Candidates the Cajuns should consider for MBB coach

[cajun4life]

_ I agree about Tyren, but he is the player of the year in the league, whether he wins it or not.

Ryan Franics is Rick Majerus taking the USC job away from being a Cajun.

Kenneth Cooper almost came here.

Storm Warren and Bo Spencer if Butch Pierre or Tim Floyd is the coach would probably be Cajuns.

All I'm saying is that at a a school like UL, you have 13 scholarships. Does Louisiana produce a little over 3 players per year that are of a caliber that can help us compete nationally. I think the answer is yes.

Also the original argument was based on the fact that you said Louisiana was crap in basketball. It is not. If you think it is, you must not follow basketball in the other 49 states, because we stack up fairly well. _

We do not even come close to Houston Metro, Dallas Metro, Chicago, or any other major metropolitan area in the country. Our state as a whole does not even produce as many D1 scholarship athletes as any of those metro ares.

[LifeTimeCajun]

_ The league is declining in baseball, that is a fact. _

no our program has slumped over the past 2 yrs as well as South Al. the rest of the league has gotten better over the past few years

[SlappyCajun]

_ We do not even come close to Houston Metro, Dallas Metro, Chicago, or any other major metropolitan area in the country. Our state as a whole does not even produce as many D1 scholarship athletes as any of those metro ares. _

Once again, not the point. The argument is whether Louisiana produces enough athletes to be consistently successful.

And Chicago kids, aren't clamoring to come down to Louisiana....

[CajunT]

_ what 6 or 7 players he signed that were the best from louisian, maybe top 50 from louisiana _

Gradnigo was listed in Louisiana's Top 10 by two scouting services. There is no top 50 from louisiana, we never had 50 DI prospects in any given year to my memory. But what was Tyren Johnson ranked? How about you and Brett Smith? There are kids out there that can contribute to this program after several years in the program. Brett and you turned out pretty good. The bottomline, academics usually claims 50% of any class in Louisiana. There is never enough talent to feed all the DI programs in Louisiana. Now this is still no excuse for not landing more then one such athlete over the past five years. Winning would have taken care of some of the problem, but that didn't happen.

[VObserver]

_ no our program has slumped over the past 2 yrs as well as South Al. the rest of the league has gotten better over the past few years _

The league as a whole has gone from being a three bid league consistantly among the top 6 conferences in the country down to a one bid league ranked about 15th. That's a big decline, no matter how you read it. Middle and Western appear better than they used to be, but only because UL, USA, UNO and even ULM have gone to c*ap. Tony's teams and USA especially have underperformed horribly compared to their traditions.

[CajunRed]

_ 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. _

So you are saying that if a Louisiana school like UL recruits and signs all of these players, it (or we) can win. Forgive me, but it is pretty naive to think that any one school will sign more than 1 or 2 of the players you listed at one time. You listed players from a 30 year stretch and implied that they would all be available at one time. HOW RIDICULOUS!

[BirdofParadise]

_ The league as a whole has gone from being a three bid league consistantly among the top 6 conferences in the country down to a one bid league ranked about 15th. That's a big decline, no matter how you read it. Middle and Western appear better than they used to be, but only because UL, USA, UNO and even ULM have gone to c*ap. Tony's teams and USA especially have underperformed horribly compared to their traditions. _

You are talking baseball here, right?

The Sun Belt has not been a one bid league in nearly two decades. The Sun Belt has not been ranked lower than 10th in baseball during that time, and that was just one season (they were 7th last year.) And, WKU was in a regional final last year and MT won a couple of games as well.

Is the Belt as good as it was in the late 90s? No. Has it dropped off appreciably? No.

[ManAboutTown]

_ You are talking baseball here, right?

The Sun Belt has not been a one bid league in nearly two decades. The Sun Belt has not been ranked lower than 10th in baseball during that time, and that was just one season (they were 7th last year.) And, WKU was in a regional final last year and MT won a couple of games as well.

Is the Belt as good as it was in the late 90s? No. Has it dropped off appreciably? No. _

Thank you jay!

[cajun4life]

_ You are talking baseball here, right?

The Sun Belt has not been a one bid league in nearly two decades. The Sun Belt has not been ranked lower than 10th in baseball during that time, and that was just one season (they were 7th last year.) And, WKU was in a regional final last year and MT won a couple of games as well.

Is the Belt as good as it was in the late 90s? No. Has it dropped off appreciably? No. _

Jay we got off track here a bit dragging baseball into it. But the bottom line remains the same, the league has declined, mainly due to the fact that USA and the Cajuns have slumped for the past few years.

As for basketball I stand by my opinion that Louisiana does not have enough talent to feed UL enough athletes for basketball for us to be successful consistantly. I don't mean successful in the Belt either, I'm talking about OOC games where a team from a 1 bid league can work their way into an at large bid.

[BirdofParadise]

_ Jay we got off track here a bit dragging baseball into it. But the bottom line remains the same, the league has declined, mainly due to the fact that USA and the Cajuns have slumped for the past few years.

As for basketball I stand by my opinion that Louisiana does not have enough talent to feed UL enough athletes for basketball for us to be successful consistantly. I don't mean successful in the Belt either, I'm talking about OOC games where a team from a 1 bid league can work their way into an at large bid. _

I agree on your basketball assessment. I don't agree with your baseball assessment. While the Belt is not as good as it was in the late '90s, (and part of that is due to a decline by USA and UL the last two years), I believe that Western and Middle last year were as good as USA and UL were a few years ago.

I believe that FIU is back after a few down years. Western and MIddle will be quite good again. But for the league to improve its RPI, the bottom has to get bettter. UALR has been God-awful but supposedly recruited very well in the off season. ASU hasn't been very good but I think they're getting better.