Jessie Evans seeking focus
LOUISIANA La. — There is no such thing as a good loss, according to Louisiana coach Jessie Evans.
On the other hand, last Saturday’s 68-54 setback at New Orleans does provide plenty of coaching focus for Evans and his staff as they prepare for the final five games of the season.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 14-6 on the year and 9-2 with a two-game lead in the race for the Sun Belt Conference regular-season crown, but they found out they are not invincible.
“That loss certainly illustrates the point that if you don’t play well, remain focused and play as a team, you’re not going to do well,” Evans said on Monday. “We’re forced to use that as a reminder.
“There’s never a good time to lose. We certainly don’t want to lose in the (Sun Belt) tournament, or lose another game. The question is, what will we do with this loss?”
A 28-point night from Orien Greene helped the Cajuns pull out a 79-73 win at South Alabama last Thursday, but there was no such rescue at Lakefront Arena.
“We obviously didn’t play well at South Alabama,” Evans said. “We haven’t practiced well for a week now, and at New Orleans it just jumped up and bit us.
“You’ve got to play 40 minutes and stay focused. And, you’ve got to shoot the ball. Before that game, we were approaching 50 percent from the field against Sun Belt teams. But we shot 25 percent at UNO (15-of-59, 25.4 percent), 21 percent in the second half, and that’s awful.
“You’re not going to win a lot of games doing that. Defensively, I thought we played well enough to win. You’re going to have that game in you. Now, hopefully, we’ve got it out of us.”
Amazingly, the 25 percent was not a UL record for futility. The 1995-96 Cajuns hit 14-of-59 (23.7 percent) in a 63-43 loss at South Alabama.
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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com
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