Cajuns duo adjust well to new roles

[NewsCopy]

Center Chris Cameron and the Cajuns open play in NCAA Tournament on Friday against N.C. State.

LOUISIANA La. -- Chris Cameron and Brian Hamilton might be playing out of position, but they are a major reason the University of Louisiana is playing its first NCAA Tournament game since 2000.

In October, the ULL basketball players learned they would have to adapt to new positions.

The two Cajuns starters have responded well. Cameron is a fixture at center and Hamilton ended the regular season as the team's leading rebounder.

Both will be counted on again to handle the battles under the basket when No. 14 seed ULL (20-8) meets third-seeded North Carolina State in a first-round game at 11:15 a.m. Friday in T.D. Waterhouse Centre in Orlando, Fla.

N.C. State (20-9) earned a higher seed after reaching the semifinals of last weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

The Cajuns, meanwhile, won the regular-season Sun Belt Conference championship and the SBC Tournament title.

Cameron, a 6-foot-11 sophomore from Melbourne, Australia, moved from forward to center after academic problems sidelined projected starter Michael Southall.

ULL coach Jessie Evans said playing center seems natural for Cameron.

"Chris is a guy who has a good shot which allows him to play further away from the basket," Evans said.

Hamilton, a 6-6 junior transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, was scheduled to play along the perimeter. Instead, problems with frontcourt depth forced Hamilton to move to power forward.

That meant Hamilton had to play against taller players, but he finished the season averaging a team-high 6.9 rebounds, while scoring 11.5 points. He has 54 steals for the season. Cameron averaged 18 minutes, 6.4 points and 3.3 rebounds.

"Moving to center was a big adjustment for me," Cameron said. "It's a lot more physical there and you really have to use your body more.

The rest of the story

By BOBBY ARDOIN
Special to The Advocate

[flowdam]

N.C. State (20-9) earned a higher seed after reaching the semifinals of last weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but I don't think this guy has his facts straight. NC State earned a higher seed because they finished as the undisputed second place team in the #1 rated conference in America. Blowing a 20pt lead to the eventual tourney champs had nothing to do with this seeding.

[Turbine]

Originally posted by flowdam
NC State earned a higher seed because they finished as the undisputed second place team in the #1 rated conference in America. Blowing a 20pt lead to the eventual tourney champs had nothing to do with this seeding.

Seems to me the loss could only hurt.

Before the CT loss were there any projections of being a #2 seed?

[flowdam]

Well Turbine, I'm guessing we may have been able to play into a 2 seed if we had won the Tourney, but other than that I guess our fate was sealed. We had a streak in early Feb. where we one 5 straight with wins at Maryland, FSU, and Duke at home. The feeling at that time was if we could win the home games left and the away games we were suppose to win, that we could move to a 2 seed. But that didn't happen. Lost at Clemson, and @ home to Maryland and UNC. Our saving grace was two road wins we didn't expect...Wake and GT. Beating Washington doesn't look so bad on the resume' now either. Little did we know that had we won the three mentioned above, we would have taken the regular season title. Oh well.

I was actually surprised with the 3 seed. I thought based on RPI, and rank we would be in the 4-5 range. Heck, I would gladly trade seeds with Wake Forest. Some how allowing us to play two games at home just wasn't in the cards. Is there a rule against that? I know the NCAA's have tried to get higher seeds close to home for fan support and increased revenue, but I'm guessing they don't won't to make it too unfair.

Funny though, UNikeC really go screwed, for once. They play the lower seeded Air Force a couple hours from their campus.

And Duke would have had a better crowd had they been at the Buffalo site. Not really, but honestly, I may know 2-3 people that have degrees from Duke. They all come down from NY or NJ and hit the road when they graduate. Funny stuff when you see Rednecks wearing Duke attire.