MBB Final: Louisiana 65, Samford 88

[ULvictory]

We always talk about expectations vs. results on here. I posted this on Twitter a while back, interested to hear y'alls thoughts.

In a 14-team one-bid league (hopefully two this season if JMU can keep it up) like the Sun Belt, I feel our expectations should be the following:
-At minimum, consistent Conf. Tournament semifinals appearances.
-Championship game appearance AT LEAST once every 2-3 seasons.
-Win the championship at least once every 4 seasons.

I feel like those are realistic, high-level, expectations for a one-bid conference of our size - Be in the Top 4 of 14.
Since 2018, in the conf tournament, we've made the semis 4 times, the finals twice, and won the championship once. (Also add in a regular season championship in '18).

Imo, the way the talk goes on here, you'd feel we've finished bottom 4 the past 3 seasons, when in reality the past 3 seasons we've made the Semis 3x, Finals 2x, and made the Big Dance 1x.

We should be competing in the top 4 but with more of a sliding scale depending on how we finish in the Sun Belt Conference tournament. Now, that doesn't justify an 8th place finish in 2022 even though we made the final. I think for a regular season finish like that, it would only be forgiven with a NCAA Tournament appearance.

We also need to be more competitive in the regular season than we have in the past few years (finished in the top 4 twice since 2018 in a weaker conference before the 4 new schools joined) and start scheduling AND beating better non-conference competition. No one gets excited beating Louisiana Christian and Prairie View A&M. We tend to schedule those types of teams heavily, rack up the wins against those teams, finish somewhat in the middle of the conference standings, and always end up with around 16-18 while most of the coach loyalists celebrate that. Most fans haven't bought into that formula. It would be like our football team scheduling nothing but FCS non-conference opponents, going 4-0 against them, but going 4-4 in conference finishing with an 8-4 record while grandstanding that we went 8-4. It really doesn't get us anywhere.

Be more competitive in the regular season. Beat better competition other than NAIA and Southland teams. And try to make the SBC Final more than just 3 times in a 14 year span.

[cajuns80]

I mean... They won the SoCon.. Bottom third league in NCAA D1
But, last year is not this year. This year, we just re-upped a coach for 4 more years and we're not exactly off to a rousing start. Don't get me wrong, the LBS win raised some eyebrows, but if we're going to live and die by the 3, we'll be a 17-18 win team again with second round exit in the SBC tourney. Marlin's wheelhouse.

And to make matters worse, we do not have a senior on this team. We are stuck with this same roster construction next year. Marlin wasting scholarship for his boy's son with Vinny Sigona. And Gio Nanucci who is a major project. Shouldve used those scholarships on more big depth.

[zeppelincajun]

Fair critique. I genuinely welcome your thoughts and opinions. What should be added?
I've heard the argument re: regular season from many sides- making the NCAA tournament is all the matters/who cares about playing in the NIT/3 days in March...

I get some people have that mindset. I think it’s a fallacy for a multitude of reasons.

1. We are bleeding fan support. The last thing I wanna hear as one of the few holding on to a season ticket is nothing I’m paying to watch matters.
2. The regular season matters for seeding in the tournament. Setting yourself up for success or failure.
3. The way you prepare all season impacts the way you play when you get to those “only 3 games that matter.” “Practice? We’re talking about practice?” worked for Allen Iverson because he is…Allen Freaking Iverson. The other 99.9% of the world can’t afford not to grind. I’m not gonna sit here and say the 2021-2022 squad didn’t work hard. I don’t know if that was the case, but there was some sort of disconnect, whether that be effort, discipline, focus, etc.
4. Consistent regular season finishes in the top 2-3 of the league should be the standard. I think that is what’s missing (outside of the obvious venue issues) in terms of our fan support. If we are only gonna go out and compete for a regular season crown once every five years, what’s the point of supporting in the 4 year dip for the casual fan? I’m not talking about the diehards. The people who support because they feel they should. I’m talking about the people who show up when their interest is piqued.

I’ll finish up by saying this: my biggest disappointment in the Marlin tenure was not missing the tournament in the 2017-2018 season. I was ____ed when it happened, but I wanted to see how we responded the next year. Had we truly taken a step forward as a program or was that just a good team? We went right back to middling in conference, and then had to hear Bob talk about the target on our back all year long when we would get beat by double digits.

I do like this discussion of expectations though. I would love to see those inside our program clearly define what the standard is for Cajuns Basketball. I feel we don’t see enough of that because it gives people something concrete to point to when expectations aren’t met.

