Final: Louisiana 56, UC Davis 77

[babysitter]

After spotting UCD 15, UL only lost by 6 the rest of the way.

LOL. Yeah, there’s that. Put a little more sugar on that comment.

[babysitter]

Less than 13 wins. If they’re lucky. This team is beyond bad.

[CajunSID]

Maybe so, but remember, 1). He was asst coach and recruiter on a team that played for the national championship. 2) he was late coming in and got the best players that he could out of an already depleted portal 3). Teams usually play down in the early season to gain experience and pile up early wins. We are playing up. Not piling up wins, but getting more experience against tougher teams.
My opinion, we need to be patient right now, then see how we do in conference. And….hope we can hang on to those 3 “Studs” committed to us for next year.

If UC Davis is your idea of “playing up,” then this program is at rock bottom. Santa Clara is the only legit program UL has played. Yes, McNeese is also okay.

Still I agree with your overall point. Sun Belt basketball continues to struggle, and let’s see what happens when they get a little healthier and play the really mediocre.

UL seems to be trying to invest in this program despite the headwinds. Next year will tell a lot.

[SlickRick]

Our lack of a healthy, true point guard is hurting this already anemic offense. The kid from Vanderbilt, Bilal, is supposed to be a top shelf PG (top 20 in nation), but out for the season. Out other PG with experience, Keller, got hurt in practice and not sure how long he'll be out. The third PG is the freshman from Pearland, Collins. He looks a little lost so far as can be expected, also he more of a combo guard. To me, this problem is a primary reason for what we are seeing on offense.

Defensively, I agree with the comment about us possibly learning how to play defense so aggressively. Hopefully, they all get better with this and reduce the high amount of fouls...which puts the other guys on the line. Also, I hope CQW didn't expect he would take us to the Tourney by just playing aggressive defense.

[CajunVic]

top 20 point guard — does anyone believe that

[MarlinMan3]

Bilal? Wow, fun fact: Pele's favorite player when he was young was Bile.

[SlickRick]

top 20 point guard — does anyone believe that

Top 20 coming out of HS per a couple of recruiting sites. We haven't seen him play yet, so we don't know.

[Cajunsmike]

We don't play defense "hard", we play lazy defense. The foul discrepancy will continue all year with our middle school level offense we run. We put no pressure on a defense.

Valid post. The struggles we have on offense are why we are giving up so many points on defense. When you are getting contested looks near the end of the shot clock the opponent has a big advantage as they transition from defense to offense off what is likely a "brick" miss. That often leads to fouls. Also, getting behind so often causes a team to play very aggressive on defense in an attempt to force turnovers. That leads to fouls and open shots when the ball is swung out of double teams. It also results in attempts at basket or kickouts for corner threes when the ball handler is able to penetrate due to an overplay. Bottom line is when the offense improves, the defense and foul number will improve. At this stage, it is difficult to see that offensive improvement occurring without the return of Keller at point guard.

As far as last night goes, the middle 20 minutes of the contest may be the best we have played in a stretch this season. Of course, the first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes were poor on both ends. Lewis hitting threes in the first half and Evans scoring inside the second half were encouraging. Coaches have to be besides themselves in trying to minimize the fouls Evans commits. It appears the speed of the actual game and "performance anxiety" cause him to forget everything he was taught in practice and fouls naturally occur. I can guarantee you opposing coaches are telling officials to pay extra attention to Evans using his hands on defense as he has gained that unfortunate reputation. Had he stayed out of foul trouble, last night's game may have gone to the wire.

[Cajunsmike]

This style of aggressive defense which has created excessive fouls leads to the scoring discrepancies that we are seeing. Additionally, we do not get to the free throw line and when we do its brick city. Does anyone question the poor offense schemes where we lack legitimate shooters and capable big men? Can the current roster compete at this level?

The Tulane game is really the only game we were terrible at the free throw line. Other than that, we are a normal free throw shooting squad.

[Cajun Bullet]

Home cooking?

We just foul everyone...

We hired a coach who created a "great defense" at a semi-namebrand team and forgot to tell all the refs that, even though they've never heard of us, they should give us the same slack that Houston gets

Is it time to launch the Search Committee to start looking for a new men's basketball coach?