Podcast: We're Talkin Ragin' Cajuns Basketball with Jay Walker 03-07-2023

[MelRock]

Thanks for listening and for the feedback.

[ManAboutTown]

Thanks, I see what is wrong. I am still trying to get the best sound quality, so I am experimenting.

Craig, the podcast before this one, audio quality was the best I’d heard. It was the one with you and Mike talking post South Al, I’m pretty sure.

Whatever y’all did there, it was really good.

[zephyr]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

[JayWalker]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) 2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

[cajuns80]

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) 2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

If we would be finishing top 4 year in year out, we would win some tournaments. 22-23 wins should be the minimum with the way we schedule.

[ULvictory]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

Craig, solid episode as always. Enjoyed the content.

As far as finishing the league twice in 32 years, that doesn't call for not striving for more. When we went to the NOLA Bowl for our first bowl appearance in 40 years, we didn't just say the following year, "Well, it's hard and it's been 40 years so if we don't make it again, oh well." No, we were ready to go back the following year. And the year after that. And the year after that. We all know it's hard in a one bid league in basketball. It's also hard to be ranked in the Top 25 in football. It's hard to make regionals in the diamond sports. But that shouldn't stop us from having an attitude expectations. Selling ourselves short is counterproductive.

[zephyr]

If we would be finishing top 4 year in year out, we would win some tournaments. 22-23 wins should be the minimum with the way we schedule.

This is my point. You build a program that wins consistently and challenges or wins regular season championships which is extremely tough to do because it requires consistency throughout a large part of the season, you will put yourself in better position to win a larger percentage of those tournament championships.

[ManAboutTown]

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) 2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) So we haven't won championships in the past (which is not true) so we shouldn't do everything that we can do to it now? Our fans shouldn't expect to win now? This league has not been good in 15, maybe 20 years. The schedule isn't CLOSE to what it was in the late 70s through early 2000s.

2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up. Let's go ask Georgia State and Ron Hunter how hard it is to win in the SBC prior to adding the new members. 3 championships in 7 years. Finished below 4th place ONCE.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament. Literally never happened.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change. The AD of this university set the standards. Top 4 every year and competing for championships. If any part of that is not being met, a change needs to be made, PER THE STANDARD OF THE BOSS.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.
That's because we play in a bad basketball league in a sport that is quickly removing mid-majors from their equation. Schedule better teams, invest in the league and WIN. We all understand that getting to the dance every year is not going to happen. But I seem to remember fans really enjoying the Evans era. NCAAs and NITs alike.

[ManAboutTown]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

The point is that we're all "dumb" and our expectations are "not realistic."
You knew as soon as Marlin won, he'd come here to pop off.

[CajunRage]

My hang up is the amount of hype that is put into the pay for play tournaments and stats like the undefeated home season when we don't meet our goal of making the NCAA tournament. Pay for play tournaments should be treated as extra practice and not "celebrated" the way they are. The stats should be celebrated but not hyped to the point where they feel like they are being used to hide that we didn't reach our goal.

[CajunNation]

...It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

If all we do is schedule a bunch of D II schools in non-conference this will always be the case.

[ManAboutTown]

My hang up is the amount of hype that is put into the pay for play tournaments and stats like the undefeated home season when we don't meet our goal of making the NCAA tournament. Pay for play tournaments should be treated as extra practice and not "celebrated" the way they are. The stats should be celebrated but not hyped to the point where they feel like they are being used to hide that we didn't reach our goal.

Or as I refer to it, propaganda.