The Book: Lady Cajuns 2005-06 basketball season

[headragincajun]

Except for a blip or 3 on the radar, I would take 30 years of this winning brand of Lady Cajun basketball over anything presented in the 30 years prior.

When it comes to scheduling . . . Lock-em-up coach

I see somebody was listening to the Radio Show last night. Happy New Year big fella.
Headragincajun1

[lcitsh]

While I would like to see a small upgrade in the schedule, I am very pleased with how everything is going with the program. I'm ok with having 2 "quality" (perception) opponents on the schedule, like SMU & Auburn this year, I would like to see one more added next year, but if the opponents we play continue to win to keep our RPI up, I'm cool with whoever we play.
The RPI is based upon how you do against your opponents, how they do against their opponents, and how those opponents do against their opponents. In other words if you win and your opponents win, your RPI will take care of itself. Our conference seems to be doing well against outside competition, so I expect any conference wins we get will boost our RPI even more. Coaching staff has them headed in the right direction, it's just wise to walk before you gallop.

[NewsCopy]

Like everything else on the Gulf Coast, the University of Louisiana's 2005 athletic year was dominated by two names - Katrina and Rita. The twin sisters of hurricane destruction unleashed their wrath more to the east and west of Acadiana, but the residual effects were felt by the Ragin' Cajun programs for the last five months - and are still being felt. UL's football team missed practice time and had its season finale backed up one week as part of a four-team date swap. Four weeks later, its Cajun Field home hosted the relocated New Orleans Bowl. The Cajun basketball team lost its home, being pushed out of the Cajundome to allow its use as an emergency shelter, and still hasn't played a game in the facility. The golf team canceled a tournament trip with travel issues and the cross country teams had to go to another location for the Sun Belt Conference meet. The twin tragedies delayed an athletic director search and a final resolution of NCAA inquiries into the basketball program. They also created problems in an already-stretched Cajun athletic budget. But life went on, and the games went on. Many of them provided memorable moments, and the most noteworthy are in the Daily Advertiser's top 10 Ragin' Cajun headlines for 2005: 1 Cajun football rallies with late winning streak for Sun Belt crown It had been a decade since the Cajun football squad had even compiled a winning record, much less win a conference championship. And with a 1-5 mid-October record, it appeared that "wait 'till next year" was again a year away. But five straight wins to end the season provided a final 6-5 record, the first winning season since 1995. More importantly, all five of those wins came in Sun Belt Conference play, and the 5-2 league record was good enough to claim a share of UL's first-ever Sun Belt title. Three of those five wins came on the road, a big bugaboo to previous UL squads. The Cajuns missed out on a bid to the New Orleans Bowl on its Cajun Field home turf, eliminated on a new interpretation of the league tiebreaker, but that hardly dampened a season in which UL led the Sun Belt in nine offensive categories and finished as the nation's seventh-best rushing team. Freshman Tyrell Fenroy became the first running back in Cajun history to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark and was named Freshman of the Year in both the Sun Belt and Louisiana. 2 Women's basketball team shocks by winning Sun Belt West crown It had been 17 years since Louisiana had a winning season in women's basketball. But the Cajuns did that and more in coach J. Kelley Hall's third year at the helm, equaling the school record for victories with 22, finishing 22-9, posting a perfect 13-0 record at home, winning the Sun Belt Western Division and reaching the championship finals of the Sun Belt Tournament. The season's peak was the final regular-season weekend, when the Cajuns beat Arkansas-Little Rock 59-47 to clinch a tie for the West and then edged Arkansas State 66-64 to take the West outright and finish 13-0 at home. Hall was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year after UL was the only league school with 20 victories in the regular season. The leader of the resurgence was senior Anna Petrakova, the Player of the Year in the Sun Belt as a junior who repeated as an all-conference honoree and was on the All-Tournament Team at the Sun Belt Tournament. 3 Nelson Schexnayder resigns post as athletic director after 12 years The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[Turbine]

Dan you can use the word Pentathelam the term is not going away.

"During his time at the helm, Schexnayder hired Tony Robichaux as baseball coach, Stefni Lotief to coach softball, Jessie Evans and Robert Lee in basketball, Hall in women's basketball and Rickey Bustle in football.

