UL Kicks Off December, Finishes Sun Belt Opening Weekend at NT

Contact: Brian McCann

Complete Game Notes (PDF)

Game 8
Louisiana (2-5, 0-1) at North Texas (3-4)
Date: Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012
Time: 7:30 p.m. CST
Site: Super Pit (10,500), Denton, Texas
Radio: KPEL (1420 AM) & KHXT (107.9 FM) (Steve Peloquin)
TV: None Live. Streaming available on internet at MeanGreenSports.com.
Series: Louisiana leads 19-16
Last Meeting: NT 65, Louisiana 62 (3/4/12, Hot Springs, Ark.)
Tickets: Available At Site

THE COACHES:
LOUISIANA
BOB MARLIN (Mississippi State '81)
At Louisiana: 32-36 (3rd year)
4-Year Overall: 257-167 (15th year)
All Collegiate: 380-202 (20th year)
vs. North Texas: 3-4

NORTH TEXAS
TONY BENFORD (Texas Tech '92)
At NT: 3-4 (1st year)
Overall: 3-4 (1st year)
vs. Louisiana: 0-0

SETTING THE SCENE: Louisiana continues the early weekend of Sun Belt play when the Cajuns travel to Denton, Texas to face North Texas on Saturday, Dec. 1 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in The Super Pit on the University of North Texas campus. The Cajuns saw their record slip to 2-5 and 0-1 in Sun Belt play when Middle Tennesse pulled away in the final minutes to claim a 72-58 win over Louisiana in the Cajundome. Under the direction of first-year head coach Tony Benford, the Mean Green were the unanimous pick to win the Sun Belt West Division title this year after going 18-14 last year. Louisiana holds a 19-16 lead in the all-time series with UNT, sweeping the two regular season meetings last year before dropping a 65-62 decision in the Sun Belt Championship.

PREVIEWING LOUISIANA: With a lineup featuring six freshmen and four sophomores, third year head coach Bob Marlin is excited about the possibilities for the 2012-13 season, knowing that the team that takes the court in November will grow and improve all season. As the new faces get acclimated to the collegiate game, the Cajuns will lean heavily on junior Bryant Mbamalu (9.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg) and sophomore sensation Elfrid Payton (12.1, 5.3, 5.0). Guard Alan-Michael Thompson (3.8 ppg), the lone senior on the squad, should also play an increased role this year. Freshman forward Shawn Long (15.4 ppg, 8.4 rpg), a transfer from Mississippi State, and power forward Elridge Moore (6.1, 4.7), a JC transfer from Lamar State, will unite to form the nucleus of the inside game with freshmen Matthew Moss, Cornell Barnett and walk-on Braylan Lazare providing the depth inside. Although Payton, Mbamalu and Thompson will provide the athleticism, quickness and leadership, the trio of Tulane transfer Kevin Brown (5.4 ppg) and freshmen Kasey Shepherd (2.6) and Steven Wronkoski (9.0, 3.0) and Josh Soto will also contribute, giving Louisiana one of the deepest backcourts in the Sun Belt. Marlin wants to utilize the depth and quickness by forcing an up-tempo game at both ends of the court by applying more defensive pressure. Look for the Cajuns to use their quickness and outside shooting ability to create a balanced offense, forcing opponents to cover the entire court.

SOTO CLEARED TO PLAY BY NCAA: After missing the first six games of the year waiting to hear from the NCAA on whether they would accept a course he took in San Juan, Puerto Rico met NCAA initial eligibility requirements, Josh Soto was finally cleared to play on Monday. He played seven minutes against Middle Tennessee on Thursday night.

A TOUGH STRETCH: It was bad enough that the youth of the Cajuns forced Bob Marlin to open the season with 10 first-year players on the squad and that the early non-conference schedule included a season opener against 2012 postseason squad Oakland and games against 2012 NCAA squads New Mexico State and Michigan State. To make matters worse, the earliest start to conference play in school history includes back-to-back games against Middle Tennessee and North Texas, the teams picked to win the Sun Belt East & West Division titles, respectively. After this Saturday, Louisiana travels to McNeese State on Dec. 8, a team that went to the CollegeInsider.com Tourney last year, and hosts Lamar, the 2012 Southland representive in the NCAA Championship, on Dec. 11.

FINALLY A SATURDAY: Saturday's game marks the end of a stretch that has had the Cajuns play eight games in 20 days to open the 2012-13 season. The only thing missing in the harried pace of November has been a Saturday game. The North Texas contest will mark the first game for Louisiana on a Saturday. Prior to this week, UL has danced around the day, playing twice on Friday and three times on Sunday. After this Saturday, the Cajuns will play on every Saturday through the regular season except Jan. 26 and Feb. 9 (because of Mardi Gras) with Saturday games accounting for 12 of the remaining 23 contests.

. . . AND THE SCHEDULE SLOWS DOWN: After playing eight games in 15 days (Nov. 16-Dec. 1), covering five different states and three different time zones the past three weeks, the Cajuns get a break from the fast-paced schedule starting next week. Following Saturday's game at North Texas, Louisiana will play just three games over the next 15 days (Dec. 8 at McNeese, Dec. 11 vs. Lamar and Dec. 15 at Houston).

