Louisiana vs Cal Irvine

[zephyr]

I think the ref just messed up and blew his whistle early.

Marlin probably complained that the player shouldn't have been allowed in due to a ref's mistake and the refs ultimately agreed.

He did. He argued that since it was an inadvertent whistle, UCI shouldn't have been allowed to sub a player in and they ultimately agreed.

[VObserver]

I disagree. I don't think we had guards that were good enough to win conference his year. He was able to work an offense that gave them plenty of open looks. Too many times they weren't able to convert. In today's game, if you can't consistently hit 3pt shots, you're dead in the water. Having a huge rebounding advantage thanks to Long kept us in a lot of games we shouldn't have been in because our fg% and 3pt% was so incredibly low.

Let's do some math. Suppose last night we had not shot a single 3 point shot, but had shot 24 additional 2 point shots instead. Let us further suppose that we made those shots at the same rate we made the rest of our two point shots [39.1%]. That would have given us 27 made two point shots [rounding down from 27.3]. Let us further suppose that on those additional shots, we reached the free throw line at the same rate as we did on our other 2 point shots. That would have given us 31 free throws instead of the 21 we actually shot. If we made 71.4% of those, as we did on the 21 we actually shot, that would have been 22 made free throws, rather than 15.. Adding it all up that is 27x2=54 from the field + 22 free throws =77 points. Last time I checked, that 77 points would have secured a 10 point win for the Cajuns. Even if we did not get a single additional free throw, we still would have had 69.

I can guarantee you that the coach from Little Rock would have figured out a way to win with our players.

[Cajunsmike]

Mike he could have taken that and run with it, taking self responsibility. An answer like Yes, we all know it is unfair, but what I am concerned about is our teams failure to be NCAA worthy. Of course he could have accepted responsibility.

We have all seen all coaches and politicians take questions and totally ignore them when the question is about their failure. This was an opportunity for Bob to do that in reverse, take a question not about his failure and turn it into an opportunity to address his concerns, and failures instead of pontificating on a subject we all agree upon. He was singing to his crowd, pointless jabber.

Sooner or later Mike, Marlin will turn this game into another resume builder, yet another post season game, blah, blah, blah. I want him to win, he just doesn't.

It is now getting fixed, the concrete is firming up, and UL is no longer even a mid major power.

No coach ever talks about his "failures". Concerns about what he needs to have happen to be in the conversation of being in the field or just left out may have been appropriate . However, I am not sure how that would have tied in to the discussion that day. It is obvious we are not a mid major power and we need to bring in more talent to get to that stage. I also do not see how the game last night which was a loss can be a resume builder. That is not pertinent at this stage as we are not contemplating replacing him and no school is close to considering him. There is also nothing connected to participating in this tourney tied to more extensions. I will say once again my thoughts today are with the players who are still hurting today after having the breaks go against them last night.

[Zeebart21]

No, he was putting words in his mouth then building some weird conspiracy theory around it.

I've got no problem with criticism against Marlin. I'm VERY disappointed in this year. I don't expect us to win the conference every year, but this was supposed to be the year we put it all together and it didn't happen. Our recruits didn't get the job done. I don't know enough about coaching to say if they did a good job or not, but at the end of the day it falls on Marlin's shoulders.

But that's not what express and z were criticizing.

What were we criticizing?

[CajunRebel]

Let's do some math. Suppose last night we had not shot a single 3 point shot, but had shot 24 additional 2 point shots instead. Let us further suppose that we made those shots at the same rate we made the rest of our two point shots [39.1%]. That would have given us 27 made two point shots [rounding down from 27.3]. Let us further suppose that on those additional shots, we reached the free throw line at the same rate as we did on our other 2 point shots. That would have given us 31 free throws instead of the 21 we actually shot. If we made 71.4% of those, as we did on the 21 we actually shot, that would have been 22 made free throws, rather than 15.. Adding it all up that is 27x2=54 from the field + 22 free throws =77 points. Last time I checked, that 77 points would have secured a 10 point win for the Cajuns. Even if we did not get a single additional free throw, we still would have had 69.

I can guarantee you that the coach from Little Rock would have figured out a way to win with our players.

Your hypothetical doesn't work in the real world. Basketball is like football. You can't be one-dimensional. A phenominal running team can't run the ball 100% of the time becuase the other team will adjust for it, load up the box, and stop the run. That great running team still has to have QBs and WRs that can execute passing plays to spread the defense.

