Men’s Basketball: Cajuns loving life during win streak

Men’s Basketball: Cajuns loving life during win streak

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • February 22, 2011

Life is good for members of the UL men’s basketball team, both on and off the court.

On the court Saturday, the Ragin’ Cajuns stretched their winning streak to nine straight games with a 67-64 win over Western Kentucky in front of 7,071 in the Cajundome.

That nine-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest active run in the nation with Morehead State. Only George Mason (13) has won more consecutive games.

The nine straight wins are the most for UL (12-14, 9-5 Sun Belt) since winning 10 in a row during the 1999-2000 season. It’s tied for the eighth-longest winning streak in school history.

After Saturday’s win, UL forward Travis Bureau jumped on the scorer’s table to celebrate with the crowd before being pulled down by first-year coach Bob Marlin.

Off the court, Bureau said he has received congratulatory e-mails from professors and plenty of support from his classmates after recent wins.

"On campus we’re getting major love," Bureau said. "I’d say that we’re the talk on campus right now. We love that people are giving us love, but we’re not getting big-headed about it.

"We have that swagger that coach Marlin wants us to have, like we’ve been there before."

There will be even more to talk about if the Cajuns, currently tied for first in the Sun Belt’s West Division with Denver and Arkansas State, can continue their winning ways with two games left in the regular season.

They play host to Denver (13-14, 9-5) at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in the Cajundome. UL seniors Travis Bureau, La’Ryan Gary and Randell Daigle will be honored that night prior to their final collegiate home game.

Denver won the previous meeting this season, 65-52, on Dec. 30 at home in the conference opener for both teams. The Pioneers have lost four of their past six games, including a 48-47 defeat to South Alabama on Sunday after blowing a 14-point halftime lead.

A total of 7,071 fans attended UL’s win over WKU — the fifth-largest home crowd for the Cajuns since 2002. The Cajuns are hoping to have 10,000 in attendance for Thursday’s game against Denver. If that happens, fans will receive $10 toward the purchase of 2011-12 UL men’s basketball season tickets.

It’s also Season Ticket Redemption Night on Thursday. All season ticket holders can redeem any unused 2010-11 men’s basketball season tickets for extra tickets to the game.

Bureau was happy to see the large crowd show up for UL’s win over WKU, its first against the Hilltoppers since Jan. 27, 2005.

"I had yet to see it (the home attendance) get over 5,000 and we were at 7,000," Bureau said. "I knew it was going to be a big game because it was a rivalry game, but I didn’t expect for it to be that packed."

The Cajuns have an average home attendance of 3,600 this season, which is second in the Sun Belt behind only WKU (3,869). That’s the best average home attendance for the Cajuns since the 2007-08 season when they averaged 4,121 per game.

It’s a significant increase from the 2008-09 (2,871) and 2009-10 seasons (2,762).

"It’s been lovely playing in front of big crowds," Gary said. "Playing in an atmosphere like that helps a lot with all of the support from the community."

Marlin is asking the community to be in the Cajundome again on Thursday as UL closes out the home portion of its season. The Cajuns are 9-4 this season at home, including 6-1 in Sun Belt play.