Louisiana vs UT Arlington

[ZoomZoom]

Had a meeting tonight, watching replay. UTA has a students' app that gives points for attending events that converts to discounts for UTA gear and such. Hello UL marketing...

UTA’s president canned the coach 2 years ago with a great winning percentage for making the NIT and not the NCAA, wanting UTA to be like Gonzaga, make the NCAA every year. I see that’s working out well.

[CajunT]

Had a meeting tonight, watching replay. UTA has a students' app that gives points for attending events that converts to discounts for UTA gear and such. Hello UL marketing...

UTA’s president canned the coach 2 years ago with a great winning percentage for making the NIT and not the NCAA, wanting UTA to be like Gonzaga, make the NCAA every year. I see that’s working out well.

Sounds like a good idea to me! On the subject of firing a coach, UTA doesn't have a football program, so there is no reason they shouldn't be a Top MBB program in the SBC. They are a diamond sports program right now.

[Hatch]

Just finished watching the game on the archive, very big win to kick off the 2nd half of the conference run. You could tell UTA had fresher legs in the 2nd half due to their substitution patterns as they were able to knock down more shots and yes those comer threes were killer. Props to Jalen Johnson for going 40 minutes but you could tell he was gassed late, especially when he missed the back to back free throws. It’s a shame Wilson’s injury happened when it did because he had really found his shooting stroke in those last 4-5 games. Hope he can get that back as he still makes his presence known in other ways. I really thought Smith had position and took the charge on what ended up being the 3 point play that got UTA back in it at about the 2 minute mark. I did think the goal tend call was legit, Smith has to be smarter there. Great play by Hardy and Dou to negate everything that went wrong down the stretch. Also some big minutes from Spenkuch, 6 points and 6 boards (5 offensive). He really seems to be playing with more confidence and is earning those minutes.

[Boomer]

Dou Gueye bails out Bob Marlin. The Cajuns were held to just 27 points in the second half before the last "Christian Laettner-esque" Dou Gueye 3 pt shot at the buzzer. It was a game where the Cajuns were making their three point shots in the first half and not in the second: 6-14 vs 2-12.
Tyrus Smith still needs to be coached up. He does not know how to defend the ball screen. He puts his arms down like he is trying to steal the ball from the guard and gives him a clear view of the basket. He should use his long arms and height to his advantage and force the guard to shoot over him. Then he goal tends on UTA's last shot with 2.7 seconds left. Once the ball hits the backboard you can't touch it. Hardy made a perfect throw and Dou caught it, turned, and fired the game winner. The Cajuns had 16 offensive rebounds to their 10 and out-rebounded them for the game 57-36. Cajuns had 17 second chance points to their 8. Cajuns had only 9 turnovers for the game.
As hard as they fought to get rebounds it would have been a shame if they had lost the game.
Nice two game win streak! Let's make it 3 come Saturday.

.......thanks...great recap.....hope somebody puts s video up!

[Jacob81]

Just finished watching the game on the archive, very big win to kick off the 2nd half of the conference run. You could tell UTA had fresher legs in the 2nd half due to their substitution patterns as they were able to knock down more shots and yes those comer threes were killer. Props to Jalen Johnson for going 40 minutes but you could tell he was gassed late, especially when he missed the back to back free throws. It’s a shame Wilson’s injury happened when it did because he had really found his shooting stroke in those last 4-5 games. Hope he can get that back as he still makes his presence known in other ways. I really thought Smith had position and took the charge on what ended up being the 3 point play that got UTA back in it at about the 2 minute mark. I did think the goal tend call was legit, Smith has to be smarter there. Great play by Hardy and Dou to negate everything that went wrong down the stretch. Also some big minutes from Spenkuch, 6 points and 6 boards (5 offensive). He really seems to be playing with more confidence and is earning those minutes.

