Cajuns Want To "White Out" WKU On Saturday

Contact: Brian McCann

Complete Game Notes (PDF)

Game 20
WKU (12-7, 4-2) at Louisiana (12-7, 3-3)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014
Time: 3:00 p.m. CST
Site: Cajundome (11,550), Lafayette, Louisiana
Promo: White Out Game
(Free T-shirt to first 1,000 students, courtesy of 103.7 The Game & Acadiana Bottling Company)
Radio: KPEL (1420 AM) & KHXT (107.9 FM) (Jay Walker)
TV: ESPN2 (Mark Adams & Rich Hollenberg)
Series:        WKU leads, 24-16
Last Meeting: WKU 88, Louisiana 77 (2/23/13, Lafayette, La.)

THE COACHES:
LOUISIANA
BOB MARLIN (Mississippi State '81)
At Louisiana: 55-58 (4th year)
4-Year Overall: 280-189 (16th year)
All Collegiate: 403-224 (21st year)
vs. WKU: 2-3

WKU
RAY HARPER (Kentucky Wesleyan '85)
At WKU: 43-31 (3rd year)
Overall: 385-94 (14th year)
vs. Louisiana: 3-0

SETTING THE SCENE: The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (12-7, 3-3) continue Sun Belt Conference play when they host WKU on Saturday, Jan. 25 beginning at 3:00 p.m. in the Cajundome. The game has been dubbed a "White Out" game with fans attending being encouraged to wear white to the contest. The first 1,000 Louisiana students will get a limited edition "White Out" t-shirt, courtesy of Delta Media, parent company of 103.7 The Game, along with Acadiana Bottling Company. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 with Mark Adams and Rich Hollenberg providing the commentary. Louisiana enters the game after having their eight-game home win streak snapped by Georgia State on Thursday night, 77-70. WKU (12-7, 4-2) has won two straight, including a 69-51 victory at ULM on Thursday night. This will be the 41st series meeting with the Hilltoppers owning a 24-16 series advantage.

PREVIEWING LOUISIANA: Louisiana is off to an 12-7 start in 2013-14, benefiting from the return of five starters and a total of 10 lettermen from last year's squad that went 13-20, leading fourth-year head coach Bob Marlin to feel confident that the Cajuns have taken a big step forward. The team is centered around the duo of point guard Elfrid Payton (19.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 6.1 apg, 2.5 spg) and forward Shawn Long (20.6 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 3.0 bpg), both of whom were named to the preseason All-Sun Belt first team this year. Long plays mostly at center with Elridge Moore (5.2, 4.0) has returned at small forward after missing five games with an ankle injury. Bryant Mbamalu (7.7, 2.6), who started 26 games as a wing guard last season, has returned after missing the first 12 games with a foot injury. With Mbamalu out, junior Kevin Brown (6.6, 1.6) saw increased playing time with Steven Wronkoski (5.6, 2.5) starting on the other wing. The bench has been a source of a good offensive spark as junior Xavian Rimmer (7.2, 2.1) and sophomore Kasey Shepherd (8.6, 2.5) providing the biggest lift at guard with freshman Hayward Register (2.0) also seeing time. Junior J.J. Davenport (3.3, 2.7), who played the last two seasons at New Mexico Junior College, and freshmen Vieux Kande (1.3, 0.9), and Luka Kamber (0.5, 1.3) are the primary reserves inside with both Davenport and Kande playing center and Kamber a forward. Marlin is utilizing the depth and quickness by forcing an up-tempo game at both ends of the court by applying more defensive pressure. The Cajuns use their quickness and outside shooting ability to create a balanced offense, forcing opponents to cover the entire court.

LOUISIANA IN THE NCAA STATS: The Cajuns were featured prominently in the latest NCAA stats, which were released on Friday (Jan. 24). Shawn Long was seventh in rebounding (10.8), double-doubles (10) and field goals made (150), 18th in blocks (3.0) and 22nd in scoring (20.6). Junior Elfrid Payton was 13th in steals (2.5), 15th in assists (6.1) and 30th in scoring (19.8), owning one of seven triple doubles in the nation this year. As a team, the Cajuns were 16th in scoring offense (82.9) and 51st in three-point field goal defense (.307).

