Cajuns vs ETSU

[cajuns80]

And remember we are doing this without Kobe julien. A healthy Julien makes us even a better team. The next 3 games will be tough.

La Tech is coming off a 24-10 season where they lost in the CUSA championship. They are 1-0 vs miss college and play a tough Texas tech team tomorrow night. We will have a better idea of what this team is after this game.

SMU is 1-1 this year with a win over Texas A&M commerce and a loss to a good Dayton team. They went 24-9 last year and lost in the 2nd round of the NIT.

Drake is 1-0 this year with a win over IUPUI in convincing fashion. They will play Wofford and buffalo before we face them. They were 25-11 last year and lost in the 2nd round of the CBI tournament.

So all 3 of these teams should be really good tests.

It's a huge if on Kobe Julien. We have to be able to carry this momentum without him. Alot riding on Michael Thomas to figure it out. Isaiah Richards has to give them good minutes, but looks like he has not matured one bit and his temper will cost him minutes. He cannot focus on the game enough. We need him to be much better about that because we need big minutes from him, especially if JB gets in foul trouble. I thought we needed to address the backup PG role this offseason, looks like Marlin is riding with Thomas. Fulks may have to play 35 a game for us to be successful against better teams.

[Cajunsmike]

Would like to see us manage those bigger leads a little better so we don't have to work so hard at the end of a game but they are getting it done so far. Couple other things. We've got some guys logging lots of minutes already. We need to be able to develop that bench and get some pop from them when they come in. Turnovers were still an issue last night and we need to continue working on getting them down. Solid win.

Agree we need more scoring from the bench. White and Dalcourt contributed little over the weekend. That needs to change going forward. Charles and Thomas both hit big shots at times yesterday. Not having Charles in the second half may have been a factor in losing the lead. Coach Marlin mentioned in the post game that he is also concerned with the second half lulls. Don't know what they plan to do to address the issue but at least they are aware of it. We had 12 turnovers which is our limit as a team goal. Seemed like more due to most of those occurring when ETSU made their run in the second half. Conversely, ETSU had 13. Seems like they had less because most of theirs were in the first half.

[Million$Mullet]

Agree we need more scoring from the bench. White and Dalcourt contributed little over the weekend. That needs to change going forward. Charles and Thomas both hit big shots at times yesterday. Not having Charles in the second half may have been a factor in losing the lead. Coach Marlin mentioned in the post game that he is also concerned with the second half lulls. Don't know what they plan to do to address the issue but at least they are aware of it. We had 12 turnovers which is our limit as a team goal. Seemed like more due to most of those occurring when ETSU made their run in the second half. Conversely, ETSU had 13. Seems like they had less because most of theirs were in the first half.

What is Joe’s injury? Saw him in a sling.

[Cajunsmike]

I worded that slightly wrong. We don’t have a backup point guard that can run a half court offense. As stated when Thomas is in the game we do not have a half court offense.

Thomas does tend to dribble a little too much. Would prefer he found a way to pass the ball inside earlier in the possession. Perhaps that is due to him being not strong enough to do so when pressured. However he hit some big shots at critical times in both games this weekend. One of them came on a pass out from Brown after the ball went inside. Brown also did that on one of Garnett's threes earlier in the game. One of the things I wanted to see this season is for Jordan to do a better job of passing the ball back out. Encouraging we saw a little of that yesterday.

[Cajunsmike]

What is Joe’s injury? Saw him in a sling.

Talked to someone who was at the game. Apparently someone pulled his arm down from behind while going for a rebound. His shoulder began to hurt at halftime so they put his arm in a sling for protection. They won't have any updates until they get back into town and look at the issue more deeply. Hopefully he can go on Thursday as he is a key guy off the bench.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Talked to someone who was at the game. Apparently someone pulled his arm down from behind while going for a rebound. His shoulder began to hurt at halftime so they put his arm in a sling for protection. They won't have any updates until they get back into town and look at the issue more deeply. Hopefully he can go on Thursday as he is a key guy off the bench.

I saw that play. It looked awkward for sure.

When I was in elementary school someone snuck up behind me and grabbed my hand and jerked it down violently. I was in intense pain and couldn’t use my arm for the entire recess. I’m pretty sure I recovered fully later that day and for sure by the next.

The original pain was like the pain you get hitting your crazy bone if that phrase still conveys meaning. Only if was the entire arm and shoulder.

[zephyr]

It's a huge if on Kobe Julien. We have to be able to carry this momentum without him. Alot riding on Michael Thomas to figure it out. Isaiah Richards has to give them good minutes, but looks like he has not matured one bit and his temper will cost him minutes. He cannot focus on the game enough. We need him to be much better about that because we need big minutes from him, especially if JB gets in foul trouble. I thought we needed to address the backup PG role this offseason, looks like Marlin is riding with Thomas. Fulks may have to play 35 a game for us to be successful against better teams.

Richards absolutely needs to step up. Joe seems to be a little injury plagued thus far in his time here and Lewis had to play 34 minutes last night. He will not be able to keep up that schedule and still play with the pace he does. Need someone else to spell JB and Lewis and still play effectively. I thought we had another transfer big that came in but not sure.

[zephyr]

Thomas does tend to dribble a little too much. Would prefer he found a way to pass the ball inside earlier in the possession. Perhaps that is due to him being not strong enough to do so when pressured. However he hit some big shots at critical times in both games this weekend. One of them came on a pass out from Brown after the ball went inside. Brown also did that on one of Garnett's threes earlier in the game. One of the things I wanted to see this season is for Jordan to do a better job of passing the ball back out. Encouraging we saw a little of that yesterday.

He was literally dribbling around the high post area trying to find his way into the lane for a shot and our best 3 pt shooter in Garnett is sitting there at the line wide open waiting for the ball. It would have been the right play with a good shooter having an open look and instead I think he ended up putting up a shot that missed. Need better decision making from him.

[cajuns80]

Richards absolutely needs to step up. Joe seems to be a little injury plagued thus far in his time here and Lewis had to play 34 minutes last night. He will not be able to keep up that schedule and still play with the pace he does. Need someone else to spell JB and Lewis and still play effectively. I thought we had another transfer big that came in but not sure.

Ratliff was a late addition but he is going to be redshirted.