Basketball Delima

[Turbine]

Last year UL was 20-11 and all was good. This year after 14 games . . .

UL has scored 16 more points and given up 31 more points than at the same time a year ago.

The down mood must have something to to with perception brought on by W/L . . .

[CRAWFISH61]

Last year UL was 20-11 and all was good. This year after 14 games . . .

UL has scored 16 more points and given up 31 more points than at the same time a year ago.

The down mood must have something to to with perception brought on by W/L . . .

Because the effort is weak. There is no movement on offense, no fundamentals on defense. They can't shoot, pass or defend the outside shot or stop dribble penetration. Other than that they're as good as last year. The recruiting of other colleges instead of high school players by Evans has really hurt.

[CajunChicken]

Last year UL was 20-11 and all was good. This year after 14 games . . .

UL has scored 16 more points and given up 31 more points than at the same time a year ago.

The down mood must have something to to with perception brought on by W/L . . .

Turbine - Who gives a rat ___ about points for points against , the cajuns are bad and Robert the General Lee is not as good as projected. no experience, he is nothing more than a average high school coach but that's what Dr. Authement wanted. That is what we got. All you Robert Lee lovers please respond, I don't want no sorry Southall stories. If Robert was truly the General he (Southhall) would not be around. Period!!

[NewsCopy]

LAFAYETTE, La. - A 20-0 second-half run broke open a close game and gave Troy its first-ever Sun Belt Conference win, 73-50, over Louisiana-Lafeyette Saturday night at the CajunDome. Bobby Dixon scored 20 points to lead four Trojans in double figures. Boo Ramsey added 14, Sammy Sharp 12 and Cedric Jackson 11 as Troy improve to 8-7 overall and 1-2 in league play. Dwayne Mitchell was the only Cajun in double figures with 14 points as they fell to 4-11 and 0-4. Combined with a loss to South Alabama on Thursday, the defending conference champions lost back-to-back home games for the first time in five years and have now dropped four straight to start the Sun Belt season for the first time ever. The teams traded 5-0 runs and a basket to start the second half, leaving the Trojans up 38-37 with 16:05 remaining in the contest. The defense took control at that point, holding the Ragin' Cajuns scoreless for 8:43. During that time, the Trojans scored 20 straight points, with Jackson tallying seven and Jarvis Acker adding five. The lead reached its biggest point of 23 for the first time when Jackson converted four straight free throws -- two on a ULL bench technical -- for a 62-39 advantage with 6:41 to play. “Louisiana-Lafayette has a very good basketball program so to be able to come in here and play well is nice,” said head coach Don Maestri. “They didn't play well at allŠ particularly shooting. We had been up two at the half in each of the last two games so maybe we learned something.” “I don't think the run has as much to do with us as that they didn't make any shots,” continued Maestri. “The positive was the during that stretch, as opposed to others this year, is that we did score.” The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

Think it couldn't get any worse than Thursday night? Think again. The University of Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun basketball team, which lost by double-digits at home to South Alabama two nights ago, totally self-destructed on Saturday. Troy's 40 minutes of zone defense frustrated an already-struggling Cajun offense, and the perimeter-happy Trojans found the range often enough in the second half to run away with a 73-50 Sun Belt Conference victory over a shell-shocked UL squad. The Cajuns (4-11), falling to 0-4 for the first time in their Sun Belt history, went almost nine minutes without a point in the second half. For the game, UL shot 32.3 percent from the floor (20-of-62) and missed 11 straight shots in that scoreless run on the way to a 3-of-26 showing from 3-point range. Troy, meanwhile, was making it look easy, getting open 3-pointers almost at will and knocking down 7-of-16 outside the arc in the second half. Six of those came in the first 12 minutes after intermission and helped build a 62-39 lead, shocking a crowd much smaller than the announced 3,666 paid attendance. "We're not very good offensively," said Cajun coach Robert Lee, "and when you're not making shots on offense it leads to not defending. It's a lot easier to defend if you make some shots." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[Turbine]

Turbine - Who gives a rat ___ about points for points against , the cajuns are bad and Robert the General Lee is not as good as projected. no experience, he is nothing more than a average high school coach but that's what Dr. Authement wanted. That is what we got. All you Robert Lee lovers please respond, I don't want no sorry Southall stories. If Robert was truly the General he (Southhall) would not be around. Period!!