MAKING THE GRADE: One thing that head coach Bob Marlin has emphasized in his three seasons at Louisiana is the necessity that his players give 100-percent both on and off the court. This demand has led to positive results in the classroom. During the spring 2013 semester, the Ragin' Cajuns set a program record with a 2.904 grade point average for the team. They backed that up with a 2.854 during the recently completed fall semester, the second-highest average in the 31 years that athletics has tracked grades, with eight of the 15 players posting a 3.0 or better. In seven semesters under head coach Bob Marlin, the Cajuns have recorded seven of the top 10 semesters in program history.

PAYTON SQUARES OFF AGAINST CHINA TEAMMATES: Saturday's game will reunite Elfrid Payton with the WKU duo of George Fant and T.J. Price, who he played with last spring during a seven-game goodwill cultural exchange with Reach USA, a Christian ministry based out of Campbellsville, Ky. In the seven games, Payton led Reach USA averaging 21.7 points with five games of 20 or more points. He added 7.1 rebounds, 5.6 assist and 3.0 steals, shooting .533 from the field (65-122) and .700 from the line (21-30).

WHITE OUT AHEAD: Saturday's game against WKU has been dubbed a White Out game with fans attending being encouraged to wear white to the contest, which will be televised on ESPN2 starting at 3:00 p.m. At the game, the first 1,000 Louisiana students will get a limited edition white out t-shirt and two fans will get to take a halfcourt shot for $5,000. The game is being sponsored by Delta Media, parent company of 103.7 The Game, along with Acadiana Bottling Company.

CAJUNS ARE FINALLY HEALTHY: Cajuns head coach Bob Marlin has disputed the fact listed in most preseason stories that Louisiana has benefited from the return of all five starters this year because up until the UT Arlington game on Jan. 11, he had not had the good fortune to have all five starters from last year healthy at the same time. The return of Elridge Moore for the UT Arlington contest gave Marlin a complete roster of 15 healthy players for the first time all season. Bryant Mbamalu, who started 25 games last year, missed the first 12 games of the year with a foot injury and Moore had been sidelined with an ankle sprain since mid-December. The Cajuns are now 3-2 playing with all 15 players available.

FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: There was plenty of optimism by the Cajuns heading into the season and through 19 games, that optimism has proven to be warranted. After 19 games last season, the Cajuns were just 7-12, standing in fourth place in the West Division (and 10th overall of 11 teams) with a 3-5 league mark. After Thursday night's loss to Georgia State, the exact opposite is true for Louisiana as the Cajuns own a 12-7 record and are in fourth place in the Sun Belt with a 3-3 mark.

HOME WIN STREAK SNAPPED: Thursday night's loss to Georgia State ended Louisiana's eight-game home winning streak on the line. The streak, which began with the 101-67 win over Louisiana College in the season opener, was the sixth-longest home streak since Louisiana moved into the Cajundome for the 1985-86 season. It equaled the eight-game streak that the Cajuns registered from January, 2011 through early November, 2012, Marlin's second season on the bench at Louisiana. It was the longest home win streak since the Cajuns rattled off 10 straight from Jan. 2003 through Dec. 2004, the last of which was a 67-50 win over Georgia State (12/20/04), this week's first opponent. The Cajundome record is a 21-game streak from Dec. 2001 until Feb. 2003.

SCORING OFF THE GLASS: Shawn Long has made the most of his rebounding opportunities this year, scoring 40 baskets off his 70 offensive rebounds this season for an average of 4.2 points a game. Long ranks third in the Sun Belt averaging 3.6 offensive rebounds a game and second in scoring (20.8).

CHANGING STARTERS DOOESN'T MATTER: On most teams, the starting lineup only changes when bad things happen, but that has not been the case with the Ragin' Cajuns this year. As head coach Bob Marlin has pointed out, it doesn't matter who starts, but who finishes. Louisiana used the same lineup (Payton, Brown, Wronkoski, Moore & Long) through the first nine game, going 6-3. An injury to Moore followed by the return of Bryant Mbamalu has resulted in Marlin using nine different starting units over the last 10 games, with the Cajuns going 6-4. Elfrid Payton is the only player to start every game, while eight other players have earned starts during the year.

