Men’s Basketball: UL star RB McGuire gets his shot at basketball

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, January 18, 2016

 

When he was a little guy, star Ragin’ Cajuns running back Elijah McGuire’s first love was not football.

“I was always a basketball guy,” McGuire said a few months back, before his junior season began.

“Football was just something I did because my friends pushed me into it, because I was fast. … But I always was scared to get hit,” he added then, “so I would run away from everybody. That’s how I scored all my touchdowns in little league.”

As of Monday, McGuire and basketball are back together.

The 5-foot-11, 208-pound NFL prospect and 2014 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year is by no means done with football.

But the product of Vandebilt Catholic High in Houma will be playing some hoops for at least the next couple of weeks, and perhaps longer.

UL basketball coach Bob Marlin and football coach Mark Hudspeth jointly announced Monday that McGuire has joined the Cajun basketball team, and suggested that if things go well he could remain with it even until after the start of spring football practice.

“If that would help our basketball team win a Sun Belt championship,” Hudspeth said by phone, “then I am very supportive of our basketball team as well as Eli.

“If Eli can help … then (he’s) gonna continue playing and finish the season. But if it gets to the point where he’s not gonna be a contributor, then he would come back to football.

“Eli was an exceptional basketball player in high school. … And I think he really enjoys it,” Hudspeth added. “But Eli loves to compete. I think he wants to see if he can help the team, and help our university.”

McGuire approached Marlin, and sought permission from Hudspeth, and when the two spoke last week the football coach asked the basketball coach if he really did think the running back could be of assistance on the hardcourt.

“Our guard play has been inconsistent. I said, ‘I think he can,’ ” said Marlin, whose 7-8 Cajuns are coming off back-to-back road wins at Georgia Southern last Thursday night and Georgia State on Saturday going into this Thursday night’s home game against South Alabama.

Marlin – whose Cajuns open a five-game homestand Thursday – wouldn’t commit as to when, or even if, McGuire would actually appear in a game.

“We’ve got a couple weeks here at home; we can practice him and find out and see,” he said. “But he’s a very good defender. Super speed, as you know. And very smart.

“I think he’ll pick things up quickly. He was at practice (last Tuesday), and had a very good feel for what we were doing.”

McGuire was an all-district guard at Vandebilt Catholic, but the Cajuns didn’t recruit him for basketball.

“We knew he was gonna play football,” Marlin said.

The Cajun coach, however, has been reminded often of just what basketball means to McGuire, whom UL did not make available to media members Monday.

“People from Houma have called us every year wanting him to play,” he said.

Marlin called McGuire “just a great athlete” who can play either guard spot.

UL’s second-leading scorer, senior combo guard Kasey Shepherd, ruptured a finger tendon on his shooting hand in the Cajuns’ win last Saturday at Georgia State.

It remains to be seen if that could create minutes for McGuire, who became UL’s fourth-leading career rusher after running for 1,047 yards in 12 games this past season.

“I have no idea,” Marlin said when asked when McGuire might play.

“He’ll have to wear off a little rusty, certainly. We’ll have to look and how he progresses. But with Kasey (Shepherd), and his finger, we’ll see how bad that is.

“I don’t anticipate anything, and I don’t think Eli can shoot the ball like Kasey,” Marlin added. “I don’t remember him doing that in high school.”

Rather, McGuire is more of a slasher who can contribute defensively.

He’s wanted to play basketball since arriving at UL in 2013, and told Marlin that.

“I told Mark (Hudspeth) … at a speaking engagement, before the fall (then), ‘If you redshirt Eli, you know he’s gonna play basketball,’ ” Marlin said Monday. “I don’t know if Coach (Hudspeth) took me seriously or not. But Eli’s asked us before. This was the first opportunity.”

He was focused on football, and school, as a freshman.

McGuire underwent offseason shoulder surgery following the 2014 season, making it essentially impossible then.

But after the 2015 season ended at 4-8 for the Cajuns, McGuire – ranked by CBSports.com as the No. 15 running back in the 2017 NFL Draft – inquired about the possibility again.

Then he decided to submit his name to the NFL Draft Advisory Board for feedback on how high he might be selected if he were to turn to pro in 2016.

Earlier this month, though, he revealed he had decided to stay in school.

“We let it run its course,” Marlin said of McGuire’s recent overtures, “and when school started last week he came to us (again).

“He came to practice (last) Tuesday, and sat and watched practice, and said that he was ready to go. I called Coach Hudspeth from there on Wednesday morning, and we talked about it.”

According to UL officials, McGuire – if he indeed appears in a basketball game – would be the first Cajun to play both sports for the school since Robert Davis.

The defensive end from Baton Rouge’s Glen Oaks High lettered in football in 2000, when he had one sack, then averaged 1.3 points and 1.1 rebounds over 15 basketball games during the 2000-01 season, and scored another 17 points with 22 boards in the 2002-03 season.

Shortly before that, Desmond Williams lettered in football from 1997-99 and scored nine points with six rebounds over six games during 1998-99 basketball season.

When Marlin coached at Sam Houston State, he picked up a football player named Keith Heinrich – a tight end who went on to play 22 NFL games from 2002-07 for Carolina, Cleveland and Tampa Bay.

So Marlin is quite receptive to the dual-sport idea, and he seemingly has no concerns about what his players might think about adding a newcomer 15 games into the season.

“Our guys know Elijah,” said Marlin, who added that star big man Shawn Long even offered to share his Cajundome locker with McGuire. “He’s one of the best, if not the best, athletes on this campus.

“The guys our excited. The chemistry going forward – we’ll just have to wait and see. But nothing’s gonna happen unless Eli makes it happen. If he can help us cut down the nets, then that will be great. And if he can’t then he’ll probably be back at spring football in a few weeks.”

The Cajun football team opens spring practice March 8, one day before the Sun Belt basketball tournament opens in New Orleans.

In the interim, Hudspeth suggested he has no potential injury concerns.

“What we do in football is, I think, even way more intense than, really, what he’ll be doing,” the Cajun football coach said. “He gets a lot of that in football. But he’ll get a lot of good running, and change of direction, and conditioning. So, he’s not missing out on the conditioning and workout part.

“Injuries can take place anytime, anywhere,” Hudspeth added, “so that’s just part of the deal.”