and won with a mix of Kaspar's players (he recruited last two SLC players of year) and his own.

Kaspar is in his third year rebuilding a struggling Texas State program that lacked the discipline and talent to win in D1. He also turned Incarnate Word into a lower-level winner before going to SFA, so I'd be surprised if he's unable to win at Texas State.

Oh, I was definitely impressed with his SFA teams. I'm a big fan of the way his team's played defense. However I thought his defensive scheme would have carried over to Texas State rather quickly since this Sun Belt is a guard oriented league. Do you think the drastic change in officiating is limiting Kasper's coaching strength?

[ManAboutTown]

Oh, I was definitely impressed with his SFA teams. I'm a big fan of the way his team's played defense. However I thought his defensive scheme would have carried over to Texas State rather quickly since this Sun Belt is a guard oriented league. Do you think the drastic change in officiating is limiting Kasper's coaching strength?

I'll even admit, I wanted Kaspar to be the hire when we had a vacancy here. We got Marlin instead, but I was a fan, no doubt.

[Parrott]

Oh, I was definitely impressed with his SFA teams. I'm a big fan of the way his team's played defense. However I thought his defensive scheme would have carried over to Texas State rather quickly since this Sun Belt is a guard oriented league. Do you think the drastic change in officiating is limiting Kasper's coaching strength?

Yes, I do. The Sun Belt also is deeper in terms of quality programs (but the Southland has improved in recent years). Also, I think Kaspar inherited a Texas State program with few, if any, tough players interested in sharing the ball and playing team defense. That's been a major issue as he attempts to rebuild there.

[tetragrammaton]

Oh... Well, in that case....

...subtract 5....
.....carry the 1....

Yup, still just 0-1 in Conference.

....fast forward a little over a month, and we are in 2nd place. Last nite's game was hard to watch, but we saw a team that would have been (and was) decimated at the beginning of the season claw their way back and knock down ULM. And the crowd loved it. I feel good about where this team is right now.

[BirdofParadise]

I didn't find last night's game hard to watch at all. Two teams got after each other. Contested shots, contested rebounds, contested everything. In fact, I thought it was the most enjoyable game of the season.

We have to remember, the other team gets to play, too.

[CrazyCajun]

To me it looled like 2 pretty good teams that respect each other but don't like each other going at it, I thought it was a great game.

[ManAboutTown]

I didn't find last night's game hard to watch at all. Two teams got after each other. Contested shots, contested rebounds, contested everything. In fact, I thought it was the most enjoyable game of the season.

We have to remember, the other team gets to play, too.

Last night, the effort was at a season high. Our big man was breathing fire. Even when ULM made a run, our guys continued to fight, hard. I was not worried when we got down by 11, and that's unusual. Nothing hard to watch about two teams gunning for one another.