[zephyr]

We always talk about expectations vs. results on here. I posted this on Twitter a while back, interested to hear y'alls thoughts.

In a 14-team one-bid league (hopefully two this season if JMU can keep it up) like the Sun Belt, I feel our expectations should be the following:
-At minimum, consistent Conf. Tournament semifinals appearances.
-Championship game appearance AT LEAST once every 2-3 seasons.
-Win the championship at least once every 4 seasons.

I feel like those are realistic, high-level, expectations for a one-bid conference of our size - Be in the Top 4 of 14.
Since 2018, in the conf tournament, we've made the semis 4 times, the finals twice, and won the championship once. (Also add in a regular season championship in '18).

Imo, the way the talk goes on here, you'd feel we've finished bottom 4 the past 3 seasons, when in reality the past 3 seasons we've made the Semis 3x, Finals 2x, and made the Big Dance 1x.

I don't care about the conference tournament. That is not a true measure of how you performed in the actual conference play. Any team, and we see it often, can get hot in the tournament and finish higher than expected. It is a small sample size and doesn't reflect any type of consistency. You're cherry picking but from the wrong data.

[ZoomZoom]

But, we spend more money than everyone else on basketball and we shouldn't expect to be competing for the championship every single season? We should be going to the the tournament at minumum every third year. We aren't even close.

It’s like poker going all in preflop. Only difference the other 13 at the table don’t have to ante. And the odds remain ~92% against the all in.

[zephyr]

Bob has taken it too far with the analytics B.S. that he bought into. His style is way too reliant on the 3 ball considering we are not a consistently good perimeter shooting team. We shot 50% on shots inside the arc but were only 3 of 19 from outside. You are shooting efficiently enough inside so concentrate on attacking the rim if you are not hitting those shots. Also, we nearly got doubled up on the boards by a lower level opponent. Rebounding was a concern going into this year for me but that is really troubling.

[babysitter]

Truly pathetic. But lets give him another contract extension.

[ManAboutTown]

SoCon isn't a bottom 3rd league. Furman, UNC Greensboro, Wofford, Chattanooga, Samford, Mercer, ETSU. Those are solid mid-major programs.

NET Conference Rankings:
2023: SoCon (20) | Sun Belt (14)
2022: SoCon (12) | Sun Belt (17)
2021: SoCon (10) | Sun Belt (18)
3-year average: SoCon (14) | Sun Belt (16)

Great, you don't like second round exits in the SBC tourney, neither do I. Doesn't fit into my expectations of our program. What's the expectation you have for the program that we should hold ourselves to?

Now do the previous 10 years. Both leagues are bad. We're talking about the skinniest fat guy here.

I've stated my expectation many times here and as a person with some self awareness, I'm not going to pretend like I havebn't given up on MBB under Marlin. Ron Hunter took Ga State (our supposed rival in MBB) to 3 NCAA tourneys and 2 NITs in 7 years. That is my expectation here, especially considering how much money we spend on MBB compared to our peers, how much history we have, and the kind of facilities we've invested in.

The whataboutism that ____es me off the most is when our fans look at how badly other programs are performing and say "see, they suck worse than us." Name a more loser attitude than that...

I'm sick of the excuses being made as to why we're not an elite G5 program. If you take away business owned season tickets, we have roughly 600-700 season ticket sales to regular fans. Think about that Jacob... The problems are bigger than Marlin and will be until this entire program gets an ennema.

[cajunfan96]

Now do the previous 10 years. Both leagues are bad. We're talking about the skinniest fat guy here.

I've stated my expectation many times here and as a person with some self awareness, I'm not going to pretend like I havebn't given up on MBB under Marlin. Ron Hunter took Ga State (our supposed rival in MBB) to 3 NCAA tourneys and 2 NITs in 7 years. That is my expectation here, especially considering how much money we spend on MBB compared to our peers, how much history we have, and the kind of facilities we've invested in.

The whataboutism that ____es me off the most is when our fans look at how badly other programs are performing and say "see, they suck worse than us." Name a more loser attitude than that...

I'm sick of the excuses being made as to why we're not an elite G5 program. If you take away business owned season tickets, we have roughly 600-700 season ticket sales to regular fans. Think about that Jacob... The problems are bigger than Marlin and will be until this entire program gets an ennema.

We absolutely $uck! There has not been energy in this place since Hud.

[Turbine]

Crazy that a basketball team loses a game.by 23 I should have known better than to open this pit of joyous self-congratulatory misery.

Fixed it for you.