I think bob needs to work more players into the game. If you’ve noticed, a lot of our losses get ugly late when we’re exhausted. Nobody should play 40 min.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Leaving the corner threes open more frequently than in the first half is how UTA got back into the game. I actually don’t think the team played that bad, they just shot poorly. Evidence of their efforts are the rebounding numbers. We beat them by 10 I believe in that stat. We also had only 9 turnovers. It would have been unfortunate to lose the game on a questionable goal tending call. Of course there was an element of luck to win a game in such a fashion. However preparation also came into it here. The last play was similar to what was run late in the Little Rock game. In that one Dou passed it to Russell on the wing. Cedric had a shot that was a little flat vs the Trojans. Tonight they took Cedric away so Dou let it fly. He also had good form on the shot so skill and practice came into play to determine the outcome. Great for Dou in that he did not play in the first game against UTA due to the flu. Although he struggled with his shot tonight it is worth noting the team has won four straight wins Malik Wilson on the floor.

#34 plays pretty well as long as he remembers he isn’t a guard. Receive and shoot, or pass. Rebound and shoot or pass. His best option is to dribble as little as possible.

Regardless a nice win. The last time we won on a desperation last shot may have been at ULMost in Stove’s junior season. I was at a Cajun/Lion baseball game in Hammond.

[RaginDave]

I think bob needs to work more players into the game. If you’ve noticed, a lot of our losses get ugly late when we’re exhausted. Nobody should play 40 min.

I was pleasantly surprised by Chris Spenkuch last night. In 13 minutes of play he went 3-3 from the field with 6 rebounds. He played extremely hard and make a handful of big plays when needed. I had previously been totally disappointed in his play, but last night he was very good. My assumption is that he has played much better in practice and that is why coach Marlin has given him more minutes.

This team can be pretty good if they were healthy. Last night we played 8 players, but Calvin Temple only had 2 minutes, so technically we only went 7 deep. Wilson, Smith, Russell, Johnson and Gueye starting and Hardy and Spenkuch off the bench. Hardy and Russell hit some big time 3's. I do believe that if this team had Julien (maybe the best player on the team), Cadwell and Lowery as well as Wesley available, this team would easily be in the top 3 or 4 of the SBC.

Wilson and a healthy Julien could be fun to watch for the next few years if we can build some help around them.

[Hudsheen#Fired]

I was pleasantly surprised by Chris Spenkuch last night. In 13 minutes of play he went 3-3 from the field with 6 rebounds. He played extremely hard and make a handful of big plays when needed. I had previously been totally disappointed in his play, but last night he was very good. My assumption is that he has played much better in practice and that is why coach Marlin has given him more minutes.

This team can be pretty good if they were healthy. Last night we played 8 players, but Calvin Temple only had 2 minutes, so technically we only went 7 deep. Wilson, Smith, Russell, Johnson and Gueye starting and Hardy and Spenkuch off the bench. Hardy and Russell hit some big time 3's. I do believe that if this team had Julien (maybe the best player on the team), Cadwell and Lowery as well as Wesley available, this team would easily be in the top 3 or 4 of the SBC.

Wilson and a healthy Julien could be fun to watch for the next few years if we can build some help around them.

I like Kobe's game but Mylik is the best player on this team. I dont know what it is but at times he is so too tentative on the offensive end.
His defense is incredible though, he reads passing lanes and is able to jump them to get steals (reminds me ALOT of Elfrid when he was here)

[zephyr]

I'll give coach Marlin and staff credit for the biggest improvement in the team thus far that is able to actually keep us in games and possibly win.....Rebounding. During much of the year, we were a negative net rebounding team. We were one of the only teams in our conference to actually get outrebounded on average on a per game basis which is very poor. In some of our big losses last year like to Arkansas State as well as our losing streak this year, we were getting manhandled on the boards. Last night we had 16 offensive boards alone and Johnson had a career rebounding night.

That rebounding was a big reason for our 7 point lead at halftime even though we were shooting 14% from 3pt range. That's a solid win on the road against a team that whooped our ___ at home a few weeks ago.

[zephyr]

I like Kobe's game but Mylik is the best player on this team. I dont know what it is but at times he is so too tentative on the offensive end.
His defense is incredible though, he reads passing lanes and is able to jump them to get steals (reminds me ALOT of Elfrid when he was here)

I don't know if I'd call Wilson tentative on offense. Last night, he was actually being overly aggressive later in the game and he took some ill advised shots. Marlin mentioned this in his post game comments. He noted he loved the aggressiveness from a freshman but he has to learn situation awareness. I think he's plenty aggressive but he'd rather get going early with dribble drives and transition rather than starting from the perimeter. Arlington just knew how to defend him for the most part and always had help when he wanted to drive.