Men’s Basketball: That first season

en’s Basketball: That first season

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

Leslie Westbrook/lwestbrook@theadvertiser.com Former UL basketball coaches Jim Hatfield, left, and Bobby Paschal, right, share a laugh with current UL basketball coach Bob Marlin during a reunion social Jan. 21. Marlin is trying to become the first of the three coaches to reach the NCAA Tournament in his first season as head coach.

Last March, Bob Marlin left Sam Houston State after 12 years to take over a UL men’s basketball program that was steeped in tradition but had fallen on hard times.

The facts: The Ragin’ Cajuns had just completed their fifth consecutive non-winning season, the program’s longest streak since eight straight in the 1950s. A 13-17 record in the 2009-10 season resulted in the school declining to retain long-time coach Robert Lee.

Enter Marlin.

"We talked about changing the culture from the time we arrived in Lafayette," Marlin said. "That’s something that had to be done. We had to pick ourselves up. Before anything you have to change the attitude before you can change the culture."

Slowly but surely, a new attitude is taking shape in Lafayette.

UL struggled through the first half of the season but closed the regular season with the nation’s second-longest active win streak – 10 in a row. The Cajuns (xxxxx-xxxxx, xxxxx-xxxx Sun Belt) have yet to post a winning record, but recent results have produced optimism for the future under Marlin.

"It’s going to take him some time," said former UL coach Beryl Shipley. "But he’ll turn things around."

Shipley knows what it takes. He and other former Cajun coaches have faced similar challenges in their first year with the program.

Building tradition

Shipley took over a struggling program when he arrived at UL prior to the 1957-58 season.

The Cajuns had just completed a 7-19 season, their seventh straight losing mark under J.C. "Dutch" Reinhardt. The differences between Reinhardt and Shipley, then 31, were obvious from the start.

"We worked a little harder than they had been used to," said Shipley, a Tennessee native. "I think that would be a fair statement."

Shipley signed a quartet of players from Kentucky – headlined by Tim Thompson – a few months before the season started. They joined a group of returning players that included Randy Price, Derwood Duke and Prentice McKellar.

Price, now a stockbroker in Kerrville, Texas, said Shipley had his players working out eight to 10 hours a day in the months leading up to that first season.