Just because I don't subscribe to the 80% teardown and 30% buildup method which Robert is currently employing does not mean Robert is a bad coach.

What I see is a team "thinking" instead of doing.

Not until "doing" starts to feel natural will see them get untracked, however it will never become natural if all they hear is they are no good.

Message to coach Lee, you can't cringe or complain every time a guy misses an open shot. If you do his shot will become unnatural and I believe it takes total relaxation to be successful when releasing the ball.

jmo

[MiamiCajun32]

I feel like the Cajuns are being led by a very respectale and hard working coach, but one who is more of an assistant coach material.

Unfortunately, Lee has shown himself to be unprepaired and not mature enough for the job. To declare this team sweet 16 material and then take a talented team to what will possibly be one of the worst records in UL history is certainly cause for dismissal.

There is no way this team should be at the bottom of sunbelt.

Last year's run was a product of OG and TW and Lee being a good motivator in those type situations when he does not really need to coach.

This year, a few good players have left the team because of the demanding practices.

It is an embarrassment, to say the least...

It is possible the team will wake up in time for Sunbelt tourney and even win the thing, based on talent, but I expect no more than 8 - 18 record going into the tourney.

In a way, it is better for long term if losing continues because if this team finishes with 12-14 type record then Lee will remain coach for next year. If he remains head coach with only 7 or 8 wins, then UL is telling its fans to deal with losing because there is no urgency to win.

Lee is obviously a good assistant coach at D-1 level or he would not have been a valuable part of the Cajuns' staff for so long. But the head coaching experiment is over in my opinion...

[MiamiCajun32]

Just because I don't subscribe to the 80% teardown and 30% buildup method which Robert is currently employing does not mean Robert is a bad coach.

What I see is a team "thinking" instead of doing.

Not until "doing" starts to feel natural will see them get untracked, however it will never become natural if all they hear is they are no good.

Message to coach Lee, you can't cringe or complain every time a guy misses an open shot. If you do his shot will become unnatural and I believe it takes total relaxation to be successful when releasing the ball.

jmo

No excuse for such poor play. This is not a program that has rebuilding years of losing seasons, only to put it all together for that one nice season every 4 years or so. Any losing season in the sunbelt, without extreme extenuating circumstances, is cause for removal of head coach in my opinion, but I am sure the administration will not pull trigger so quickly and program will suffer for a few years.

I am not a basketball expert, but it appears to me that the coaching on this team is just so bad. And Lee did not even have the experience and foresight to realize before the season that his team would not perform. He blames lack of guard play now, but didn't he know about this when proclaiming sweet 16 and all of that?

Just terrible...

And if the Cajuns do turn it around suddenly, although that would be nice, it will still show that Lee did a bad job because why then would it have taken so long for the team to play together. But I don't that will be a discussion because this team will continue to lose by double digits, no matter the competition. In every game there will be a period where flashes of potential are shown and there will also be the dreaded dry spell of no points for several minutes.

[cajun tom]

I think you are being quite too critical of Coach Lee. He has 5 new players who have never played Division College 1 basketball before and had what 2 or 3 months to get them ready. He has another player who has sat out with no practice time for over a year and a half. He has basically almost a freshman team. Remember Tirus Wade and Orien Greene both practice with the team a whole year before they were put out on the floor to play. Turner, Fields, Barksdale, and Hart have had very little practice time to get ready for the season.

[Clutch0364]

I am not upset about wins and losses. I could handle a loss if I could see the effort on the court but I just dont see it. You can tell that this team is talented at times but they just do not play hard or with any effort what so ever.

I work during the week so I don't get to see a lot of games but in the games I have seen this is what I get from the team...

Dawyne Mitchell - can't do everything by himself, he needs some help from someone for more than 5 minutes a game.

