Podcast: We're Talkin Ragin' Cajuns Basketball with Jay Walker 03-07-2023

[Cajunsmike]

Craig, you’re doing great work with the podcast.

And this is not even part of the beef with Walker. This is just a fan listening to the content of his comments:

Anyone who believes it’s “unreasonable” to expect to finish above an average of 5th or 6th place in this conference should give up sports as a hobby and “support” something else. What a ridiculous comment. Was it unreasonable for Ga St to expect to win? Those mfers dominated this league for 8 years. They went to the dance 3 times in 7 years. They won a game in the tournament. They finished below 4th place ONE time, this year not withstanding. And they did all of that in mid-city Atlanta in a middle school gym on the third floor of a commercial office building.

Is winning hard? Of course it is. Anything worth doing in life is hard. But it’s even harder when you make every excuse under the sun as to why you can’t win.

Charter flights. Bus trips. AD gave the money to football. Can’t win on the road. Elevation. Mardi Gras distraction. We’re the “standard” with a target on our back. Blah blah blah. We’ve heard it all. All of those things still existed this season and look at what this team accomplished.

Supporters of a good program DO and SHOULD expect to win. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re wrong for that.

Keep up the good work, MelRock.

I think going into each season, the players and coaches in our program have expectations of at least a top four finish these days, if not higher. That is what you need for a double bye. Now, they may know that won't happen every year and are VERY disappointed when it does not occur. That does not mean their expectations are not high.

[MelRock]

Coming through the left ear bud only.

Still loving every minute.

Infatuated with the new MBB SID.

Thanks, I see what is wrong. I am still trying to get the best sound quality, so I am experimenting.

[MelRock]

Thanks for listening and for the feedback.

[ManAboutTown]

Thanks, I see what is wrong. I am still trying to get the best sound quality, so I am experimenting.

Craig, the podcast before this one, audio quality was the best I’d heard. It was the one with you and Mike talking post South Al, I’m pretty sure.

Whatever y’all did there, it was really good.

[zephyr]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

[JayWalker]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) 2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

[cajuns80]

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) 2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

If we would be finishing top 4 year in year out, we would win some tournaments. 22-23 wins should be the minimum with the way we schedule.

[ULvictory]

I love Jay and I'm a big fan of his, however, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole we've finished first in the league only twice in 32 years thing. Fan's criticisms of Marlin honestly had more to do with averaging a 6th place finish over the last 4 or 5 years prior to this year while being the highest paid coach in the league rather than lack of 1st place finishes.

Craig, solid episode as always. Enjoyed the content.

As far as finishing the league twice in 32 years, that doesn't call for not striving for more. When we went to the NOLA Bowl for our first bowl appearance in 40 years, we didn't just say the following year, "Well, it's hard and it's been 40 years so if we don't make it again, oh well." No, we were ready to go back the following year. And the year after that. And the year after that. We all know it's hard in a one bid league in basketball. It's also hard to be ranked in the Top 25 in football. It's hard to make regionals in the diamond sports. But that shouldn't stop us from having an attitude expectations. Selling ourselves short is counterproductive.

[zephyr]

If we would be finishing top 4 year in year out, we would win some tournaments. 22-23 wins should be the minimum with the way we schedule.

This is my point. You build a program that wins consistently and challenges or wins regular season championships which is extremely tough to do because it requires consistency throughout a large part of the season, you will put yourself in better position to win a larger percentage of those tournament championships.

[ManAboutTown]

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) 2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.

It's to illustrate two things. 1. It's hard to win. As good as we've been at times, we've only won the regular season twice. It's just hard to win. (We've done a remarkable job as the #2 seed.) So we haven't won championships in the past (which is not true) so we shouldn't do everything that we can do to it now? Our fans shouldn't expect to win now? This league has not been good in 15, maybe 20 years. The schedule isn't CLOSE to what it was in the late 70s through early 2000s.

2. Everyone wants us to win championships and act like we've done it a bunch of times. We haven't. We have had success seven times (counting this year) in the tournament, but get mad when "three days in March" is brought up. Let's go ask Georgia State and Ron Hunter how hard it is to win in the SBC prior to adding the new members. 3 championships in 7 years. Finished below 4th place ONCE.

And, while I agree with your assessment of fans criticisms to an extent, there are many on this board who judge only by are you winning championships. Hell, there were a bunch on this board who refused to recognize the 27 win team as a champion because they weren't in the NCAA tournament. Literally never happened.

If we finished in the top two every year but never won the tournament, everyone on here would be screaming for a coaching change. The AD of this university set the standards. Top 4 every year and competing for championships. If any part of that is not being met, a change needs to be made, PER THE STANDARD OF THE BOSS.

It still boggles my mind as good as we are this year, had we fallen in the finals we'd be sitting home with 25 wins. THAT'S how hard it is to win in mid major college basketball.
That's because we play in a bad basketball league in a sport that is quickly removing mid-majors from their equation. Schedule better teams, invest in the league and WIN. We all understand that getting to the dance every year is not going to happen. But I seem to remember fans really enjoying the Evans era. NCAAs and NITs alike.