IT WAS A LONG TIME COMING: The exhibition win over Loyola-New Orleans marked the Cajuns debut for forward Shawn Long. Long transferred to Louisiana last December after spending the fall semester at Mississippi State. The 6-9 native of Morgan City, La. practiced with the Cajuns during the final three months of the year but was not eligible to play. During the summer, he was granted a waiver of transfer rule that would have made him ineligible until early December, allowing him to play immediately. Eager to make up for the lost season, Long scored 11 of UL's first 18 points against Loyola, finishing the night with 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds, going seven-for-11 from the field with a pair of blocks.

. . . AND LONG HASN'T SLOWED: Shawn Long's steady play has allowed the freshman to lead the Cajuns in scoring (15.4), rebounding (8.4) and blocks (2.0), shooting .474 from the field (45-95) and .733 from the line (11-15). After a modest 14 point, six rebounds effort in the season opener against Oakland, he exploded for 20 points and a career-high 13 rebounds at Texas Southern on Nov. 16. In the second home game of his career, he posted his second double-double in less than a week, tallying a career-best 22 points with a dozen rebounds against SUNO. He came back to score 16 points with eight rebounds and three blocks at Michigan State and score 17 points with 13 boards vs. Middle Tennessee.

LONG IS DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLE: A 17-point, 13-rebound effort against Middle Tennessee gave redshirt freshman forward Shawn Long his third double-double in seven games this year to share the Sun Belt lead with South Alabama's Augustine Rubit.

FREQUENT FLYER MILES: The Cajuns are definitely piling up the mileage during the early part of the 2012-13 season. After making a road swing to Texas Southern and Boise State two weeks ago that covered 4,332 miles, the Cajuns needed to travel 4,892 miles to play games at New Mexico State and Michigan State. In two weeks, Louisiana played five games in five different states (Louisiana included) and three different time zones, traveling 9,224 miles to get to and from the games. This weekend's trip to Denton is a relatively short one totaling just 856 miles round trip - by bus.

. . . AND TRAVEL DELAYS HURT: The trips the last two weekends were hurt by busy airline schedules. Despite playing a Sunday afternoon game at Boise State, the Cajuns had to wait until the next morning to begin the trip home, leaving the hotel at 7:30 a.m. (MST). The squad landed in Lafayatte 10 hours later at 6:30 p.m. (CST). This past weekend, travel went well until it was time to come home and the Cajuns flight from Grand Rapids, Mich. to Houston was delayed enough to cause the team to miss their connecting flight home. The team spent Sunday night in Houston and bussed back to Lafayette on Monday morning, arriving around 1:00 p.m.

MASTERING THE SUN BELT: Ragin' Cajuns head coach Bob Marlin has produced back-to-back double digit win totals in Sun Belt play in his first two seasons on Louisiana's bench (11 in 2010-11 and 10 in 2011-12). His SBC winning percentage of .667 (21-11) began the year ranked first amongst all active coaches.

OH, SO CLOSE: Louisiana came close to accomplishing something no other team had ever done, defeat a Tom Izzo-coached Michigan State team in the Breslin Center in November. Trailing 62-60 in the final minute and with possession and a chance to take the lead, Louisiana nearly pulled off the upset. MSU is now 49-0 in November at the Breslin Center under Izzo. Going back further, they have not lost a home game in November since Navy, led by David Robinson, beat them in 1989.

OH, SO CLOSE PART II: The near upset of No. 15 Michigan State had the Cajuns on the verge of posting their first win over a ranked foe since downing then-No. 12 Mississippi State 79-76 in the 2002-03 season opener on Nov. 23, 2002 in Starkville, Miss.

WRONKOSKI PROVES MARLIN RIGHT: Bob Marlin has said many times this fall that when he took over as head coach two years ago, one of the first recruits he looked at was Steven Wronkoski, deciding that the current UL freshman's spirited play would be perfect in a Cajun uniform. Wronkoski has yet to prove Marlin wrong, averaging 9.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in the first seven games. He has posted back-to-back career highs of 12 points vs. SUNO on Nov. 21 and, in his first career start, 16 points at New Mexico State on Nov. 23. His Sun Belt debut was equally as strong as he scored all 13 of his points in the second half. For the year, Wronkoski leads the Sun Belt in free throw shooting (17-19, .895) and third in three-point shooting (10-20, .500).

SUN BELT SWITCHES TO 20-GAME BALANCED SCHEDULE: For the first time since the 1999-2000 season when the Sun Belt had just nine basketball playing members, the SBC will use a double round-robin format in league play. Each of the 11 members will playing each other twice this year, once at home and once on the road. The 20-game schedule is the most league games in Sun Belt history.

