Candidates the Cajuns should consider for MBB coach

[zephyr]

_ No offense, but Louisiana is a crap basketball state when it comes to collegiate talent. Bobby Champagne would flounder here. We do not need or should we look at a local guy. We have tradition and must not settle for a Coach because he is a coon_____. _

I tend to agree. I'm not saying that he couldn't or wouldn't be a good coach here because he does have ties here and I like those who truly love the university. However, for us to recruit good talent, we have to be able to do it regionally, not locally. There are a few talented players from around these parts that come up every few years but for the most part, we've ALWAYS had to go outside of this area to get the guys that end up being legit players. I want a coach that is known on a regional level. I do like the Dennis Felton name and possibilities as well. I think there will be numerous candidates at the end of the season, we just have to be aggressive and swift with our decision.

[zephyr]

_ Boomer -

Forget just black coaches. UL has consistently been way ahead of the curve on race relations. Including the hiring of black coaches. In fact, I would be that of all non HBCU Division I universities in the south, UL has probably hired more black coaches in the major men's sports than anyone.

4

Jerry Baldwin - Football
Jesse Evans - Basketball
Glenn Cyprien - Basketball
Robert Lee - Basketball _

Why doesn't he go talk to Ron Gomez and coach Shipley about UL's integration of black athletes? We were one of the, if not the first teams in the country to integrate our basketball program in the early days and that includes great players like Bo Lamar.

[Tiredof theBS]

At one point UL had Jesse Evans, Jerry Baldwin and James Square making us the only D-1 school in the country with an African-American head football and basketball coach and an African-American Band Director.

When Shipley was here we were so far ahead of the curve in breaking the race barrier that nobody knew how to handle us. The NCAA was so stunned that they levied the greatest penalty in history to slow us down. Before you ask I'll answer by saying yes, I feel the USL death penallty was race belated. We had done something nobody else had done other than Texas-Western and the only way to stop us was to "kill us".

With this said I still say our two best choices are Felton or Gillispie with Pierre being a distant third.

[SlappyCajun]

_ At one point UL had Jesse Evans, Jerry Baldwin and James Square making us the only D-1 school in the country with an African-American head football and basketball coach and an African-American Band Director.

When Shipley was here we were so far ahead of the curve in breaking the race barrier that nobody knew how to handle us. The NCAA was so stunned that they levied the greatest penalty in history to slow us down. Before you ask I'll answer by saying yes, I feel the USL death penallty was race belated. We had done something nobody else had done other than Texas-Western and the only way to stop us was to "kill us".

With this said I still say our two best choices are Felton or Gillispie with Pierre being a distant third. _

Do you have no interest in Billy Kennedy??? Or do you think that we cannot get him...

[SlappyCajun]

_ No offense, but Louisiana is a crap basketball state when it comes to collegiate talent. Bobby Champagne would flounder here. We do not need or should we look at a local guy. We have tradition and must not settle for a Coach because he is a coon_____. _

You can say that Bobby may not be a good hire, but to say that Louisiana is a crap basketball state is about the most ridiculous thing ever....

If you can recruit LA and Houston, you can win the Sunbelt every year....


Dwayne Mitchell - Louisiana
Brad Boyd - Louisiana
Tyren Johnson - Louisiana
Laurie Bridges - Louisiana
Antoine Landry - Louisiana
All of LSU's Final Four Team - Louisiana
Greg Monroe - First Round Draft pick and Georgetown's best player, Louisiana
Baylor's Starting Backcourt (Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn) - Louisiana
Marcus Thornton - Hornets starting two guard (Louisiana went to JUCO, because no one thought he was good enough to prop)
Millsap Brothers - Louisiana
Brandon Mouton - (Started on Texas Final Four team - LA)
Karl Malone - Louisiana
Willis Reed - Louisiana
All of Bobby Knights best players at Texas Tech - LA
Perry Stevenson at Kentucky
Carrol Boudreaux, Kevin Brooks, Aaron Mitchell, Eric Mouton
Kevin Figaro, Graylin Warner
Von Wafer (Rockets)
David Benoit
Robert Pack

LA is full of really really good college basketball players. I will argue this all day long.

[cajun4life]

_ You can say that Bobby may not be a good hire, but to say that Louisiana is a crap basketball state is about the most ridiculous thing ever....

If you can recruit LA and Houston, you can win the Sunbelt every year....


Dwayne Mitchell - Louisiana
Brad Boyd - Louisiana
Tyren Johnson - Louisiana
Laurie Bridges - Louisiana
Antoine Landry - Louisiana
All of LSU's Final Four Team - Louisiana
Greg Monroe - First Round Draft pick and Georgetown's best player, Louisiana
Baylor's Starting Backcourt (Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn) - Louisiana
Marcus Thornton - Hornets starting two guard (Louisiana went to JUCO, because no one thought he was good enough to prop)
Millsap Brothers - Louisiana
Brandon Mouton - (Started on Texas Final Four team - LA)
Karl Malone - Louisiana
Willis Reed - Louisiana
All of Bobby Knights best players at Texas Tech - LA
Perry Stevenson at Kentucky
Carrol Boudreaux, Kevin Brooks, Aaron Mitchell, Eric Mouton
Kevin Figaro, Graylin Warner
Von Wafer (Rockets)
David Benoit
Robert Pack

LA is full of really really good college basketball players. I will argue this all day long. _

Ok so you name 20 basketball studs from Louisiana, you do realize that there are like 14 D1 schools that play basketball is Louisiana? You can argue all you want, Louisiana has never produced enough talent to supply any school with enough talented players to win on a national level consistently. Hell Robert Lee signed 6 or 7 of the best players from Louisiana within the last 5 years and we are not a good team. We have always been successful because we had the best basketball players, not because they are from Louisiana.

