Meanwhile, Cajuns have the best basketball team in LA

[Cajunsmike]

Well I'm sorry about bush league. What it is Mike is accepting your mediocre status. Nobody is suggesting we can get to the dance without the three games in
March, but have you actually given in and accepting mediocrity? I still have hopes of being very good again. You're never going to advance purposely scheduling to win instead of getting challenged. Your talent will never improve enough without truly striving to be good enough to deserve an at large even when you're discriminated against. But we don't have that argument. Haven't felt a long time.

Who said anything about accepting mediocrity? I just accept reality which a few of you do not. Not just here, but virtually all the mid majors point to their conference tournament as the time to be playing their best ball. I also hope to be very good again (if not great) and perhaps we are making progress. No matter what we do, we won't get an at large in the current system as evidenced by Illinois State and for that matter UTA last year. Therefore, we just have to do it by consistently winning the tournament and having success in the Big Dance. I mentioned several reasons that success in the regular season is important in my previous posts and I stand by those. As far as scheduling goes, we would have to play virtually the entire non conference season on the road to be challenged sufficiently for some. The basketball staff, the great majority of the fan base, and the administration do not want to do that. The few of you that do won't change that policy. In fact there was an article in USA Today taking issue with many schools refusal to play on the road in non-conference. If you don't see that impacts us, you are just denying facts. Impact on academics is one reason we don't want to spend too much time on the road. Also, many thought that the road games and the Caymans tournament would challenge us. So far some of those have not done as well as predicted but it is still to be determined how good those teams will do as we are only 1/3 through the season. This discussion/argument has been around a long time and at this point little good comes from continuing it. Simply put, I KNOW that stronger schools (when I say stronger I don't mean SEC but good mid-majors) refusing to come play here is a problem and a FACT while some of you just choose to deny reality. I will say that the ideas VO had of playing schools like LA Tech twice in the same year and tying basketball games to football with NMSU are good ideas. However, I don't think Tech wants any part of that idea and who knows what NMSU wants. Let's just move on from here and support the team this year.

[MetryCajun]

Great analysis CajunMike! Best basketball post of 2017.

[Boomer]

So you have nothing to contribute here which refutes my assertions regarding scheduling? Not to resort to Boomer isms, but those who have no counter to an argument in a debate resort to attacking the person making the argument. Ad hominum, if you will.

Nowhere have I said we don't have a good team. I have only said that we can't tell whether we are really good or just better than the teams we have beaten; and that if we do have a really good team, our scheduling is doing them a disservice by dooming them to an RPI that will give us a 15 or 16 seed in the tournament if we get in, when minor changes in scheduling philosophy could yield a seeding of 10-12, which in turn gives us a much better chance to make a run in the Dance.

......Vob, my buddy, if you are going to use me as a reference please get the correct Latin......AD Hominem! However,it's use is quite fitting in this instance!!!

[zephyr]

Guys, football may drive the bus, but if we want our bus to take us to the AAC, we damn well better drastically improve our non conference basketball scheduling and dominate this conference that many of you claim is holding us down, because good basketball is important to the AAC.

I am sure Bob Marlin is a great guy, and he recruits great young men, but his record here says he can't or won't raise our basketball program to the level that will make it a positive in realignment. That is a fact that cannot be disputed.

I agree with these statements which is why I've grown as frustrated with Marlin as any here.

[zephyr]

I disagree that the three games in March view is bush league thinking. No. of mid majors that can earn at large bids under the current system is miniscule. That is a fact whether people want to face that reality or not. Therefore focus on the tournament is not misplaced. Also, I know they hope to be playing their best ball at that point. That means you are constantly trying to improve throughout the season. Of course the regular season is important for RPI purposes and you get to the NIT if you win the regular season. You also get better seeding in the tournament if you do well in the conference regular season. As far as being committed to top tier basketball, I guess we would need to be willing to pay 90 grand plus to get teams similar to us to come to the Dome for a buy in game. I can't comment on the feasibility of doing that as I don't know the financial details. As MAT said earlier, this discussion is moot at this point as nothing can be done about the schedule. Only thing we can do in the short term is support the guys this season.

