Thankfully Brown hit his stride from the line in that 2nd half. I don’t know if they track the +/- stat in college, but I’m fairly certain MT wouldn’t want to see his number tonight. Impressive venue. Got loud a couple times with 500 people. Potential is there if McNeese can ever get something going with that program.
Greg Williams had a big game. Good to see that.
Cajuns 10-1. It's been a long time since we had that kind of start. I'm going to enjoy it. Texas up next Wednesday. Will be biggest test of season by far.
By what metric though? I’m looking at it as a fan, and they are doing the things I want to see us do. Nice updated appropriately sized venue. Family friendly ticket prices. Granted I didn’t see beer prices, but I’d be willing to bet it’s cheaper than CD. No getting bent over the table with fees. Look at it from a league perspective, and we can’t look down our nose at anyone while we’re in a 16 seed league. Fan interaction? 3-7 team drew a very similar crowd to what our 9-1 team could. We outspend them, but that doesn’t automatically make the spending wiser.
Mismanagement of one’s resources can put you with company you’d rather not keep in a hurry, and mismanaging resources is like breathing to UL. I can agree with you on the should be of this. What I’m seeing with my own two eyes in reality though is not the level of “separation” that should be. You’d have a real hard time taking someone who knew nothing of either to school to a UL football & basketball game this year, doing the same at McNeese, and subsequently convincing them that these aren’t peer institutions.
THIS^^^^. A thousand times on a thousand fronts.
The only two things we have in common with McNeese is 1) an easy 75 mile drive and 2) their main fan base is aging out too. And they compete in the stick sports...sometimes. And that is it.
We are now a R1 university. They are not seen as a peer nationally. Old saying, they can't hold our jock. Period.
In the eyes of our state legislature, academically, they are a regional university...we are not. We are not peers on the same level. They legally (they love that word) quit being a peer university in 1984, and they can thank their own Cliff Newman for that. I won't besmerch the dead, bless his soul.
But people like Zem (who supposedly quit blogging), Merchant the PA guy, their FB fan page admin and others are stuck in the 70's. Yeah they have a nice HPE building. Seats 3,800 for BB. Had a $5 special tonight. Still over half empty. And what was with the few students they had right behind the cheerleaders on our offensive end the second half? It's all truly Mickey Mouse.
Their FB fan page admin was calling for the fans to boo if they heard "Louisiana" tonight. Of course, that thread is gone after a few of their own called this out for being small time. And it was guys that have posted there for years.
That's what we have gentlemen. Treat them like any other speed bump in the road...have to respect it, but still run it over.
Meantime, we need our admin to get their "A" game going. And no, I don't mean Doc A.
Our 4-4 FBS team playing the best team in our division with $10 tickets drew 7,888 fans. A week earlier McNeese put 8,068 in their stadium to see their 1-6 Cowboys. The day of our 7,888 we outsold 1-7 “little brother” by a whopping 350 tickets.
Who cares if their venue only seats 4K? How many times in the last few years would we really have needed more seats than that? As for their students and the crowd tonight, they were 3-7 coming in, and their semester is over just like ours. Did you notice our last couple crowds and student crowds? All the status and resources in the world won’t get us far with the way we operate.
Former Northside and UL assistant Rick LeBato sat next to me. He said McNeese played as well as they are capable of tonight. They got to the basket with aggressive drives, garnered more offensive rebounds than we, amd had less turnovers than we did. They also played with great energy until the last 30 seconds when outcome was decided. Despite all that the great overall play of Greg Williams Jr. And big free throws by Jordan Brown allowed cajuns to pull it out. By the way, Jordan’s parents were at the game. They are in the area to attend his graduation tomorrow. Dion Brown, Jordan’s dad, was one of the great Cajun rebounders in his day
Ten and one is FUN.
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