Cajuns take on traditional power in No. 2 Jayhawks

Allen Fieldhouse on the University of Kansas campus is one of the special places to play in college basketball.

It can be daunting for visiting teams, however, as TCU’s Horned Frogs found out in Thursday night’s 93-74 loss to the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks.

Now it’s time for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns to accept that challenge.

“People have told me ‘you’re not going to believe the atmosphere there,’ ” said UL coach Robert Lee, whose Cajuns face Kansas at 7 p.m. today.

“One of our coaches was in New Orleans last night, recruiting, and he ran into (former Kansas coach) Roy Williams. He asked Roy what was the best piece of advice he could give, and he said, ‘just don’t go.’”

It’s too late for that now.

Lee’s Cajuns (3-3) are coming off a week of final exams, but still managed to make some progress on the court while working around UL’s test schedule.

“It got to be a challenge a little later in the week,” Lee said Friday. “We had a number of players in study groups. In fact, we flew up in two different groups today because some of them had Friday exams. Only 7 of the players are here. The rest will get here at 9 o’clock tonight, so we won’t have the opportunity to practice as a whole team.

“It’s something we’ll just have to be mentally tough to overcome.”

The Cajuns’ last game was a 79-63 win over St. Mary’s of Texas last Saturday in the Cajundome, a performance which prompted a crucial week of work on the floor.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com