Men’s Basketball: Reviving the program

Men’s Basketball: Reviving the program

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • February 27, 2011

For the UL basketball program to rebuild after a two-year death penalty from the NCAA in the 1970s, the school needed all of the help it could get.

In a strange way, the NCAA actually helped the Ragin’ Cajuns with their rebuilding process.

"There were no real limitations on how often college coaches could watch recruits or be on the road recruiting at that time," said Bobby Paschal, a UL assistant under Jim Hatfield from 1975-78 and the program’s head coach from ’78-86. "I was on the road recruiting all of the time."

He’s not kidding.

Paschal estimated that he probably attended barely one-third of the team’s games in its return to intercollegiate competition in the 1975-76 season. During at least one stretch he was on the road for 17 straight days.

That work ethic, coupled with Hatfield’s and Paschal’s strong recruiting connections, helped the Cajuns sign a number of blue-chip prospects.

Some of those big-time signees soon after the probation included Andrew Toney, Dion Rainey, Cordy Glenn, Wayne Julien, Carl Jordan and Kevin Figaro. Toney (Alabama) and Rainey (Florida) were named Mr. Basketball in their respective state as prep seniors. Glenn and Jordan were signed out of junior college.

The school had no basketball-related activities during the 1973-74 season, but then-UL athletic director Toby Warren signed six prep players to practice the following year while redshirting.

Hatfield, an assistant at the University of Kentucky, was hired a year later. He coached a practice squad during the week, but with no games had the flexibility to travel and observe other coaches. In October 1974, he got to spend about two weeks out in California watching the practices of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden in his final year on the sideline.

Paschal left Florida Southern to become an assistant for the Cajuns in the summer of 1975. He and Hatfield then narrowed down their recruiting targets. Their strongest ties were in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, and they also recruited the junior colleges in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Members of UL’s 1974-75 practice squad, which included Ted Lyles, Jerry Mitchell and Pascal Mitchell among others, were joined by junior college signees Ben Stewart, Calvin Crews and Myron Wilkins that next season.

After going 7-19 in their first year back from the death penalty, the Cajuns added Toney, Rainey, Glenn and Julien. Toney was the lone guard out of Birmingham that the Cajuns recruited when he was a senior. Paschal was tight with Rainey’s prep coach. Glenn liked the chance to play right away for a program that was in the top 10 a few years earlier.

"That gave us a good nucleus with what we had returning," Paschal said. "So we had a pretty quick turnaround."

The following year, in the 1976-77 season, the Cajuns logged a 21-8 record. Figaro, followed his hometown school during the Bo Lamar era, joined the program the next year as UL went 19-8.

And when Hatfield left for Mississippi State after the 1977-78 season, Warren promoted Paschal the same day. Paschal kept the momentum moving forward, taking the Cajuns to the postseason five times (three NIT berths, two NCAA tournament appearances) in eight years.

Added Figaro: "Whoever made that decision was smart."

Speaking of Bo Lamar, Hatfield said the success after probation would not have been possible without the work of ex-UL coach Beryl Shipley and his teams from 1957-73.

"The job that Beryl and those guys did made our job a lot easier," Hatfield said. "They gave this school and basketball program a lot of exposure. That’s what made this program special."