MBB Final: Louisiana 68, ODU 60

[CajunT]

Have to give props to Kentenge, dude probably leads the league in follow up baskets. Seems he’s always there.

But you are correct, many of our players Sally Struthers would consider for her hunger ads.

Kentenge has been a surprise, but when you underscore athletic, he is not that guy. He was exposed by the Georgia State center around the basket. Love the guy, but this team is really not that talented outside of Julien and Fulks. Joe Charles is an effort kid that can play defense and give you some rebounding. He has found a niche on the team, but he is not talented offensively. Effort is what this team does best, but they physically are one the worst looking MBB teams at UL in recent history. I give Coach Marlin credit for getting this team to double digits in wins, but this is not a talented group.

[RaginDave]

This was the most physically gifted (strong) UL team starting 5 I can remember:

Tirus Wade 6'7 209
Brian Hamilton 6'6 194
Dewayne Mitchell 6'5 211
Orien Greene 6'4 208
Chris Cameron 6'11 268

[R1Letterman]

Does the regular season champ still get the NIT bid or did that end this year?

Everything the ncaa claims to do for the g5 isnt.... lol.
Remember when they said they werent going to allow "all ayhlete" dorms anymore... the little guy thought, wow, this helps us, false: led to off campus apartments and more spendimg races

[UL_Cajuns]

This was the most physically gifted (strong) UL team starting 5 I can remember:

Tirus Wade 6'7 209
Brian Hamilton 6'6 194
Dewayne Mitchell 6'5 211
Orien Greene 6'4 208
Chris Cameron 6'11 268

Ballers. Remember the dunk fest games at the CD. It was wild. Must see entertainment.

[Big Tyme]

I know you didn’t. I’m just saying that dude is, as my boy Jameis Winston says….SKRONG

LOL Jaboo is a treasure. Saw him going strong at the Algiers parade

[zephyr]

A couple of things, I agree it did not look like 5K +, that is some over reporting there. I also watch the Troy v Arkansas State game and I don't know what the announced attendance was but for a team that was in first place in the conference, the attendance was atrocious. I don't believe there were close to 2K in Troy last night.

Secondly, I can wrap up what is wrong with UL basketball team in 1 word, physicality. Let me preface this by saying, I really like this team and think we have some really good pieces, but we have been blown out in only 2 games all year, we have had a chance to win 24 of the 26 games we have played, but in 7 of those losses we were physically outplayed in the latter half of the 2nd half because of our lack of strength.

If you look at the 9 rotational players that have gotten any significant playing time that are still on the team (Blake Butler does not count) we are not a physically gifted team. Let's look at the starting 5. Themus has a fairly muscular build for a PG, but he is still a smallish PG by D1 standards, Kentrell is a great shooter and solid on defense but undersized at the 2, I love Kobe and he is, arguably the best player on the team, but I would not consider him strong, Carencro Joe is one of my favorite all time players for the Cajuns, but he is a rail and Kitenge, while physically large, is not what I would consider strong, by any stretch and while his physical build is much better that what I expected when I heard he was coming to us, he is still not a prototypical big man. Then look at our bench rotation, Mike Thomas is playing incredible basketball right now, but he is a very small PG off the bench, Kyren Ratliff is a strong big kid, but still a freshman and still figuring it out, but even he is not what I would consider "strong", London Fields is undersized physically and the only guy on the team that is a physically "strong" athlete is Brandon Hardy.

I look at allot of the teams we have played and even beaten, like Arkansas State, USA, Bowling Green and some we have lost to, like Georgia State, Troy and others and you can see the physicality in them. I think when it comes to late in games, we are out muscled by other teams, and they wear us down and that is the difference. Even in games we have won where we have been up by double digits and end up winning by 7 or 8, you can see where other teams just out physical us.

The strength of this team is their ability to shoot and defend the perimeter, but most teams late in games have the ability to just lean on us until we are worn out.

Just my .02.

Don't disagree with this but I'd say the biggest issue we've had in our losses has been execution. Many of those losses we were leading with minutes to go but didn't execute as well as our opponent. Toledo was a prime example

[zephyr]

Have to give props to Kentenge, dude probably leads the league in follow up baskets. Seems he’s always there.

But you are correct, many of our players Sally Struthers would consider for her hunger ads.

He's improved tremendously over the year in that regard. He was not rebounding much at all at the beginning of the season but has really turned it up over the past 10 games or so, especially on the offensive boards.

[Cajunsmike]

A couple of things, I agree it did not look like 5K +, that is some over reporting there. I also watch the Troy v Arkansas State game and I don't know what the announced attendance was but for a team that was in first place in the conference, the attendance was atrocious. I don't believe there were close to 2K in Troy last night.

Secondly, I can wrap up what is wrong with UL basketball team in 1 word, physicality. Let me preface this by saying, I really like this team and think we have some really good pieces, but we have been blown out in only 2 games all year, we have had a chance to win 24 of the 26 games we have played, but in 7 of those losses we were physically outplayed in the latter half of the 2nd half because of our lack of strength.

If you look at the 9 rotational players that have gotten any significant playing time that are still on the team (Blake Butler does not count) we are not a physically gifted team. Let's look at the starting 5. Themus has a fairly muscular build for a PG, but he is still a smallish PG by D1 standards, Kentrell is a great shooter and solid on defense but undersized at the 2, I love Kobe and he is, arguably the best player on the team, but I would not consider him strong, Carencro Joe is one of my favorite all time players for the Cajuns, but he is a rail and Kitenge, while physically large, is not what I would consider strong, by any stretch and while his physical build is much better that what I expected when I heard he was coming to us, he is still not a prototypical big man. Then look at our bench rotation, Mike Thomas is playing incredible basketball right now, but he is a very small PG off the bench, Kyren Ratliff is a strong big kid, but still a freshman and still figuring it out, but even he is not what I would consider "strong", London Fields is undersized physically and the only guy on the team that is a physically "strong" athlete is Brandon Hardy.

I look at allot of the teams we have played and even beaten, like Arkansas State, USA, Bowling Green and some we have lost to, like Georgia State, Troy and others and you can see the physicality in them. I think when it comes to late in games, we are out muscled by other teams, and they wear us down and that is the difference. Even in games we have won where we have been up by double digits and end up winning by 7 or 8, you can see where other teams just out physical us.

The strength of this team is their ability to shoot and defend the perimeter, but most teams late in games have the ability to just lean on us until we are worn out.

Just my .02.

That is a good analysis. With the lack of strength, I give credit to the team for getting the most out of their talent.

[Cajunsmike]

Does the regular season champ still get the NIT bid or did that end this year?

No, the regular season champ does not get an automatic bid to the NIT this season. App is likely to be that team. They may get a bid due to the NIT if they do not win the conference tournament due to their win over Auburn.

[Cajunsmike]

They announced 5265 attendance. Ain’t no way. Maybe had 1500-2000 there.
Since everyone lies let’s just start announcing 3500 every game.
Maybe then @FauxMarlin will let us all in the forbidden Tap room.

Another W!

I agree ODU did not have nearly the reported attendance at the game. In fact, I think there were more people at Cajuns baseball last night than at the ODU vs Cajuns basketball game. Perhaps ODU sold a lot of corporate season tickets and folks are not using those due to their team struggling. In fact, I would bet that is the case.