STREAKING FROM THE LINE: The Cajuns have shown improvement from the foul line since the beginning of Sun Belt Conference play, going 117-for-164 (.713) to improve to .680 for the year (345-for-507). Kasey Shepherd leads the team, making 31-of-33 attempts to shoot .939 from the stripe. He opened the year with 16 straight makes before missing once each in back-to-back games against Central Methodist (Dec. 30) and at ULM (Jan. 4). Shepherd has now made a modest 10 straight free throws. Xavian Rimmer is shooting .872 from the line (34-for-39), owning a current streak of 26 straight makes going back to the Louisiana Tech game (Dec. 4). Center J.J. Davenport opened the year by making just one of his first four attempts, but bounced back to make 21 straight before missing his second attempt at Troy on Saturday (Jan. 16). Davenport is shooting .846 (22-26) for the year. After making nine of his first 19 attempts to open the season, Kevin Brown has made 10 straight over the last seven games/

. . . AND PAYTON HAS SPENT THE SEASON AT THE LINE: With 189 free throw attempts this year, Elfrid Payton enters the weekend ranked third nationally in free throw attempts. Niagara's Antoine Mason leads the country with 239 attempts through Thursday while Tennessee State's Patrick Miller (190) is second. Payton has shot 531 career free throws, including 133 as a freshman in 2011-12 and 209 in 2012-13, the sixth-highest single season total in school history. He has attempted eight or more free throws in a game 14 times this season.

THE DRIVE FOR 1,000: With Elfrid Payton already surpassing the 1,000 point mark for his career this season, the attention turns to sophomore Shawn Long and senior Bryant Mbamalu, who should become the 41st and 42nd Cajuns to accomplish the feat. Long enters the weekend with 902 career points while Mbamalu has 848 points. Long is also attempting to become just the fifth player to reach 1,000 points as a sophomore, joining Bo Lamar (1,631 points), Andrew Toney (1,269), Kevin Brooks (1,053) and Jerry Flake (1,042).

A TRIPLE-DOUBLE FOR PAYTON: After flirting with it a half-dozen times over the last 40 games, junior Elfrid Payton recorded the first triple-doule of his career when he set career highs for scoring (34), rebounds (11) and assists (11) at ULM on Jan. 4. It was the sixth triple-double in school history and one of seven in the nation this year. Michael Southall recorded the last triple-double by a Cajun when he had one at North Texas in 2005-06. Here are a list of triple-doubles in Cajuns basketball history (all are points-rebounds-assists except where noted with *):

        Elfrid Payton at ULM (Jan. 4, 2014) (34 pts, 11 reb, 11 asst.)
        Michael Southall @ North Texas (Jan. 5, 2006) (19 pts, 12 reb, 11 blocks)
        Aaron Mitchell vs. Jackson State (Dec. 1, 1989) (21-10-10)
        Randal Smith vs. Rider (Jan. 8, 1987) (22-11-11)
        George Almones vs. Long Island (Jan. 28, 1985) (12-16-11)
        George Almones vs. ULM (Feb. 14, 1983) (14-10-12)

MARLIN CLAIMS 400TH VICTORY: Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin used a 90-58 win over Central Methodist on Dec. 30 to claim his 400th as a head coach at the collegiate level. Marlin enters the Georgia State game with a 403-224 record (.643) in 21 seasons as a head coach. He was 123-35 in five seasons at Pensacola Junior College (1990-95), winning the 1993 national championship, and 225-131 in 12 years at Sam Houston State (1998-2010). He reached the 50-win mark at Louisiana in the win over Houston on Dec. 14 and owns a 55-57 record.

SHEPHERD SPARKS THE CAJUNS: The emergence of Kasey Shepherd has provided the Cajuns with a scoring spark off the bench this season. Shepherd, who averaged 3.4 points in 10.9 minutes of action last year, started the year slowly, averaging just 2.7 points over the first six games. He has now settled into the offense, averaging 11.3 points over the last 13 games, including 17 or more points five times. He leads the Sun Belt shooting .553 from behind the three-point line (26-for-47) while also shooting .541 from the field (53-for-98) and .939 from the line (31-for-33). He earned the LSWA Player of the Week award on Dec. 9 after scoring 22 points at Louisiana Tech and 18 at Louisville.

