UL standouts Elfrid Payton, right, and Bryant Mbamalu enjoy a light moment at practice Friday at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. / Leslie Westbrook/The Advertiser

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West Regional

No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 14 UL

Game: 2:10 p.m., Friday, San Antonio.
TV: truTV (Cox ch. 51, LUS 80, DirecTV 246, Dish 242).
Radio: 107.9 FM.
Records: Creighton 26-7; UL 23-11.
Series: Tied 2-2 (Creighton won 63-58 in 2010).

LOTS OF UL TIES

A few UL ties to other NCAA Tournament teams and storylines:
• No. 1 seed Florida’s coach is Billy Donovan, who was UL point guard Elfrid Payton’s coach in the USA Basketball that won the FIBA U19 World Championship in the Czech Republic this past summer;
• Former Cajun starting center Kadeem Coleby averages 2.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 12.9 minutes per game off the bench for undefeated Wichita State, which goes into the tourney as a No. 1 seed as well;
• Ex-Cajun J.J. Thomas’ Cal State Northridge club made it to the Big West Tournament title game, but was denied an automatic NCAA Tournament after getting beat by sub-.500 Cal Poly;
• Thomas’ brother, Cleveland “Pancake” Thomas, originally signed a national letter-of-intent with the Cajuns before changing his mind and being released from his commitment; he now plays for a 27-6 New Mexico team that is a No. 7 seed and played No. 10 seed Stanford on Thursday;
• New Mexico State, which will re-join UL in the Sun Belt Conference starting next season, opened Thursday as a No. 13 seed with a 26-9 record against No. 4 seed San Diego State;
• Among first-year UL assistant coach Gus Hauser’s previous stops are New Mexico State and Coastal Carolina, both of which are in this year’s tourney; he also was a graduate assistant under Rick Pitino at defending national champ Louisville, which is back this year.
– Tim Buckley

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SAN ANTONIO — At the end of his fourth season as its head coach, Bob Marlin has his UL basketball team in the NCAA Tournament.

The No. 14 seed Ragin’ Cajuns, winners of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, have their first dance this afternoon with No. 3 seed Creighton at the AT&T Center here.

It will be a whirl Marlin had hoped would have come sooner. But, as it turned out, he had to clear the floor space first.

“It’s taken a little bit longer than we had anticipated,” said Marlin, who was hired by UL in 2010 after taking Sam Houston State to the NCAA Tournament for a second time. “We’d hoped to get here in our second year; we didn’t, we had some setbacks.”

Marlin had to virtually turn over his roster in order to get the team he has now playing so deep in March.

Starting swingman Bryant Mbamalu, in fact, is the only member of that 2010-11 Cajun team with UL here in San Antonio.

“We faced some obstacles early,” said Marlin, whose first game as coach of the Cajuns coincidentally was a road loss at Creighton. “We had a large senior class when I came, and the top leading returning scorer (Chris Gradnigo) transferred (to Coastal Carolina) at the end of July.

“So, we were behind a little bit the first time we played Creighton, for sure.

“Then we had some guys who chose to leave, and we made a few changes,” Marlin added. “It worked out.”

That is has.

The Cajuns are making their first NCAA Tournament since 2005.

“It’s amazing,” UL women’s coach Garry Brodhead said. “He (Marlin) didn’t ‘build’ a program. He rebuilt a program. You know, he had to knock it down, tear it down. Four years – look where he’s at today. Man, just amazing.”

Marlin had an especially high turnover count from his 2011-12 team, after his second season at UL.

Popular forward J.J. Thomas and major-minutes point guard Raymone Andrews both were suspended for that season’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament and did not return.

Andrews later surfaced at Stetson, as did another ex-Cajun from that club, Kentwan Smith, who followed ousted assistant coach Nikita Johnson there.

Thomas transferred to Cal State Northridge, which lost in this year’s Big West title game.

The Cajuns that offseason also lost starting center Kadeem Coleby, who is now 12.9 minutes per game off the bench for Wichita State, a No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Different than the cases of Andrews and Thomas,

UL tried to retain Coleby – Marlin even flew to the shot-blocking big man’s home in The Bahamas to make his case – but he ultimately opted to leave.

Other minor tweaks were made along the way too.

“We’ve had some players go,” said Mbamalu, now a senior leader for the Cajuns. “I guess it was for the betterment of the team. We needed more camaraderie. And everything works out for a reason.”

Current Cajun players firmly believe that.

“That was a big help. Coach did a good job of getting a nice group of guys, a nice core set of guys, and got some people to build around that. And things happened fast,” starting point guard Elfrid Payton said. “Last year, we felt like we could have been better. A lot of close games that we won this year we were losing (then). That helps us grow as a team.”

“It was worth it,” Mbamalu added. “I mean, most definitely we wanted more positivity in the program and (to) make sure everybody was on the same page. And now that we are, we’re in the NCAA Tournament.”

One year after finishing 13-20, UL – which beat top-seeded Georgia State in overtime of the Sun Belt tourney championship game – is 23-11 this season.

Changes made prior to then, though, are paying off now.

“I felt like we had a good group last year,” Marlin said. “We were just young and inexperienced.”

UL went 3-9 last season in games decided by five points or fewer.

“Because of that we had a losing record,” Marlin said. “But the basketball gods are fair. That’s gonna even out over time.”