Men’s Basketball: Cajuns still relishing win streak

Men’s Basketball: Cajuns still relishing win streak

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • March 10, 2011

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Josh Brown clings to the hope that UL’s basketball team will receive and accept an spot in the College Basketball Invitational.

Even if that never happens, the junior guard won’t dwell on Sunday’s 81-76 loss to Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt Conference tournament quarterfinals in Hot Springs, Ark.

Brown will instead focus on an 11-game winning streak that helped the Ragin’ Cajuns (14-15) overcome a 3-14 start – 1-5 in conference play — to win a share of the Sun Belt’s West Division title."I’m going to remember that we started off really bad and then turned it around," Brown said. "Eventually we all came together."

The early part of the season under first-year coach Bob Marlin was a struggle.After already losing Sun Belt Player of the Year Tyren Johnson (exhausted eligibility) and second-leading scorer Chris Gradnigo (transferred to Coastal Carolina) in the offseason, the Cajuns lost 14 of their first 17 games.

Brown missed a combined eight games with knee injuries. The Cajuns went 1-7 in those games. He finished second on the team this season in scoring at 11.3 points per game.Freshman forward J.J. Thomas contracted mono in the preseason and sat out four games. The Cajuns went 1-3 during that stretch. Thomas was second-team all-conference after leading the team in scoring (11.3 ppg) and finishing second in rebounding (6.2 rpg).Senior forward Travis Bureau missed two games (one with an illness, one due to injury) and struggled to play sick at Creighton. The Cajuns lost all three of those games. He led the team in rebounding (6.9 rpg) and was third in scoring (10.4 ppg).Sophomore guard Raymone Andrews hurt his ankle and shoulder and did not play in the season’s first three games. Marlin later benched him against Texas College in mid-December. The Cajuns dropped all four of those games. He led the team in steals (29) and assists (2.9 apg).

Senior forward La’Ryan Gary was limited in his return from a serious knee injury that sidelined him last season. He still averaged a career-high 10.1 ppg.

Then senior post players Courtney Wallace (academics) and Colby Batiste (undisclosed reason) were lost in mid-January, which shortened the bench depth.

By the time junior forward Scottie Farrington got hurt and sick late in the season — he missed seven games with various health issues — the Cajuns had caught fire.They gained some confidence with a 94-62 blowout of Centenary on Jan. 19 then edged UL Monroe, 84-75, three days later during a reunion weekend to celebrate 100 years of Cajun basketball.

By the end of the regular season the Cajuns had won 11 consecutive games, including a school-record 10 in a row against Sun Belt opponents. That earned them a share of the Sun Belt’s West Division championship with Arkansas State after being picked fourth in the preseason.After a first-round bye in the league tournament, the Cajuns lost to WKU in the quarterfinals. The loss snapped the second-best active winning streak in the nation and in school history.

"Our guys fought until the very end, and they’ve done that for the past seven weeks," Marlin said after Sunday’s loss. "We’ve gone from Jan. 15 until March 6 without losing a basketball game. That’s pretty impressive."The Cajuns still haven’t won a Sun Belt tournament game since 2006. And unless they play in the CBI, this is guaranteed be the program’s sixth straight non-winning season.

But they went 11-5 (.688) in conference play. That’s their best winning percentage in league action since posting an 11-4 mark (.733) in the 2004-05 season, although those 11 wins were later vacated due to NCAA sanctions.Players and coaches admitted that this truly was a special season, with Gary, Bureau and senior guard Randell Daigle leading the way."I’m going to remember how we came together as a team," Gary said. "We built a lot of confidence as the season went on and went on that win streak. We had a lot of passion and respect for each other."Marlin was amazed by the team’s ability to recover from a 3-14 start to win 11 straight before falling to WKU in the conference tournament. He added that he had never heard of a team doing that in his 29 years as a college basketball coach.

"These guys stepped up and played as a unit," Marlin said. "They’ve done a great job for our university, our city and our Cajun fans, and I’m proud of them for that."

Athletic Network Footnote:

Click here for the photo gallery of the Jan. 21-22, 2011 Basketball Reunion
(Over 300 photos in eight links and New Stories Link has over 50 stories posted in chronological order)

Click here for the January 18, 2003 Basketball Reunion

Click here for the Nov. 1-2, 2001 Shipley Basketball Reunion