MBB Final: Louisiana 73, App State 85

[RaginScotsman]

We got to 62 with a 5 point lead at like the 9:50 mark. Didn’t score again for 4 minutes. App sure did though.

[Turbine]

UL 66
AS 77

[UL_Cajuns]

Big fish gonna big fish in big games. Are we surprised he can’t win a big one?

[ZoomZoom]

Think Dave did a great job explaining UL's strengths and weaknesses. Note the last paragraph. That is what is happening, bigger, stronger and faster wearing UL down.

Sorry fellas, it's not happening.

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.

[ragin50]

Think Dave did a great job explaining UL's strengths and weaknesses. Note the last paragraph. That is what is happening, bigger, stronger and faster.

And an awful coaching job down the stretch.

[Turbine]

UL 68
AS 79

[RaginScotsman]

This one stinks.

We played well for about 30 minutes. I thought they were going to pull it off.

WBB saved it from being a turd sandwich of a day.

[ragincajun97]

I don’t care how good or bad the other team is 4 points in an 8 minute stretch of game time is pathetic

[RaginScotsman]

I don’t care how good or bad the other team is 4 points in an 8 minute stretch of game time is pathetic

I turned it off with like 4 to go. Bob take a timeout out in that stretch to reset his guys? Aside from the momentum killing one?

[zephyr]

I'm still trying to understand not having London Fields out there. Sorry. We do this seemingly every game. I just think we wear down later in the second half. Marlin seems to rotate less guys in there at that time and we just wear down and more mistakes and less execution occur.

[ragin50]

I don’t care how good or bad the other team is 4 points in an 8 minute stretch of game time is pathetic

Where was Fields in the second half?

[zephyr]

I turned it off with like 4 to go. Bob take a timeout out in that stretch to reset his guys? Aside from the momentum killing one?

I think its more to rest them. There are no subs coming in and the wear down.