Cajuns battle on while Greene mends
LOUISIANA La. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns basketball coach Robert Lee is eager to get starting point guard Orien Greene back onto the court.
He said earlier this week that he thought Greene was the one player on the team the Cajuns could least afford to live without, and it has been an adventure at times without his direction on offense and savvy on defense since he was felled by a broken leg at Kansas.
Greene is recovering and could return to action next weekend when UL visits South Alabama and New Orleans, but Lee won't want to rush the process.
The Cajuns' focus remains the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in March, and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, so having Greene available for the stretch run is paramount in their 2005 plans.
Senior warrior Dwayne Mitchell is the starter at the point in Greene's absence, and he dished out 9 assists in Wednesday's rousing 63-61 victory over Southern Illinois at the Cajundome.
Mitchell also had 3 steals, but he suffered 5 turnovers against the sticky SIU defense.
Mitchell, Brian Hamilton, Chris Cameron and Tiras Wade have remained steady as four of the starters this year, with Mitchell a willing leader, Hamilton providing frenetic all-court effort, Cameron the tower in the middle and Wade the leading scorer.
The question mark has been that fifth spot, and on Wednesday junior college transfer Spencer Ford stepped into the lineup in impressive fashion. Ford totalled 7 points and 7 rebounds and frequently displayed his trademark leaping ability.
"We gave Derek Gray and Ross Mouton a chance at that position," Lee said. "We decided to give Spencer a chance and let him play through some of his mistakes. We hadn't done that before.
"He stepped up and did some nice things for us tonight."
Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com
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