The Book: 2002-2003 Basketball (Ragin'Cajuns)

[Turbine]

Washington gets fouled hard and is hurt bad. Taken out out a stretcher. Bloody and feeling numbness he shakes hands with Soutall on the way out.

Boyd takes his freee throws.

Tie game

[Turbine]

Just like htat

UAB leads by 5

2:00

[Turbine]

Boyd steal.

gets fouled.

Makes 1st
misses 2nd
has 22 points

Louisiana down by 4

Louisian gets rebound

Boyd makes 3 points

78-77 UAB

[Turbine]

Finnley 2 pointer

UAB 80
Louisiana 77

less than a minute

AJ 18

80
79

:30.14

[1stTake]

Cajuns lost because they didn't get the ball to Southall enough, 3 shots is a travesty.

[NewsCopy]

Jessie's post game comments

Originally posted by cajunsmike on Delphi

I will paraphrase here as I do not remember all his exact quotes.

Pleased with the effort. Proud of the guys for battling the entire game in the face of adversity. That adversity being Laurie fouling out early in the second half and Washington being injured.

Also, the officiating seemed to let the crowd get to them. It's not the calls they made so much as the calls they did not make. We were physically hammered on many plays in which calls were not made.

Disappointed with the outcome and execution at times. Turnovers were even so that was not as much a factor as some have made it out to be. Execution being that we did not finish certain plays. We need to be strong enough on these plays to complete them despite being fouled.

The free throw shooting did hurt us and was a direct factor in the outcome. An example was Boyd making only 1 of 3 while being fouled on a three. He was shooting 86% going into the game.

Looking ahead, we have guards coming in that will allow us to be more physical defensively while being just at athletic and we believe the guys we have coming back will continue to improve.

In the offseason, there are three points of emphasis. Those are get strong in the weight room, each player work to get better on their individual games, and each player make sure to take care of their business in the classroom. He would hate to have a situation like we had this year when three important players were ineligible for the early part of the year.

My take on his comments. I am encouraged by his remarks concerning what we need to do in the offseason, particularly the classroom part.
Hopefully, the guys get this message and do take care of their business in that area. The weight room comments are directed at Michael Southall. He definitely needs to get stronger. The reason he does not get the ball as often as our fans would like is that he does not work hard enough to get the ball. Being stronger will help him in that regard.

Final comment. Much better effort than last season in the NIT. Playing this game on the road was difficult. I believe we were sent on the road due to our poor performance in the conference tournament while UAB did well in their tournament. Had we gotten to the finals and played well but lost against WKU, we would have gotten the home game. I hope that is a lesson the guys returning remember.

[BrockMeaux]

I was at the game (a Tuba player for the 6th Man Ragin' Band).

We played hard all game long. In fact, in my opinion, the only time during the game that we were outhustled was for the first 2 minutes.

Like Jesse said, it wasn't so much a case of what was called, but rather a case of what wasn't. I'm not making excuses about this; the fouls called against ULL players were valid (90%, at least...that's a good ratio). But also, make no mistake about this: UAB played a dirty game. For most of the 2nd half, at least one Cajun involved in the offensive ball movement spent time on his back because of the force applied by the Blazers. Their defense was like glue, but sometimes they got a little too tight, you know? We should have shot at least 5 more free throws. At LEAST. But we were on their turf, and most of us in the band knew that, just like with the 2000 NCAA Tennessee game, if it was close at the end, we weren't coming out with a win. UAB was a hot team that most people would rather see advance than "some rinky dink team from the Bayou."

I must say that I was VERY impressed, and VERY proud of the effort that the team put forth last night. Since we blew out North Texas, we've played horrible basketball. Not Wednesday night. For the first time in over a month, we played a complete game. It's sad that our season ended on a night when everyone but about 10 fans and the band was against the Ragin Cajuns, but those of us supporting the Cajuns made sure they knew we were there. We gave 100% in our support, and they gave 100% on the court. It simply came down to the calls, and that's a real shame.

