The Book: Lady Cajuns 2004-05 Basketball Season

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ANCHORAGE (AP) -- Just weeks after the withdrawal of the University of Minnesota left Great Alaska Shootout women's tournament organizers scrambling, it's happened again.

Maryland-Eastern Shore, Minnesota's replacement, is out. The University of Louisiana is in.

"Apparently there was a huge miscommunication between the coaches in that even though we specifically told the basketball coach it was for this year, they had it in mind that it was for next year," said University of Alaska Anchorage athletic director Steve Cobb.

Maryland-Eastern Shore had a scheduling conflict for the tournament, scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend. Cobb said the school never signed a contract and their would be no penalty

"I went ahead and released that," he said. "I took them at their word."

The Ragin' Cajuns signed a contract Friday to play in the tournament. The contract includes a $50,000 buyout clause, which is now standard in tournament contracts to discourage teams from backing out, Cobb said.

Louisiana-Lafayette is scheduled to play the Seawolves on Nov. 23. The other two teams in the tournament are Eastern Washington and Stanford.

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[El Sidonio]

How do y'all think our girls are gonna do in this tournament?

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Lady Cajuns join field for ’04 Great Alaska Shootout

LOUISIANA La. — UL made it official on Saturday that women’s basketball head coach J. Kelley Hall has accepted an invitation to join the 2004 Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout.

The Shootout gives the Lady Cajuns an opportunity to play in two of the finest tournaments in women’s basketball during the 2004-05 season.

The Cajuns will first travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., to compete in the Radisson Inn Classic hosted by the U.S. Air Force Academy.

UL will open the RIC against Montana State on Nov. 19 and follow with a game on Nov. 20 against either California-Davis or the host Air Force Falcons.

Louisiana then undertakes a 3,553-mile journey north from Denver, Colo., to Anchorage, Alaska.

The Cajuns open Shootout play with the defending champion Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Nov. 23 at 9 p.m. (CT) and follows with either Eastern Washington or Stanford on Nov. 24.

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LOUISIANA La. — Two-a-days are common in football, and UL Lafayette women’s basketball coach J. Kelley Hall thinks they’re a pretty good idea — especially for his team.

“With us having seven new kids in here,” Hall said Saturday, “we’ve got to slow it down and do a lot of teaching. It helps us do that if we work twice instead of having one marathon practice.”

Hall, entering his third year as Ragin’ Cajun head coach, put his team through a pair of two-hour sessions Saturday, the first day of official workouts for NCAA squads. The morning practice emphasized offense, with the afternoon session concentrating on defense.

“I hated those three-and-a-half hour practices when I was an assistant, and I know the players hated them, too,” Hall said. “You lose them for the last hour for sure. This way, they go hard for the duration of practice, it simulates game conditions and the attention span is much better.”

Hall needs for his team to have a solid attention span. The Cajuns, coming off a 13-15 season and a 7-8 Sun Belt campaign, will be changing to a motion offense and moving senior and leading scorer Anna Petrakova to the power forward slot.

“It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for the last couple of years,” Hall said, “but this year it really fits our personnel. And since we have all the new kids, we can teach everybody at once.”

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[Turbine]

The Lady Cajuns are picked to finish 2nd in the SunBelt for 2004-05 and in my view it was the win over WKU last season that put them on the road to being really respected.

I can't wait to see them play this year.

[amazonka13]

Thanks. I believe we will be very good this year. Come see us.
Anna Petrakova

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LAFAYETTE — Louisiana coach J. Kelley Hall is starting to build something with his women’s basketball program.

The Ragin’ Cajuns are picked to finish second in the Sun Belt Conference West Division by the league’s coaches, and he’s got another year to work with 2004 Player of the Year Ann Petrakova.

“Any time you take over a bad program, by Year Three you should start to see a turnaround if you do things the right way,” Hall said.

“We have four players returning — three of them starters — and some tremendous new, young kids. You should be climbing up the ladder, and I think the other coaches have recognized that.”

Hall’s first squad was 8-19, then UL rode Petrakova’s 18.6 points and 9.5 rebounds per game to a 13-15 record and a tie for second in the Sun Belt West last year.

“Anna has been our hardest worker since the day I came,” Hall said. “And, each year she has continued to improve. We’re moving her from the 5 to the 4 position this year. Her 3-point shot has improved every year, and we’re working with her on putting the ball on the floor.”