Michael Southal - has played lazy each time I have watched...he is the most dominate big man in the conference yet he plays so soft underneath.

Ed Turner - takes way to many shots and plays with very little effort.

Maurice Barksdale - needs to drive to the basket and try to create better shots for his teammates...all I have seen him do is pass the ball around the perimeter.

Chris Cameron - with Southall underneath you would think it would create more open looks for him but just has not happened.

Lucian Pesoli - athletic but needs to become more fundamental.

J.T. Fields - I have seen him take a few threes none of which has come close to the rim

Valentino Hart - a very raw player could be something special with more work

Adam James - I have been very critical of him in the past but he seems to be one of the only guys on the team that puts any effort in every time he is on the court.

Alphonso Williams - Played about 7 minutes against Troy and impressed me more than anyone because he actually played hard.

Rhett Hebert - he was a talented high school player and while on the court against troy did what Barksdale does't...he tried to drive to the basket to create for the other guys around him.

This is just what I have noticed from our players. It is only an opinion but I think most of you will agree with most of it.

[derf]

You and Mindless are truely morons. You don't kick a man while he is down. This is clearly a matter of someone being excited about the guys he had and going overboard. Would you rather he said " We are going to be a mediorce team that forgets everything we work on in practice"? that would have gotten a ton of people in the stands! DO us all a favor. Quit posting, quit comming to the games if your going to just complain and maybe move to another city with a college. I'm sure they will let you whine in their forums. Or buck up and support the team. THis is going to take some time to fix. Gone or the days of having superstar athletes who take basketweaving and bowling in the fall to get eligable for spring. Coach is having a rough transition period trying to get the program in a academicaly respectable position. Which, by the way, is the key to building a great program in (yes I"ll say it) smaller schools. If you don't believe me ask Duke. Or, if you think that Coach K is a coaching god, then maybe check with Gonzaga or Villanova. Please stop throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[MiamiCajun32]

You and Mindless are truely morons. You don't kick a man while he is down. This is clearly a matter of someone being excited about the guys he had and going overboard. Would you rather he said " We are going to be a mediorce team that forgets everything we work on in practice"? that would have gotten a ton of people in the stands! DO us all a favor. Quit posting, quit comming to the games if your going to just complain and maybe move to another city with a college. I'm sure they will let you whine in their forums. Or buck up and support the team. THis is going to take some time to fix. Gone or the days of having superstar athletes who take basketweaving and bowling in the fall to get eligable for spring. Coach is having a rough transition period trying to get the program in a academicaly respectable position. Which, by the way, is the key to building a great program in (yes I"ll say it) smaller schools. If you don't believe me ask Duke. Or, if you think that Coach K is a coaching god, then maybe check with Gonzaga or Villanova. Please stop throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I have been supporting the Cajuns for almost 30 years, even while living most of that time away from Louisiana, and the last few years being from Miami. I have respect for Lee as a person, but this type of record and performance is clearly not acceptable. Lee clearly thought he had a team that could make a run on a national level, but he cannot get out of cellar of sunbelt. I can see that if you were AD you would wait around for a few years of 8-20 type seasons before finally getting a new coach. I am not saying Lee should be fired today, but if things don't turn around, then he should be gone in offseason, no doubt.

I appreciate your obvious strong support of the Cajuns, but it is not productive to take a loser approach and just accept a few years of rebuilding that is not necessary, especially in sunbelt.

Would you be happy with a return to winning ways 4 years from now, under Lee, who by then might have enough experience to be a quality head coach? I won't be happy with such a development. It is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for this program, in this low level conference.

There have been a few losing seasons over my almost 30 years of supporting the team, but those have been due to serious problems with lack of talent as a coach leaves, etc. This year's team has enough talent to at least be competitive in Sunbelt on a nightly basis, but not the coaching to make it happen.

All the hustle and determination in the world does not make winning happen. I applaud Lee for his desire to win and hard work ethic, but he is failing miserably at the results that he is responsible for.

This is not about respecting the man, which I do, it is instead about accountability and future of the program, one that has a solid winning tradition that I very much want continued.