Basketball Delima

[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.

[El Sidonio]

If I understand what MiamiCajun is saying, then I agree with him. There is no sense in keeping a coach around if he performs poorly. I'm tempted to say give Lee one more season, which is probably the sensible thing to do. BUT, with as big of a turnaround as we've had from last season, something's not right. I say if we don't reclaim the sunbelt tourney championship next season, then Lee needs to go. There is no reason for us to keep Lee around forever as if we are in "rebuilding" mode, when for the past two seasons we've been the champs and have made some serious runs in the NCAA first round.


Just my 2 cents

God Bless
Geaux Cajuns

[derf]

Your right, to a point. There is a bit of a coaching problem, but not with the head coach. Well kinda. Coach is a good coach who is trying to establish the fact that HE IS THE COACH. The problem is that this university does not fund anything properly. This means that the coaching staff may be lacking in areas that it shouldn't be. No offence to anyone but when you have only 3 assistant coaches, Div I experience should be a prerequisit. However this could have all been settled by hireing Coach Lee in the first place, instead of G.Cyprien. Had the idiots at the top done that, then we probably have retained Jimmey Williams. That would have helped the situation.
To answer the question of what I would do as AD. Thats simple, give the man time. 1 bad year is not the end of the universe. If you were AD at Texas you would have probably fired Mac Brown a few years ago when the "fans" wanted his head. Look what that horrible decission to keep him got that school. Also sience you asked what I would do. I would demand a Athletic Foundation be started. And if the President of the university said no (which he would, the _____hole) I would make it very public.
Look, I'm not saying Lee is Jesus come to basketball. But, when you have a sucessful program like ours, any slip seems worse than it is. We are acctually scoring more on an average than last year, but we are giving up more points. We couldn't keep Brian Hamilton forever. We have to deal with that. WE are now being beaten by a style of play that we helped to bring about in this conference. We will find a way to get back to our winning ways. Our coach is the newest in the league and our team has played the least collectivly. Please keep the faith. We, as a school, need everybody to be positive in order to get this done.
Remember football took a few yrs under a "bad" coach to end up winning a share of the title and begin to get recruits that will get us into the place where we belong.
-Derf

[CoolCajun123]

for those who hate coach lee and say he is not coaching material are real dumbasses. you are the first to hate when he is down and you are going to be the first to kiss his @$$ when he starts to win. the whole problem is that everyone is so use to the past teams that when we struggle for a while you panic..... he has young players, none of the have stepped up to carry the load consistently... Cameron was hurt for a while, mike is not reliable,turner is not consistent. The only thing that we can count on is that DWAYNE IS THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE TEAM. if we had 5 players that gave it all like dwayne i know that ya'll would not _____ like you are doing.

[Tripple Threat]

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.

Yep, Yep, and Yep...

[derf]

You see CoolCajun gets it

[cajun11]

A coach can only do so much. He cannot go out there and play the game for these kids. First, of all we are way to slow of a team and opposing teams blow right by everyone except for Mitchell. Secondly, u can coach a team all u want and yell and scream until u are red in the face but if your players cannot shoot the ball there is nothing that we or coach lee can do. As for as the problem with defense goes just take one look at the NBA and it is very obvious where that problem stems from. All the NBA has become is an glorified one on one with an isolation offense and no defense whatsoever except for one guy that most people hate which is Ron Artest. All these kids grew up watching the NBA and Dreaming of playing there one day and what they see is no one there plays defense so why the ____ should it become a part of my game. Until this team gets a fire under there butts like the one Dwayne Mitchell plays with and decides they want to play ball we can expect a lot more of what we are seeing no matter how good of a coach we have. I mean Coach K and John Wooden could be our coaches but if the effort want and desire is lacking there is nothing more that a coach can do. Last year Coach Lee showed what he can do with players who want to play ball.

[RaisingCajun08]

What is yall opinion on grad assistants? Shouldnt they be showing leadership & a commitment to a winning team?

What if a grad assistant & a start "key" player were moving furnature for the assistant's girlfriend a half hour before the players were to report for a Saturday night basketball game.

Personally, I think that is a lack of leadership, a lack of respect for the rest of the team, & the willingness to win. It is because of those types of individuals that this years basketball team is 4-11 right now. I am disgusted!

[weareLOUISIANA]

They werent moving for the assistants girlfriend, they were moving for themselves. Get your story straight then try to make assumptions of why the team is 4-11.