MBB Final: Louisiana 81, Troy 69

[CajunEXPRESS]

Reading what their fans have to say, the key to beating Ga Southern will be shutting down their 3 point game. They claim if that's done, their inside game can't handle a physical opponent.

So far we’ve neutralized our SBC opponents best option. I’m not worried about GS shooting guard, or GSU studly Simmons or something.

[zephyr]

Most of our OOC opponents won over the weekend. Clemson & Richmond won today. Thinking Mcneese only net loss as SLU & Nicholls played each other.

Clemson is going to slide after losing Grantham to an ACL injury. They will unfortunately get caught in the tough ACC.

[zephyr]

These refs... laughable

I don't recall a game where I saw so many late calls. The ball would almost be going down the court the other way and the ref would make a call. Its as if they were waiting to see if it would go in and decide to call a foul if he missed it. The dark haired ref was a toolbag. That guy was more worried about how he looked running down the court than seeing the action and being where he was supposed to be.

[zephyr]

We are blessed to have the depth we have. We hit our stride when other fun belt teams get dog tired and we go to the bench and don't lose much.

We played 7 guys. That's not a sign of much depth.

[IberiaCajun]

Outside of the diehards and season ticket holders, how many of the 5,000 on Saturday were the same people as the 6,000 on Thursday?

Not many "families" can afford 2 expensive outings in the same week.

In house Cajun Dome concessions could go a long way towards making multiple weekly basketball outings a lifestyle event.

You can divide the total by half (home games) but 35 games a year today, vs 25 total games in the early 70's makes going to every single game a little harder. And that's before the "stay away" concessions sign.

It is not mandatory to make a purchase at the concession stand to watch basketball!

[zephyr]

We may have to get to the Sweet 16 two consecutive years and start strong the following season to get over 6000 when conference play starts. I know MAT disagrees with me but people don't care about basketball in the south. Others say that we need to do something special for people to notice. That won't happen in the regular season. We need to get to NCAA tourney and have success for people to notice. I have noticed that we are not the only school to have this issue. College basketball attendance is down at most places. Of course that is not true for the TV conferences major powers. However it is down at about 200 places. We are better off than most. The focus on the NCAA tournament is one reason why. All that being said, there are some folks planning to go to Monroe. Hopefully some of you can make it as well.

Mike, I have no frame of reference as I'm not going check every team's attendance this year but I've watched quite a bit college basketball this year, even the SEC, and they are doing quite well in that category. Even Alabama is packing fans in and creating a great atmosphere. They may not be at an ACC or Big 10 attendance level but I would not say that basketball is dead in the south.

[zephyr]

Coach Marlin agrees we have to be better to have success in post season. The turnovers are a concern as well as not finishing near the rim. Defensively we gave up too many baskets on straight line drives to the goal today. However, there were also lots of positives today. The contribution off the bench by Stove today was instrumental. I don't know if anyone in the league has a complete player as their sixth man as we do. He even made three straight layups. Despite the turnovers in the first half we had only four in the second and forced 20 by the Trojans. When the threes were not falling, we drove the ball to the lane and got the opposition in foul trouble where we cashed in. Looking at Thursday vs Saturday we note that two different guys had the hot hand and we fed that guy. As far as the no. of threes we take goes, the following point is one that needs to be paid attention to. We take lots of threes by design. Our staff has bought into the NBA analytical data indicating the mid range shot is of poor value. Therefore don't expect that to change. Even though we were only average there today overall, virtually all of the three balls were clean looks. What made it look worse is that we did not get as many offensive rebounds as usual. Personally I would like to see more mid range shots as I don't think we would get as many charges and we could get some free as close as five feet away.

We also have guys who can make the three. I'm not a huge fan of shooting 25-30+ 3's per game but if you hit the glass well, you can really be effective. We have to do a better job of hitting the boards to make that philosophy effective. I agree that I'd like to take more mid range shots when they present themselves. A good shot is a good shot and they are always made at a higher percentage than just shooting deep shots and layups when they are not always well presented.

[zephyr]

And by no means are my comments meant to disparage or minimize anything this team is accomplishing. I’m all in.

I just get frustrated when we play like that. Projecting ahead, we can’t make these mistakes and go on these prolonged scoring droughts. We will not be able to compete with good teams that way. For those that are happy running through the SBC (not you Mike), I’m sorry my comments offend you. For the rest of us that want to do something special in March, these are points to be aware of.

I agree, there was plenty to be positive about yesterday. I just know these guys are capabale or playing a complete game, a next level of Cohesion and organizational offense. Taking care of the ball, not reaching in stupidly. I know what these guys are capable of and it’s frustrating to keep watching and waiting for that complete game we all know is coming.

That said, I’m ready to see how it shakes out.

Same here. I do get frustrated with poor execution for periods of time but in many ways, all teams do this. What I like most about this team is that it knows how to win. They will do it in different ways on different nights. I also like how this team is able to just overwhelm the opponent over a 40 minute game. Every conference win has been in double digits and regardless of the conference strength, this is pretty impressive.

[IberiaCajun]

We may have to get to the Sweet 16 two consecutive years and start strong the following season to get over 6000 when conference play starts. I know MAT disagrees with me but people don't care about basketball in the south. Others say that we need to do something special for people to notice. That won't happen in the regular season. We need to get to NCAA tourney and have success for people to notice. I have noticed that we are not the only school to have this issue. College basketball attendance is down at most places. Of course that is not true for the TV conferences major powers. However it is down at about 200 places. We are better off than most. The focus on the NCAA tournament is one reason why. All that being said, there are some folks planning to go to Monroe. Hopefully some of you can make it as well.

I am planning on going to New Orleans!

[lcitsh]

Both correct. WAS 55, now 58. Nice to watch, won’t matter.

It might. If the incredible happens and the Cajuns win out, that selection rpi ranking might be the difference between an 11 or 12 seed and a 13 or 14.

[ZoomZoom]

I don't recall a game where I saw so many late calls. The ball would almost be going down the court the other way and the ref would make a call. Its as if they were waiting to see if it would go in and decide to call a foul if he missed it. The dark haired ref was a toolbag. That guy was more worried about how he looked running down the court than seeing the action and being where he was supposed to be.

I had not lost my s in years at a game until the second half when Stove clearly had the ball off a steal AND bounced the ball at least once down court and the shot clock went off and the jack ars blew the whistle. Take a note from soccer refs and learn the phrase "play on".

It might. If the incredible happens and the Cajuns win out, that selection rpi ranking might be the difference between an 11 or 12 seed and a 13 or 14.

That will take care of itself, only if we win the tournament. We win the regular season and the tournament, we are not a play in team. But everyone else in our conference is.

[zephyr]

I had not lost my s in years at a game until the second half when Stove clearly had the ball off a steal AND bounced the ball at least once down court and the shot clock went off and the jack ars blew the whistle. Take a note from soccer refs and learn the phrase "play on".



That will take care of itself, only if we win the tournament. We win the regular season and the tournament, we are not a play in team. But everyone else in our conference is.

That was unbelievable. We had clear possession of the ball. The horn should sound and there should be no stoppage of play. I couldn't believe they made that call.