I guarantee you that if we were winning 20-25 games a year like we use to and we only had 1 or 2 players from Louisiana no one would care. Again Louisiana is a great football state, but in basketball La is not even close to producing enough talent to keep even 3 schools fully stocked much less 14 or whatever number we have.

[SlappyCajun]

_ Ok so you name 20 basketball studs from Louisiana, you do realize that there are like 14 D1 schools that play basketball is Louisiana? You can argue all you want, Louisiana has never produced enough talent to supply any school with enough talented players to win on a national level consistently. Hell Robert Lee signed 6 or 7 of the best players from Louisiana within the last 5 years and we are not a good team. We have always been successful because we had the best basketball players, not because they are from Louisiana.

I guarantee you that if we were winning 20-25 games a year like we use to and we only had 1 or 2 players from Louisiana no one would care. Again Louisiana is a great football state, but in basketball La is not even close to producing enough talent to keep even 3 schools fully stocked much less 14 or whatever number we have. _

a) Define win on a national level consistently?

b) There are plenty of players in Louisiana.

c) We can beat out the majority of the 14 schools you listed. Plus, I'm not sure if the that is an accurate number, and now, 2 of those schools are going D3.

d) So, would UL not be successful if the starting line up was this, Tyren Johnson, Kenneth Cooper, Storm Warren, Ryan Francis, and Bo Spencer? These guys could all be on the same team. In fact, the Cajuns could have had this line up fairly feasibly, if you had someone who could lock down Louisiana.

Again, the talent in this state is not the problem, its being able to recruit it to come and play for you, and then coach it.

In fact, I think the talent on our current team is good enough to win the league.

[SlappyCajun]

Also, your term win consistently on a national level is ambiguous.

What does that mean. Win twenty games a year. Be in the sweet 16 every year. Win a conference championship every year.

John Brady was pretty darn good with Louisiana players at LSU in one of the toughest leagues in the country, therefore I think that we could be pretty consistently successful at our level.

[cajun4life]

_ a) Define win on a national level consistently?

b) There are plenty of players in Louisiana.

c) We can beat out the majority of the 14 schools you listed. Plus, I'm not sure if the that is an accurate number, and now, 2 of those schools are going D3.

d) So, would UL not be successful if the starting line up was this, Tyren Johnson, Kenneth Cooper, Storm Warren, Ryan Francis, and Bo Spencer? These guys could all be on the same team. In fact, the Cajuns could have had this line up fairly feasibly, if you had someone who could lock down Louisiana.

Again, the talent in this state is not the problem, its being able to recruit it to come and play for you, and then coach it.

In fact, I think the talent on our current team is good enough to win the league. _

What you are saying is that UL would recruit in a vacuum. We can not sign all of the top basketball players in the state. LSU will grab whoever they want like they do in every sport.

Winning consistently on a national level is winning against tough OOC opponents, not Centenary or Mobile but teams that we beat as recent as 2004 like Miss St. and other program like them. UL was a TOP 10 program and has great tradition. I want the Cajuns to be like Gonzaga or Butler or any mid major that is consistently in the Top 25.

Tyren Johnson was a project player who worked his ass off to become the player he has turned in to. He was not highly recruited out of high school. You can not build a program around project players. Ryan Francis is dead, shot by a banger. Kenneth Cooper and Bo Spencer would help the Cajuns, but tell me who would you replace them with? Where is your bench players? Louisiana can not supply enough basketball talent to supply more than 1 school on a national level.

As far as enough talent to win the Belt which is the 21st rated conference if you go by RPI is not saying much. The Belt sucks as a whole conference and has been steadily declining in all sports besides football.

[ManAboutTown]

_ a) Define win on a national level consistently?

b) There are plenty of players in Louisiana.

c) We can beat out the majority of the 14 schools you listed. Plus, I'm not sure if the that is an accurate number, and now, 2 of those schools are going D3.

d) So, would UL not be successful if the starting line up was this, Tyren Johnson, Kenneth Cooper, Storm Warren, Ryan Francis, and Bo Spencer? These guys could all be on the same team. In fact, the Cajuns could have had this line up fairly feasibly, if you had someone who could lock down Louisiana.

Again, the talent in this state is not the problem, its being able to recruit it to come and play for you, and then coach it.

In fact, I think the talent on our current team is good enough to win the league. _

You won that argument a long time ago, but this sealed it for me

[ManAboutTown]

_ You won that argument a long time ago, but this sealed it for me _

And baseball, and softball. FWIW

[cajun4life]

_ And baseball, and softball. FWIW _

We are not talking about baseball or softball, those are completely different sports. Plus in Softball at least we are an Elite program and have Louisiana and East Texas to draw from.