Men’s Basketball: UL fans united in hiring of Marlin

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • April 5, 2010

In a private protest to UL giving men’s basketball coach Robert Lee a two-year extension in 2008, long-time fan Jon Robertson refused to attend a game in the Cajundome for the past two seasons.

Robertson plans to be back next season now that Lee has been replaced by Bob Marlin, who posted a 225-131 record with six 20-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament berths in 12 years at Sam Houston State.

This past season, the Bearkats secured the Southland Conference regular season and league tournament titles to advance to the NCAA Tournament and won a school-record 25 games. He was named the Southland Conference and National Association of Basketball Coaches District 23 Coach of the Year and was the Skip Prosser Man of the Year for on-court success and moral integrity.

Marlin leaves as the second-winningest coach in Southland Conference history.

"I really like the hiring of Bob Marlin and feel good about what he can do here," said Robertson, who has operated the UL fan site raginpagin.com since 2002. "We’re getting a coach with experience, and I have a good feeling about him coming in because he was at a smaller school and isn’t going to feel hamstrung by a smaller budget.

"I always thought UL underestimated its value by getting assistants and letting them learn on the job. We had more potential than that because of our past success."

Marlin takes over a program that in six years under Lee had an 80-100 on-court record. That included a 13-17 campaign in 2009-10 for the team’s fifth consecutive non-winning season — the longest such streak since eight straight from 1950-57.

UL’s home attendance in each of the past two seasons has been the lowest since the team moved into the Cajundome in 1985. After averaging 2,871 fans per game at home in 2008-09, the average crowd last season was 2,762 in the Cajundome.

Back in 2007-08, that number was more than 4,100 per game at home.

Those struggles are a poor reflection of the program’s history of success. The Cajuns have made 14 postseason trips — nine NCAA Tournament appearances and five NIT berths.

David K. Fontenot attended the school during the basketball heydays in the early 1970s. He has been a season-ticket holder since graduating in 1974. Both of his sons went to school there and his wife is now an instructor at UL.

In other words, Fontenot bleeds red. He was impressed that UL athletic director David Walker and senior associate athletic director Scott Farmer were able to get Marlin, who was a finalist for the Auburn job, interviewed at Houston and was in the mix at UTEP.

Marlin agreed to a five-year deal that will pay him $275,000 annually. With bonuses, his pay could increase to more than $300,000 a year.

Lee made $175,000 last year, while Marlin brought in a reported $150,000 this past season at Sam Houston.

"I think he’s good for the school and the community," Fontenot said. "He’s spent the past 12 years at a school where it is tough to win, but he’s always been a winner.

"Some people I know in the profession from the Midwest told me that we got a winner with integrity and knowledge of the game and someone who is respected by coaches across the country."

Alan Trahan, a 2004 graduate of UL, has attended every possible home game since 1998 but never bought season tickets because there were always plenty of available seats.

That all changed after Marlin was hired.

"After going to the news conference, I was motivated to get season tickets for the first time," Trahan said. "I think that a good seat will be hard to get in the near future. Bob Marlin’s hire is a no-brainer. He comes across as a very controlled individual.

"I believe the problems we’ve seen with the recent teams are a lack of discipline, motivation and attention to detail. The talent was there. Our recent teams lost respect for their coach, but I don’t see that happening with coach Marlin."