Men’s Basketball: Cajuns given No. 14 seed, to meet No. 3 Creighton – video of Cajuns Selection Show

Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, March 16, 2014

Click here for Cajuns watching the NCAA Selection Show

NEW ORLEANS — As jambalaya and sandwiches were served at the Poydras Street Walk-On’s here, several UL basketball players rose from the table seats with arms raised high in the air.

Others remained parked in their chairs, arms up as well, all smiles wide.

The Ragin’ Cajuns, fresh from an 82-81 overtime win over Georgia State in Sunday’s championship game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, had just learned their automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament was good for a No. 14 seed and a meeting Friday with No. 3 seed Creighton at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

“It’s a great honor,” Cajuns center J.J. Davenport, an Abbeville High product, said as he went back to work on his dinner. “We worked so hard to get here. Now we’ve got to finish the journey.”

“I feel very confident going into the game,” UL big man Shawn Long added from the seat next to Davenport. “This group of guys we’ve got, I think we can play with anybody in the country.”

That includes 26-7 Creighton, loser to Providence in the Big East title game.

The Bluejays are led by high-scoring coach’s-son Doug McDermott, a two-time consensus All-American.

“They’ve got one of the best forwards in college basketball in (McDermott),” UL point guard Elfrid Payton said. “But I think we have a great defense, and we’re hot right now, so I think we’ve got a good chance to upset them.”

UL (23-11) has won 11 of its last 13 game heading into the NCAA tourney, which – even though the trip was later vacated because of NCAA rules violations – it is going to for the first time since 2005.

“It’s big,” Payton said. “I’m really excited to go into the NCAA Tournament.

“I think we’re a team to watch out for. I feel we can score in so many ways, and now that our defense has picked up these last 11, 12 games we can play with anybody.”

UL coach Bob Marlin went to the NCAA Tournament twice as head coach at Sam Houston State, the last time with the Bearkats as a No. 14 seed when they lost to Baylor in 2010.

Sam Houston State led for about 37 minutes before finally succumbing.

“Every experience helps, and I can share that with these guys,” Marlin said. “And they’re just about starting to listen to me a little bit.”

Marlin said the Cajuns were “excited” to learn they’d be going to San Antonio.

The first road game he ever coached at UL was a 63-58 loss in 2010 at Creighton in Omaha, and McDermott was a freshman on team at the time.

“What a fantastic player,” Marlin said, “and what a great thing for college basketball he’s done playing for his dad (Craig McDermott).

“They’re a very good basketball team, and his dad has done a great job. A good test of us, for sure.”