All of those coaches enjoyed success on the field, with baseball reaching the College World Series in 2000, softball reaching the WCWS in 2003, basketball reaching the NCAA Tournament, women's basketball equaling a school record for wins in 2005 with 22 and football finishing 6-5 as Sun Belt champions in 2005."

For want of Pentathelam recognition you failed to mention that with those 5 sports only one fan base in America experienced winning more than Ragin Cajun Fans.

OTHERWISE . . . GREAT ARTICLE

[NewsCopy]

His team isn't where he wants it to be entering Sun Belt Conference play, but University of Louisiana women's basketball coach J. Kelley Hall will be happy if his team can improve in just one area. His team's 9-2 even though shooting only 35.2 percent from the field as a team, and it's that percentage that he's looking to improve tonight when the Ragin' Cajuns play their final non-conference game of the season. The Cajuns host Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-7) at an earlier-than-normal 6 p.m. at Earl K. Long Gym, before embarking on 15 straight league games against a Sun Belt that boasts five teams in the current RPI top 100. "We cannot go into conference play and expect to continue to win shooting the percentage we've shot," said Hall after his squad concentrated on shooting in its Thursday practice. "We're not where we want to be shooting the ball. "Red Auerbach once said you don't improve your shooting once the season starts. That means our shot selection has got to get better. We want our offensive half-court execution to get better." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[Turbine]

"boasts five teams in the current RPI top 100"

Once conference play starts this should help the Lady Cajuns.

[RaginRash]

Oh man, #10.... I was in a good mood until I was reminded of that garbage.

GEAUX CAJUNS!

[gorcajun]

Turbine,

What looks even better is the 2005 "Calendar" Pentathlelam where those five sports concluded in 2005. The Cajun football team trades a 4-7 record for this year's 6-5 tally. Coupled with the fact that Tennessee Vols had a dismal football season.


The Cajuns are in SECOND placewith a winning % of 73.13 versus 72.14% for the academic year of 2004-05.

Nice going Ragin Cajuns.

[NewsCopy]

Sonora Edwards didn't get a halftime lecture from coach J. Kelley Hall on going to the backboards harder Friday night. "He said he couldn't decide what we needed to talk about," Edwards said of the University of Louisiana coach's locker-room talk, "because there were so many areas in which we needed to step up." Edwards knew rebounding was one of those areas, and she took that to heart. Because of that, the Ragin' Cajun women's basketball team kept the nation's fifth-longest home winning streak intact. Edwards tied a career high with 18 points, several of them on offensive-rebound putbacks in the second half, and the Cajuns rallied for a 64-56 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Earl K. Long Gym. UL (10-2) trailed the heavy-underdog Golden Lions 28-25 at halftime, mostly due to UAPB's non-stop pressure defense that eventually forced 22 turnovers. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

When the Louisiana Ragin' Cajun women begin Sun Belt Conference play on Thursday against the Denver Pioneers, there will be numerous fans wondering whether the Cajuns can repeat as winners of the league's Western Division in 2006. That and a 21-game home win streak should be enough to spice up the evening, but there will be an additional element for the 7 p.m. tipoff. The game will be televised by ESPN-Plus and will be shown locally on Cox Sports, cable channel 27 in Lafayette. Louisiana carries an impressive 10-2 non-league record into the contest, but there could be a temptation for the Cajuns to get away from what earned them those 10 victories with TV on hand. "That has not been an issue with us," coach J. Kelley Hall said on Tuesday. "In the last couple of years, we've played very well in TV games." That includes last year's run to the Sun Belt Tournament finals and a 22-9 overall record, so it doesn't seem to matter to the Cajuns who's watching. Broadcasting the game is another matter, as the sports information department and Associated Director of Athletics for Women Sherry Lebas are preparing for the event at Earl K. Long Gym on campus. "We've had to expand our camera platform at the top of the stands," SID Daryl Cetnar said. "They're going to have two cameras up there. "We also had to bring in a small riser behind the scorer's table, where the stats crew will be. The ESPN (on-air) talent (including Debbie Leonard) will be in front." Venues like the Cajundome and even Blackham Coliseum are better suited for visiting TV personnel, but there was no way Hall wanted to open Sun Belt play anywhere but Long Gym. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com