Hilltoppers, Ragin' Cajuns: Special animosity
There's nothing like winning to increase fan support, and there's nothing like a rivalry to pump up the volume even more.
Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns drew 5,101 fans for last Saturday's 67-50 romp over Florida International, the largest home crowd of the campaign at the Cajundome.
It was the fourth straight victory for coach Robert Lee's team in Sun Belt Conference action, and the first contest at home since Orien Greene returned from injury to help lead a trio of wins on the road.
But FIU's Panthers don't stir the blood like the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who visit the Dome for a 7:05 battle today.
"There's no love lost between the Cajuns and the Hilltoppers," said Lee, understating the case by several degrees.
If there's not a season-high crowd for tonight's contest, it will be a shock.
The series picked up steam in the 1993-94 season, when WKU swept the regular season 91-87 and 78-62 before the Cajuns went into Diddle Arena and followed Michael Allen to a 78-72 victory in the finals of the Sun Belt Tournament for UL's second NCAA Tournament berth in three years in the league.
Since that time, the intensity has grown.
UL won 6-of-7 from 1998 to 2000, then WKU took five in a row before the Cajuns prevailed 110-102 in a wild shootout last season at Diddle.
Sending WKU to its first home conference defeat after a Sun Belt-record 29 straight home wins made it even sweeter.
The Cajuns then returned to Bowling Green for last year's Sun Belt Tournament and defeated New Orleans in the finals for a fourth NCAA Tournament bid as Sun Belt members.
Tonight's game is likely to have a tournament-like atmosphere, with WKU 12-4 overall and 2-2 in league play and the Cajuns 10-7 and 4-1.
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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com
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