Hall’s blueprint for rebuilding could be South Alabama, this year’s unanimous choice to repeat as West champion after a 22-7 year under fifth-year coach Rick Pietri.

“His program was a good model coming in here,” Hall said.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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LAFAYETTE — Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajun women have a different look this season.

Coach J. Kelley Hall fully expects that new look to translate into a winning season in his third year of a rebuilding project.

But before the Cajuns can think that far down the road, their focus for at least part of Wednesday’s practice was a mere 50 feet.

That was the distance across the court at Earl K. Long Gym as the Cajuns endured a series of gassers midway through practice.

They then stepped to the line to work on free throws, one of Hall’s favorite practice touches that gets the team ready to hit critical charity shots late in games when they’re tired.

“We set a school record for free throw percentage last year, and that’s one of the reasons why,” said Hall, whose squad hit 69 percent at the line in 2003-2004.

The Cajuns return Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Anna Petrakova, along with starters Bernette Tolston and Ashley Blanche and improving holdover Alexandra Kotta.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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LOUISIANA La. - Has anyone ever wondered why highly recruited athletes always tend to chose “a big- time university” as opposed to staying home and helping be the reason why a state university is successful?

It happens all the time, even when they know that playing time is going to be limited or that they won’t play regularly until their junior or senior seasons at a “prestigious university.”

Why be a big fish in a big pond with other big fish, when you can easily be a big fish in a small pond?

Teurlings Catholic Lady Rebels’ senior point guard Blair Brodhead opted for that theory on Monday when she officially announced that she’s selected the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns’ basketball program.

Brodhead chose the Ragin’ Cajuns over the SEC’s Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs, who have participated in the NCAA Tournament four of the past six years. As recently as the 2002-2003 season, the Bulldogs were 24-8 overall and 10-4 in the SEC.

If the success of the Lady Bulldogs isn’t enough, Brodhead chose UL even though she has a good relationship with MSU’s assistant coach Errol Rogers and despite the fact the prospects of playing time there were good.

But there were more reasons for Brodhead to stay home. Those reasons range from the fact that her family and friends will still get the opportunity to watch her play to her being the face of the program being that Anna Petrokova will have graduated.

Recruits always use the excuse that the Cajuns don’t win, but they failed to realize that the university is a national power house in softball.

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Eric Narcisse
enarcisse@theadvertiser.com

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Brodhead stays home. Teurlings star guard commits to Louisiana over Miss. State.

LOUISIANA La.— Teurlings Catholic Lady Rebels’ point guard Blair Brodhead has always liked a challenge.

With that said, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the three-time All-State selection has chosen to continue her basketball career with the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns instead of taking her game to the Southeastern Conference.

“I do like a challenge,” said Brodhead, who averaged 19 points, five assists and two steals as a junior. “But playing college basketball in itself is a challenge.”

Brodhead’s father and high school coach Garry agreed.

“Blair strives for challenges,” Garry said, “but she wants to play with good people. I don’t think that she would go somewhere if she couldn’t win. It’s a challenge, but what better place to do it than at home.”

When the recruiting process began, Brodhead received interest from the Cajuns, Middle Tennessee State, Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State, Stephen F. Austin, McNeese State and Southeastern Louisiana.

But Brodhead didn’t have to shorten the list of teams. They did it for her.

“It (recruiting process) had just started and several of these teams wanted me to commit,” Brodhead said. “I’m only 17 years old and this was a very important decision and I wasn’t just going to rush. I intentionally waited to the last minute to make my decision, to see what teams would really stick it out with me.”

Those teams turned out to be the Cajuns, Mississippi State and Southeastern. In the end, Brodhead narrowed it to Louisiana and Mississippi State.

The reasons for selecting the Cajuns were many.

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Eric Narcisse
enarcisse@theadvertiser.com

[RaisingCajun08]

It is good to see that local talent is staying home. We need to see more of this in ALL sports.

[El Sidonio]

I tell you what, this really gives me lots more hope and excitement than I already had about our women's team. We're constantly getting better, and Coach Hall is an awesome recruiter. Sucks that I won't be around next season for when they really explode. (provided they don't do that this season.)

God Bless.