SHEPHERD & RIMMER ARE A ONE-TWO PUNCH: The graduation of Alan-Michael Thompson and the injury to Bryant Mbamalu left the Cajuns without their two most effective three-point shooters at the start of the season. Their loss has been offset by the addition of Xavian Rimmer and the maturation of Kasey Shepherd. Shepherd leads the Sun Belt shooting .553 from three-point range (26-for-47) while Rimmer is fourth at .431 (28-for-65). With Shepherd and Rimmer leading the way, the Cajuns rank third in the Sun Belt, making 138 of their 379 three-point attempts (.364). Last year, Louisiana shot .341 from behind the three-point line (226-for-663).

MBAMALU BACK: After missing the first 12 games of the season with a foot injury suffered in September, senior Bryant Mbamalu returned to the lineup on Dec. 30 and has played in the last five games. After totalling a combined nine points and four rebounds in his first two games, he has averaged 9.0 points and 2.8 rebounds in his last five appearances, each as a starter. Mbamalu scored a season-high 14 points vs. Texas State and has shot 8-for-14 (.571) from behind the three-point line this season. As a junior in 2012-13, Mbamalu started all but seven games as a wing guard, averaging 13.8 points and 3.7 rebounds a game, finishing second on the team with 49 treys. He scored in double figures 21 times, including five 20-point games.

PAYTON MOVES UP SCORING CHART: A 21-point effort against Georgia State on Thursday enabled Elfrid Payton to move past Tony Moore (1,118 points from 1990-94) into 31st place on the Louisiana career scoring chart with 1,129 career points. Payton became the 40th Cajun to score 1,000 career points in the win over Central Methodist on Monday (Jan. 4). Payton, who is averaging 19.7 points, has three career 30-point games and twenty 20-point efforts.

20-POINT GAMES: The versatility of the Louisiana lineup this season is evident by the four Cajuns who have combined to score 20 or more points in a game 23 times in the first 19 games this season. Shawn Long (10) and Elfrid Payton (10) lead the way, including four contests in which they both scored 20 points. Xavian Rimmer (2) and Kasey Shepherd (1) have come off the bench to reach the mark. Last year, Cajuns players had 25, 20-point games, with all but one coming from a starter. Payton and Long had nine each with Bryant Mbamalu adding five and Alan-Michael Thompson getting two.

. . . AND 30-POINT EFFORTS: When Elfrid Payton set a career-high with 34 points at ULM, it marked the fourth time this season that Ragin' Cajuns player scored 30 or more points in a game. Payton owns three of the efforts, scoring 31 points against Houston (Dec. 14) and a 32 points vs. Oakland (Nov. 23) while Shawn Long has the other, a 30-point effort vs. Centenary. Last year, Payton scored 32 points against Western Kentucky for the only 30-point game by a Cajun.

RIMMER COMES THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH: Junior Xavian Rimmer has only been with the Cajuns for 19 games, but he is quickly gaining a reputation for making the last-second shot. At Jackson State on Dec. 19, he made a three-pointer with nine seconds left to tie the game at 67-67. On Jan. 4 at ULM, he was fouled with 2.3 seconds left and made all three free throws to tie the game at 74-74 and force overtime.

PAYTON MOVES UP TO NINTH IN ASSISTS: A four-assist performance against Georgia State on Thursday allowed Elfrid Payton to tie Chris Snowden (1995-98) for ninth place with 394 career assists. Payton's 394 assists leave him eight shy of jumping up three spots and into sixth place, which is currently held by George Almones (402 from 1983-85).

LONG MOVES INTO FOURTH ON BLOCKS CHART: A five blocked shots effort against Georgia State has moved sophomore Shawn Long past Tyren Johnson (120 blocks from 2007-08) and into fourth place on the career blocks list with 122 career blocks. Long had 65 blocks last year as a freshman, the sixth-highest single season total in Cajuns history, and 57 this season, the seventh-highest total.

NEXT UP: The Cajuns have a split week ahead, taking to the road to close the January slate on Thursday (Jan. 30) at UALR before returning home to host ULM on Saturday (Feb. 1) at 7:15 p.m. in the Cajundome.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

Cajuns Want To "White Out" WKU On Saturday

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