Men’s Basketball: Marlin named Coach of the Year; Bartley named Player of the Year

Matt Sullivan, Director of Athletics Communications

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball coach Bob Marlin and senior guard Frank Bartley swept the state’s major college postseason awards as the duo was honored by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches (LABC) in a release on Monday.
 
Marlin, who guided Louisiana to a school-record 27 victories and the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title, was named the recipient of the "Tommy Joe Eagles Memorial Award" as the Louisiana Major College Coach of the Year for 2018.
 
Bartley, who was named as Player of the Year by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) earlier this month, was selected as the recipient of the "Pete Maravich Memorial Award" as the Louisiana Major College Player of the Year for 2018.
 
Bartley, who was named the 2017 LSWA Newcomer of the Year, helped lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 27-7 record and the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title. He led the Ragin’ Cajuns in scoring at 17.8 points per game while recording 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
 
The Baton Rouge native and BYU transfer earned first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors for the Ragin’ Cajuns while finishing as the league’s top free-throw shooter averaging 86.0 percent (141-for-164) from the charity line.
 
The former Christian Life Academy product scored in double figures in his final 32 games during the 2017-18 season for the Ragin’ Cajuns and had 10 games with 20 or more points scored. Bartley became the 47th player in school history to reach the career 1,000-point scoring mark, and was the ninth player in Ragin’ Cajuns history to reach the feat in two years, joining a list that included Lamar, Toney and Shawn Long.
 
Marlin, a two-time LSWA Coach of the Year, led the Ragin’ Cajuns to a school-record 27 wins and the school’s first outright SBC regular-season title since 1991-92. The Tupelo, Miss., native guided the Ragin’ Cajuns to a school-record 16 victories in SBC play, a 14-1 record at home and the school’s fourth postseason trip in the past five seasons.
 
Under Marlin’s guidance, the Ragin’ Cajuns led the Sun Belt Conference in scoring offense (83.2) for the sixth consecutive season while leading the league in scoring margin (�12.4), free throw percentage (.761), field goal percentage (464), rebound margin (�6.6), assists (17.4), steals (7.5) and assist-turnover ratio (1.3).
 
Marlin joined for Ragin’ Cajuns coaches Jim Hatfield (1977), Bobby Paschal (1980) and Marty Fletcher (1994) in earning LABC Coach of the Year honors with Bartley joining Toney (1980), Michael Allen (1994) and Elfrid Payton (2014) in being named LABC Player of the Year.
 
The awards will be presented at the LABC’s 44th Annual Awards Banquet on May 5 at the Embassy Suites Hotel