The Book: Lady Cajuns 2004-05 Basketball Season

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — The University of Louisiana is in final exams this week, and that’s taxing enough for most college students.

UL’s Ragin’ Cajun men’s and women’s basketball squads are just like those other students, with the added burden of practice and games this week.

Coach Robert Lee’s Cajun men will take a 3-3 record into Saturday’s demanding road game at No. 2-ranked Kansas, while the 5-1 Cajun women are polishing their game for a Saturday home date with Nicholls State.

“We’re practicing around the exam schedule,” Lee said. “Our main focus right now is preparinig for exams. I don’t have any doubt that anyone is in danger of not being eligible, but that is our focus.”

“I try to mix it up,” said women’s coach J. Kelley Hall, whose squad practiced at 10 a.m. on Monday and works out at 11 a.m. today. “I try to keep it fun.

“You can’t really have a 2 1/2-hour, hard practice this week. Their minds are on something else that, in all honesty, is more important at this time of the year.”

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[DaddyCajun]

Student Athletes, must first perform in the classroom to get on the playing field. Coach Lee looks like he is going to instill this into his progam/players just like Robe, Steff, Bustle, Hall, and a few other coaches at UL!!

DaddyCajun!!

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — J. Kelley Hall has a long memory. So do some of his players.

In Hall’s first game as Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball coach, Nicholls State ruined the occasion with a 59-57 decision.

UL reversed that decision last year in Thibodaux with a 57-38 victory, but the Cajuns still recall the ending of that earlier encounter with the Lady Colonels.

“Two years ago, they banked in a 3-pointer from halfcourt at the buzzer to beat us by two,” Hall said. “The kids remember that.”

Nicholls and UL meet again at 7 p.m. at Earl K. Long Gym, with the two teams coming off two distinctly different performances.

Nicholls went 13 minutes without scoring a point in Thursday’s 52-47 road loss at Samford, which dropped the Colonels to 2-3 on the season.

Hall’s Cajuns, who took the week off to concentrate on final exams, are 5-1 after crushing Savannah State 95-47 last Saturday in the Cajundome.

Louisiana is averaging 71 points per game after that Savannah State score, and that could be a bad sign for UL opponents.

“If we can just get in the 60’s, with our style, we’re going to have a chance to win,” Hall said. “We’re always going to play defense, and we try to hold teams in the 50’s.”

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajun freshman Alicia McDaniel was a life saver Saturday night, stealing the ball from Nicholls State’s Cristin Burdette to seal a nerve-wracking 57-56 victory at Earl K. Long Gym.

Coach J. Kelley Hall’s squad struggled with the upstart Lady Colonels (2-4) for most of the night, shooting poorly and getting into foul problems on a day when a pair of Cajuns were still finishing up semester final exams, but they survived to improve to 6-1.

“Take it and move on,” said Hall, whose team will host Prairie View A&M on Monday night. “I’ve never yet had a team play well coming out of finals. I don’t know why.”

A short baseline jumper by Anna Petrakova on an inbounds play under the basket put the Cajuns ahead 57-51 with 1:54 to play, but it was far from over.

Burdette hit a free throw at 1:33, Nkechi Nwachukwu followed with a jumper at 1:00 and an Ashley Blanche turnover was followed by a Katherine Plummer jumper as NSU got within 57-56 with :17 left.

Then, when Blanche missed a free throw with 12 seconds remaining, Nicholls had a chance to win.

NSU had nipped UL 59-57 on a buzzer-beating, banked-in 3-pointer in Hall’s first game as Cajun coach in 2002, and it looked shaky once again.

But Hall inserted McDaniel on defense, and she came up with the ball to save the day.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns are boldly going where no UL women's basketball team has gone before.

Their 85-24 home victory over Prairie View A&M on Monday set a new standard for margin of victory and moved the Cajuns to 7-1 on the year for the first time in school history.

The 1983-84 Cajuns of Ross Cook started out 6-0, but then lost a pair of games and finished with a school-record 22-6 mark.

Taking another step in this season's fast start will be a challenge, as coach J. Kelley Hall's squad faces SEC member Arkansas at 7 p.m. today at the Alltel Arena in Little Rock.

"I've been watching tapes on them, and they're very good," said Hall, whose lone setback was a 67-47 loss to No. 2 Stanford. "They've got a post game, and they've got three kids that can (all) line up at point guard.

"They're quick, they shoot good and they've got size inside. They're very talented."

The Lady'Backs, who improved to 7-1 with a 59-53 win at Memphis on Dec. 7, have put up some staggering defensive numbers after eight games with 153 steals (a nation-leading 19.1 per game) and 252 opponents' turnovers (31.5 per game).

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun women put the game out of reach early on Saturday, then coasted in with a 90-72 victory over Sam Houston State at Earl K. Long Gym.

It was just the kind of game the Cajuns needed between road tests against Arkansas last Thursday and at Nebraska on Monday night, a chance to sharpen their skills.

"We shot the ball so well in the first half that we just buried them," said UL coach J. Kelley Hall, who saw all five starters score in double figures on the day.

"When you hit 10-of-20 3-pointers in a half, you take the other team out of it."

Senior Bernette Tolston led that early shooting spree, hitting 5-of-9 treys to spark the rout and tie fellow senior Tiffany Washington's 15 points at the break.

"Sometimes I go by my first attempt as to whether I'm in a rhythm or not," said Tolston, who nailed 5-of-7 treys in Thursday's 82-68 loss at Arkansas. "If I don't make that first one, then the next attempt.

"I just try to keep it as positive as I can."

UL (now 8-2) was ahead 53-29 at halftime, and it was clear it would take a major reversal for the Bearkats (2-5) to get back in the game.

"We came out in the first half and played as a team," said Washington, who had a career-high 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. "The first five minutes of the second half were very important, because we consider the score to be 0-0, like it was the beginning of the game."

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[El Sidonio]

All I can say from what I saw is that them girls can shoot the 3's!!!! Except for a couple of lapses in concentration, and a few bad passes, I was/continue to be impressed by what I saw/see/whatever.... Geaux Lady Cajuns Basketball!

--God Bless--

[1stTake]

There is a thread on Delphi about this. "Coach Hall is absolutely amazing."

[Zeebart21]

Originally posted by Chuck
There is a thread on Delphi about this. "Coach Hall is absolutely amazing."

Every now and then I get lucky and scoop Turbine...

Turbine is still the master, though...

Z.

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun women attempt to rediscover their winning touch when they host the Lamar Lady Cardinals at 6 p.m. today at Earl K. Long Gym.

Coach J. Kelley Hall's 8-3 squad dropped an 81-70 loss at Nebraska on Monday night, then returned on Tuesday and got to work on corrections.

"For whatever reason, we just didn't give ourselves a chance defensively," Hall said. "We were a step slow all night, and they really shot it well."

Nebraska, which nipped the Cajuns by two points last season, mounted a 42-28 halftime lead and held off an attempted UL rally for the win.

"We cut it to 7 points a few times in the second half, but every time we did they hit a big shot," Hall said. "We allowed them to shoot where they wanted to without contesting the shot.

"It was a surprise, because we had four starters back and they lost four starters. I've had to go back to the drawing board and see what the problem is."

Despite the loss, the Cajuns got 24 points and 15 rebounds from Anna Petrakova, 15 points from freshman Onna Charles and 12 from senior Tiffany Washington. Charles hit 6-of-9 shots, including 3-of-5 3-pointers.

Lamar improved to 6-2, the best start for its women's program since the 1991-92 season, with last Thursday's 69-50 victory over Prairie View.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com