After calling someone for advice on what to do after feeling sick around 3 a.m. one day earlier this week, he was asked what he had for dinner.

That would be nothing.

He was asked about lunch. That would be food from a certain place known for its golden arches.

He was asked if he ate anything else during the day and night. That would be gobs of Sour Patch Kids candy.

Typical college freshman?

Perhaps.

Elfrid Payton, however, has been anything but ordinary in his first few months at UL.

He made ESPN’s Top 10 plays for his mid-December circus shot at Ole Miss.

His game-winning layup in overtime last Thursday at Western Kentucky went viral on the internet, notable mostly because the Ragin’ Cajuns had six players on the floor at the time but also because Payton didn’t pass to a single one of those five teammates during his 17-plus seconds with ball.

Seventeen games into his first season with UL, now coming off the bench after a short stint as its starting point guard, he’s emerged as the one coach Bob Marlin wanted with the ball in his hands when that game against the Hilltoppers was on the line.

Yet he’s still only 17.

That’s right:

UL’s own Sour Patch kid doesn’t turn 18 until Feb. 22, three days before the Cajuns play their final Sun Belt Conference regular-season game of 2011-12.

"You can see it," said Marlin, whose club plays host tonight to South Alabama.

"At some points in games, he looks very confident. At other times, he looks like he’s 17 — and has a few butterflies.

"But he’s going to get better and better," the Cajuns coach added. "He’s going to be a heckuva player by the time he’s done here."

Ever since his season started in November, however, Payton’s development has been measurable.

"Last year after the Top 28 (Louisiana’s high school basketball state playoffs) Kevin Johnson (a UL assistant coach) and I went to visit with him at school, and, golly, he was a young, skinny boy," Marlin said of the Marrero-John Ehret High product.

"To me, he’s matured a lot — physically and in years," the Cajuns head coach added. "You have to think that in another year or two he’s gonna really fill out and be a quality basketball player."

Extra accommodation, Marlin suggested, is made for a player that young.

"Do you remember what it was like when you were 17? I wasn’t even in college," Marlin said. "I was 18 the spring of my senior year in high school.

"So, I emphasize to the coaches and the older guys — ‘put your arm around him.’ You have to remember he’s a freshman, and try to make him feel comfortable."

Still, expectations are as high as for all the rest.

That may be one reason junior point Raymone Andrews, who is averaging 25.1 minutes per game to Payton’s 22.6, reclaimed his starting job.

It’s one reason Marlin lets Payton know he, just like everyone else, must learn to treasure the ball and reduce bad passes and turnovers.

It’s one reason the Cajuns coach is constantly trying to get Payton, a pass-first point, to actually shoot the ball when the time is right.

"He has to be aggressive more," Marlin said of Payton, who is the averaging the same number of points as Andrews (6.6) and virtually the same number of assists (2.8 to 2.7) but more than twice as many turnovers (2.6 to 1.2).

"He (Payton) tries to get everybody involved. He’s a true point guard. But we’d like for him to score a little bit more, just as Raymone Andrews has for us."

Andrews, who hasn’t always been as much of a distributor as Marlin ideally would like, wants to help his teammate figure things out.

"He’s young, so he has to get used to it," Andrews said. "I know when I was here my first year I was afraid to shoot the ball. I was quick to pass up an open shot."

Not any more.

"So he’ll get used to it," Andrews said. "He’ll be just fine.

"He has the skills. He’s a great talent. It’s just confidence, basically. He gets down on himself after he messes up or turns the ball over, but after he gets his confidence he’s gonna do real well.

"We need him to get comfortable, to where he can hit that wide open shot whenever he gets it," Andrews added. "That’s what we’re trying to get him to realize."

Payton missed practiced Wednesday, perhaps not so much because of too much candy but instead due to what he said he was told by a doctor to be a bug going around campus.

But when he was back at practice Thursday and passed up a shot, Marlin didn’t hesitate to let him know.

"Shoot the ball E," he shouted. "Shoot the ball."

And when Payton knocked down an outside jumper later Thursday, the praise came just as quick.

So Payton, more of a scoring point in high school than he is now, knows what he has to do.

It’s just a matter of doing it.

"If I see a shot, just take it instead of maybe taking another dribble and looking for something else," he said. "When that shot’s there, take it instead of waiting it out and maybe find somebody else.

"It’s a little hard, but I’m starting to get it."

Going 1-for-9 from the field like he did in last Saturday’s loss at Middle Tennessee doesn’t help.

But having Marlin hand him the ball like he did late in OT at WKU does.

"It meant a lot," said Payton, who had taken only four shots before his winner against the Hilltoppers. "It meant he had confidence in me — had faith that I was gonna make the right play for us to win. That does a lot for my confidence, knowing I can do it."

As all five teammates on the floor can attest.