I hate to use the officiating as a scapegoat in any sport, but we beat those boys up and down the court for 38 minutes. But non calls and bogus call, pro-UAB, kept us from winning that game. All we can do now is look to next season, which promises to be another great one in the history of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin Cajun books.

[NewsCopy]

BIRMINGHAM — The Louisiana's Ragin’ Cajuns’ stay in the Owens Corning NIT was a short one, and most certainly a painful one as the Cajuns dropped an 82-80 decision to the Alabama-Birmingham Blazers Wednesday in an extremely physical contest at Bartow Arena.

Five Cajun players had to leave the court with injuries during the course of the game, including senior guard Immanuel Washington, who was carted off on a stretcher after a mid-air collision with two UAB defenders.

The physical play definitely took its toll on the Cajuns down the stretch, as a bruised and battered Cajun team converted on only 8-of-18 free throws in the second half.

Despite the fact that the Cajuns seemed to be against the ropes most of the second half, Louisiana still had chances to win in the closing seconds.

The rest of the story

South Louisiana Publishing
Brady Aymond
baymond@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

BIRMINGHAM — If the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun basketball team never visits Birmingham again this year, it will be too soon.

The Cajun made their second trip to Birmingham Wednesday night and left with their second loss as the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers survived the first round of the Owens Corning NIT with an 82-80 win before 5,343 at the Bartow Arena.

Louisiana’s first trip to Birmingham came in December, when the Cajuns dropped a 92-86 setback to Birmingham Southern.

Wednesday night’s game was a physical one in which the Cajuns had several opportunities to win slip right through their fingers. The Cajuns held an eight-point lead early in the first period, but UAB climbed back into the game with a 10-0 run that was sparked by a technical foul called on Cedric Williams after a scuffle broke out near the Cajun bench.

Williams’ technical was a product of him retaliating for two UAB defenders roughing up Brad Boyd after a timeout had been called, and the call resulted in a three-point swing.

The rest of the story

South Louisiana Publishing
Brady Aymond
baymond@theadvertiser.com

[1stTake]

Originally posted by brockmeaux
I was at the game (a Tuba player for the 6th Man Ragin' Band).

We played hard all game long. In fact, in my opinion, the only time during the game that we were outhustled was for the first 2 minutes.

Like Jesse said, it wasn't so much a case of what was called, but rather a case of what wasn't. I'm not making excuses about this; the fouls called against ULL players were valid (90%, at least...that's a good ratio). But also, make no mistake about this: UAB played a dirty game. For most of the 2nd half, at least one Cajun involved in the offensive ball movement spent time on his back because of the force applied by the Blazers. Their defense was like glue, but sometimes they got a little too tight, you know? We should have shot at least 5 more free throws. At LEAST. But we were on their turf, and most of us in the band knew that, just like with the 2000 NCAA Tennessee game, if it was close at the end, we weren't coming out with a win. UAB was a hot team that most people would rather see advance than "some rinky dink team from the Bayou."

I must say that I was VERY impressed, and VERY proud of the effort that the team put forth last night. Since we blew out North Texas, we've played horrible basketball. Not Wednesday night. For the first time in over a month, we played a complete game. It's sad that our season ended on a night when everyone but about 10 fans and the band was against the Ragin Cajuns, but those of us supporting the Cajuns made sure they knew we were there. We gave 100% in our support, and they gave 100% on the court. It simply came down to the calls, and that's a real shame.

I hate to use the officiating as a scapegoat in any sport, but we beat those boys up and down the court for 38 minutes. But non calls and bogus call, pro-UAB, kept us from winning that game. All we can do now is look to next season, which promises to be another great one in the history of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin Cajun books.

Awesome post!!! But don't be surprised if they take your ULL off the board

[CajunGuru]

Hey Brock, aren't you the LSU fan that frequents the Saints board and plays in UL's band?Did you wear your LSU hat at the game?

[Cajun1997]

Originally posted by Chuck
Awesome post!!! But don't be surprised if they take your ULL off the board

Chuck, even though I do not agree with the use of ULL, we don't do that here.