I think the 3 days in March concept is bush league. I think on the surface, this thinking bypasses the focus on winning your conference and just putting all your chips into the NCAA tournament qualifying. I want consistency. You talk about it as well. To me, you don't develop that with mediocre conference runs and then turning it up in the conference tourney to get a bid to the big dance. You can still raise a banner in the dome even if you don't make the tourney. I think we could do more for our brand by going out and being a consistent winner in conference and dominating. To me, this is a more difficult feat anyway and would impress me more than qualifying for the NCAA tourney.

[Cajunfanatico]

Tough for a single team to do much to improve its lot in life as it relates to RPI when the conference in which it plays, as a whole, does not seem interested in basketball.

[zephyr]

Tough for a single team to do much to improve its lot in life as it relates to RPI when the conference in which it plays, as a whole, does not seem interested in basketball.

At some point you have to put the best resume out there based on your schedule. That means going out and beating people. Win conference and make a name for yourself doing it. Beat people on the road. When your biggest "name" win is Iowa we need to improve that. Beating a team like Clemson would do these things for us. ____ting the bed twice against Ole Miss on the road is not how you show you mean business. These are the things that Marlin needs to build on.

[Cajunsmike]

At some point you have to put the best resume out there based on your schedule. That means going out and beating people. Win conference and make a name for yourself doing it. Beat people on the road. When your biggest "name" win is Iowa we need to improve that. Beating a team like Clemson would do these things for us. ____ting the bed twice against Ole Miss on the road is not how you show you mean business. These are the things that Marlin needs to build on.

I agree the Ole Miss loss was very disappointing. Everyone in the program felt that was as well. A pre-season goal was stated to be to win the conference regular season. Everyone knows that is quite an accomplishment and a reward is the NIT if you stub your toe in the tournament. My point of the focus of the conference tournament was in regards to gaining access to the NCAA tournament. Clemson will be a big game but can't look past tonight's appointment or an embarrassment can occur.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Who said anything about accepting mediocrity? I just accept reality which a few of you do not. Not just here, but virtually all the mid majors point to their conference tournament as the time to be playing their best ball. I also hope to be very good again (if not great) and perhaps we are making progress. No matter what we do, we won't get an at large in the current system as evidenced by Illinois State and for that matter UTA last year. Therefore, we just have to do it by consistently winning the tournament and having success in the Big Dance. I mentioned several reasons that success in the regular season is important in my previous posts and I stand by those. As far as scheduling goes, we would have to play virtually the entire non conference season on the road to be challenged sufficiently for some. The basketball staff, the great majority of the fan base, and the administration do not want to do that. The few of you that do won't change that policy. In fact there was an article in USA Today taking issue with many schools refusal to play on the road in non-conference. If you don't see that impacts us, you are just denying facts. Impact on academics is one reason we don't want to spend too much time on the road. Also, many thought that the road games and the Caymans tournament would challenge us. So far some of those have not done as well as predicted but it is still to be determined how good those teams will do as we are only 1/3 through the season. This discussion/argument has been around a long time and at this point little good comes from continuing it. Simply put, I KNOW that stronger schools (when I say stronger I don't mean SEC but good mid-majors) refusing to come play here is a problem and a FACT while some of you just choose to deny reality. I will say that the ideas VO had of playing schools like LA Tech twice in the same year and tying basketball games to football with NMSU are good ideas. However, I don't think Tech wants any part of that idea and who knows what NMSU wants. Let's just move on from here and support the team this year.

So I'm not going to have a long rebuttal because actually you and I share the same things about basketball program, and working the iPhone is cumbersome.

