Pack's Draw is no Patsy
Ragin' Cajuns feature high-octane offense
Laurie Bridges, a senior guard at Louisiana, watched a lot of basketball video of N.C. State Monday afternoon.
The Ragin' Cajuns face the Wolfpack on Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, and Bridges paid close attention to the Pack's spread offense, to the constant ball movement, the cuts and 3-point shots.
"You can't go to sleep one second against those guys," he said. "Go to sleep and they'll go backdoor or hit you with a 3."
But Bridges had another thought after the film work.
"They're a pretty good team," he said.
Just pretty good? The Pack (20-9) is the third seed in the Phoenix Regional bracket. NCSU finished second in the ACC and is ranked 15th nationally.
"They're pretty good, but we can compete with them," Bridges said. "When we get to the game Friday in Orlando, it's just going to be team against team, not conference against conference. We can play with those guys."
The Ragin' Cajuns (20-8) are the Sun Belt Conference champions, winning both the regular-season and tournament championship. Among the Sun Belt teams Louisiana-Lafayette beat this year was Western Kentucky, where Archie Miller just finished his first year an assistant coach.
Miller was a senior at NCSU when the Pack played in the 2002 NCAA Tournament and was an administrative intern for NCSU coach Herb Sendek last year.
"Louisiana can match up favorably with State," Miller said Monday. "They have a number of interchangeable players, as coach Sendek likes to say, and use different combinations.
"They're explosive in transition, like Maryland or Duke. If you miss shots or make turnovers, they'll get the ball and go on you."
Bridges agreed with that assessment, laughing and saying, "We're a run-and-gun team."
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Chip Alexander can be reached at 829-8945 or
chipa@newsobserver.com
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