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Men’s Basketball: Unfinished businessMen’s Basketball: Unfinished business Men’s Basketball: Unfinished business Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • March 5, 2011 Bob Marlin spent hardly any time celebrating after UL beat UL Monroe, 61-46, last Saturday to extend its winning streak to 11 games. The first-year coach had already shifted his focus from earning a share of the Sun Belt’s West Division championship and a first-round bye in the conference tournament to preparing for the postseason. Riding the nation’s second-longest active winning streak, the Ragin’ Cajuns (14-14, 11-5 Sun Belt) will face the winner of today’s Western Kentucky-UL Monroe game at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Ark."We’ve got unfinished business that we need to take care of," Marlin said. "Our guys were very business-oriented in their approach after that game. We didn’t cut down the nets like other teams did. "We’re focused on what’s in front of us and ready to give it our best in the conference tournament."While the road ahead will be tough, UL has an advantage in getting a bye. That means the Cajuns would have to win three games in three days for the conference championship instead of four in four.The extra rest would be huge for UL senior forward La’Ryan Gary, who is limited due to swelling in his surgically repaired knee. As far as the conference tournament is concerned, there’s a general consensus that a number of teams could win the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. North Texas (19-10, 8-8) is the West Division’s fourth seed but with basically the same team last season won the conference tournament and played in the NCAA tourney.The Cajuns are in the conversation to win it given their 11-game winning streak as well as the fact that they’ve beaten every team in the conference this season but Middle Tennessee. That includes wins over Sun Belt regular-season champion Florida Atlantic (21-9, 13-3) and West Division co-champ Arkansas State (17-14, 11-5). FAU has already earned an NIT berth if it doesn’t win the conference tournament.The Sun Belt championship game will be played at 6 p.m. Tuesday and air on ESPN2. "I think it’s wide open, especially for us because we’re going in with a lot of confidence," UL guard Josh Brown said. "All of the players are ready and excited. We’ll see what happens."ESPN.com writer Pat Forde and Rivals.com college basketball editor Mike Huguenin have picked the Cajuns to win the league tournament. The program hasn’t advanced to the postseason since winning the Sun Belt tournament in the 2004-05 season.In fact, none of UL’s current players has won a postseason game at the NCAA Division I level. That’s added incentive for the Cajuns to win in Hot Springs for seniors La’Ryan Gary, Travis Bureau and Randell Daigle."This is the start of a new season," Brown said. "We’re 0-0, and our goal is to win three in a row and make it to the NCAA Or in UL’s case, 14 in a row. Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for the photo gallery of the Jan. 21-22, 2011 Basketball Reunion Click here for the January 18, 2003 Basketball Reunion Click here for the Nov. 1-2, 2001 Shipley Basketball Reunion
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