I'll leave this with you. I'm trying to highlight a better way,and the need to get to play 3 games in the NCAA. Any lucky bad team can get a ticket to 1 game in the NCAA by playing well 3 games in an entryway tournament. Playing cream puffs isn't setting yourself up to do either.

Finally to the tired worn out classes missed argument? The team goulda played others than the UNO & SLU games without missing one moment of class. Could have played a more challenging pair of teams on the road, gotten paid enough to actually buy better games than Savanna State, improve RPI, and maybe pull of a brand building upset.

VO & I certainly understand what is current reality, but prefer to seek what might be.

[Ragin4U]

The positive is that when it comes to basketball posts, there are 2 or 3 posters that you can read one post and get the entire gist of ALL of their other posts. A real time saver.
I go to games to watch My team. I would also like a better home schedule but the reality is that will be very tough to improve significantly for reasons that have been stated many times.
I have the feeling Marlin could own Coach K and some would still b itch and moan.

[Cajunsmike]

So I'm not going to have a long rebuttal because actually you and I share the same things about basketball program, and working the iPhone is cumbersome.

I'll leave this with you. I'm trying to highlight a better way,and the need to get to play 3 games in the NCAA. Any lucky bad team can get a ticket to 1 game in the NCAA by playing well 3 games in an entryway tournament. Playing cream puffs isn't setting yourself up to do either.

Finally to the tired worn out classes missed argument? The team goulda played others than the UNO & SLU games without missing one moment of class. Could have played a more challenging pair of teams on the road, gotten paid enough to actually buy better games than Savanna State, improve RPI, and maybe pull of a brand building upset.

VO & I certainly understand what is current reality, but prefer to seek what might be.

Savannah State home game was tied to the Caymans tournament indirectly. It was not completely our choice as to which opponent we would buy for that game. Also, had we played two more road game and two less home games, we would have had only 13 home games and 18 away from home. Staff does not want to do that. What I would do is play one more money game and one less non D1 game. That would be 17 away from home and 14 at home. Considering we had three on neutral courts, that would still be a good mix. Of course the Loyola game is during finals week so you could not travel then and that is a good time for your non D1. Replacing the Louisiana College game with another contest on the Mississippi trip may have worked. That is behind us now. Looking forward, next year we have to return the three SLC home games of this year and we have Tech coming here. They are looking at an exempt tournament again similar to last year which involves some home contests that your have to pay something to host and some away games. Details of that still being worked out but I do know that the away games would involve some Power teams. This is also not a definite but I think it likely how the schedule will be completed. If it does, hopefully the teams which come here are decent but that won't be completely up to us. We cannot get out of going to McNeese, SLU, and UNO due to the contract. All three of those games should have good Cajun support at them. A big change in scheduling philosophy can't occur until the season after next.

[Hatch]

Savannah State home game was tied to the Caymans tournament indirectly. It was not completely our choice as to which opponent we would buy for that game. Also, had we played two more road game and two less home games, we would have had only 13 home games and 18 away from home. Staff does not want to do that. What I would do is play one more money game and one less non D1 game. That would be 17 away from home and 14 at home. Considering we had three on neutral courts, that would still be a good mix. Of course the Loyola game is during finals week so you could not travel then and that is a good time for your non D1. Replacing the Louisiana College game with another contest on the Mississippi trip may have worked. That is behind us now. Looking forward, next year we have to return the three SLC home games of this year and we have Tech coming here. They are looking at an exempt tournament again similar to last year which involves some home contests that your have to pay something to host and some away games. Details of that still being worked out but I do know that the away games would involve some Power teams. This is also not a definite but I think it likely how the schedule will be completed. If it does, hopefully the teams which come here are decent but that won't be completely up to us. We cannot get out of going to McNeese, SLU, and UNO due to the contract. All three of those games should have good Cajun support at them. A big change in scheduling philosophy can't occur until the season after next.

They need to pressure UNO to schedule that game on the same Saturday as the New Orleans bowl.