In basketball, if you can't hit 3's the defense can collapse around the basket and prevent you from taking high % 2's. You have to be able to take what the defense gives you.

[BirdofParadise]

I disagree. I don't think we had guards that were good enough to win conference his year. He was able to work an offense that gave them plenty of open looks. Too many times they weren't able to convert. In today's game, if you can't consistently hit 3pt shots, you're dead in the water. Having a huge rebounding advantage thanks to Long kept us in a lot of games we shouldn't have been in because our fg% and 3pt% was so incredibly low.

I agree with this. Look at the three teams that finished ahead of us. LR had Hagins/Johnson, Jr., ULM had Coppola/Roberson. UTA had Neal/Charles. What did they all have in common? They didn't turn it over a lot and they all shot the three pointer with consistency.

I did some quick math. We shot 36% last year from 3. If we had done that in our losses this year, our record would be 26-8.

The three point shot has become a HUGE part of college basketball. An elite point guard doesn't hurt either. All three point guards listed above had better seasons than ours did.

THe answer is not to take three point shots. The answer is to make them. We MUST get better in that regard.

[CajunRebel]

To elaborate further, here is a heat map for NBA shooting. I couldn't find one for college basketball. But it shows just how critical it is to hit 3pt shots. If you are a terrible 3pt shooting team, the defense can collapse and focus on eliminating those high % shots right near the basket. Mid-range jumpers are theoretically still there, but as you can see if you build an offense off mid-range jumpers you aren't going to win any basketball games.

[ZoomZoom]

So we had the same guards we did last season. Shot the 3 much better last year than this year. Once teams saw our guards were not what they were last year, hello 2/3 zone and season skidding.

[Cajunsmike]

I agree with this. Look at the three teams that finished ahead of us. LR had Hagins/Johnson, Jr., ULM had Coppola/Roberson. UTA had Neal/Charles. What did they all have in common? They didn't turn it over a lot and they all shot the three pointer with consistency.

I did some quick math. We shot 36% last year from 3. If we had done that in our losses this year, our record would be 26-8.

The three point shot has become a HUGE part of college basketball. An elite point guard doesn't hurt either. All three point guards listed above had better seasons than ours did.

THe answer is not to take three point shots. The answer is to make them. We MUST get better in that regard.

Good post there BOP. We have to get better in making perimeter shots or we will continue to be slightly above average. There are two ways to do that; have your current guys improve or bring in new guys who have that skill. We need to do both. Last night Jonathon Stove gave glimpses that he may be able to hit the perimeter shot successfully more often next year. To me a key to the offseason is to restore Heyward Register's confidence so as his practice performance translates to games. It is obvious he presses at times. We have heard the redshirt freshman named Evans from Shreveport is a good shooter. He will have to be for this team to have any type of success. Of course, a focus of spring recruiting must be a guy with shooting skills. We need to do this even if the person may not be quite as athletic as other guys. Lots of needs described there but I am one who will not automatically assume they will fail in these goals. I simply say good luck to them in filling out their team in the coming months. I also close this post like all others today in thanking the guys moving on for their efforts.

[zephyr]

The outside shot is just too important in today's game to actually think you can win consistently without shooting it at all or at least adequately. Even if you have good big men, you have to have weapons that open up the court. It's probably not that different than football when having a great running game will open up your passing game and vice versa. We have guys who CAN hit the outside shot as they've shown to do it in the past. The problem has been to get them to all contribute consistently which was the biggest issue this year.

[zephyr]

So we had the same guards we did last season. Shot the 3 much better last year than this year. Once teams saw our guards were not what they were last year, hello 2/3 zone and season skidding.

And you still have to continue shooting it because of that reason. You have to show teams you are still willing to shoot it and even if you are shooting it poorly, you can often start shooting your way out of that funk.

[CajunEXPRESS]

And now you're putting words in my mouth too. I don't know how you can read my last post, which talks about how disappointed I am in this year's team and how it all falls on Marlin's shoulders, and come up with "I'm good with this."

Dude, please chill with the dishonesty.

Dude it's your overall being OK with everything. Always willing to accept another non effort conference improvement, OK with pushing virtually Lilly pops on every sport. I'm not upset with this game, except hating losing any game. It's pretty much mirrors Marlins history.