SLOW STARTERS: To say that the Cajuns have been a second half team so far in 2012-13 would be an understatement as Louisiana has found itself trailing at the intermission in all but one game this season. In seven games, the Cajuns have been outscored 32.7-26.4 (-6.3 ppg) in the first half, shooting .365 from the field (72-197), .223 from three-point (15-67) and .622 from the line (28-45). Louisiana has also been out-rebounded (22.4-15.3, -7.1) and have a -31 assist-to-turnover margin (26 assists, 57 turnovers).

. . . BUT STRONG FINISHERS: There must be something about the halftime speeches that Bob Marlin gives this year because the Cajuns have been a totally different team in the second half of games. In the second halves of the first seven games, Louisiana has out-scored its opponents 39.7-34.9 (+4.8 ppg), shooting .454 from the field (99-218), .386 from three-point (27-70) and .716 from the line (53-74). The Cajuns have out-rebounded their opponents in the second half (18.4-18.0) and own a -1 assist-to-turnover margin (47 assists, 48 turnovers).

MORE MOORE: Junior forward Elridge Moore has quickly earned a place for himself in the lineup, starting all six games and averaging 6.7 points. He leads the team in both field goal percentage (.531) and is second in steals (11) and blocks (7) and third in rebounding (4.7). He made his Cajuns debut a memorable one against Oakland on Nov. 11, sharing the team scoring lead with 15 points while adding five rebounds, five steals and a pair of blocks. Moore, who played one season at Nicholls State before transferring to Lamar State last season, missed just two shots in the game, going six-for-seven from the field and three-for-four from the line.

GOING OVERTIME: The loss to Texas Southern on Nov. 16 marked the ninth time that the Cajuns have played to overtime under head coach Bob Marlin. Louisiana is now 6-3 in overtime games during that span, including a 4-1 record last season.

CAJUNS HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH (RECRUITING) HOUSTON: The Cajuns have made Houston one of their recruiting hot spots with three members from the city. Starters Bryant Mbamalu (Dulles HS) and Kevin Brown (Alief Elsik HS) and reserve guard Kasey Shepherd (Dekaney HS) have combined to average 23.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. The Cajuns made the first of two trips to Houston last week with Mbamalu scoring 18 points with six rebounds and Brown adding nine points and four boards in an overtime loss to Texas Southern. Louisiana will be back in a month, playing at Houston on Dec. 15.

CAJUNS BENEFIT FROM LATE FREE THROW SHOOTING: The free throw shooting by the Cajuns has been at its best late in the game as Louisiana has gone 31-for-41 (.756) from the line in the final 5:00 minutes of game and overtime. Steven Wronkoski leads the way, making all six of his free throws, while Bryant Mbamalu is a career .743 shooter (26-35). That is a considerable improvement from the .617 (121-196) performance during the 2011-12 season.

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% both on and off the court. This demand has led to positive results in the classroom. During the spring 2012 semester, the Ragin' Cajuns recorded their third straight semester with a team GPA of better than 2.50, a feat accomplished just one other time since 1982. The last three semesters account for three of the top six terms for the basketball team during that time. In the two semesters last year, seven Cajuns posted a 3.0 GPA or better.

MISTER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?: Elfrid Payton has shown his continued development as the Cajuns' point guard by handing out 35 assists this year to rank second in the Sun Belt averaging 5.0 assists per game. He had eight assists in the season opener against Oakland, which was one short of his career high of nine set against North Texas in the Sun Belt Championship last year.
. . . AND GRAND THEFT FOR PAYTON: With 11 steals over the last two games, Elfrid Payton has vaulted into secondplace in the Sun Belt with 19 steals this season (2.7 spg). Payton had a career high seven steals at Michigan State on Nov. 25, falling one steal short of the school record, and came back to make four steals vs. Middle Tennessee. Last year, Payton lead the Cajuns with 37 steals.

TURNING UP THE TEMPERATURE: Bob Marlin said all pre-season that the Cajuns would take advantage of the quickness that the squad has this year by applying more pressure. The initial returns have been good as Louisiana forced 129 turnovers in the first seven games (18.4 per game), turning those miscues into a 101 points off turnovers (14.4 ppg). The Cajuns are averaging 9.0 steals a game, including a season-high 12 against both Oakland and Michigan State.

FIRST TIME SUCCESS: The Cajuns were perfect this year against first time opponents, claiming home wins over Oakland (90-79) and SUNO (76-66), the only two teams on the 2012-13 slate that Louisiana had not played before.

IT WAS RAINING THREES: Head coach Bob Marlin said throughout the preseason that the three-point shot would play a more important role in the Cajuns offensive game plan this year. That was certainly the case against Loyola-New Orleans as UL made 16 of its 31 three-point attempts (.516) en route to a 20-point win. The total, had it occurred in a regular season game, and not an exhibition, would have broken the school record of 15 three-point field goals in a game set against Troy (1/10/09), Western Kentucky (3/2/96) and Ohio State (12/1/96). Even more impressive was the Cajuns did most of the damage in the first half, going 14-for-18 from beyond the stripe (.778) with seven different players knocking down treys in the game.

CAJUNS ADD TWO FOR 2013-14: Hours before the Cajuns tipped off with Texas Southern on Nov. 16, head coach Bob Marlin announced the signing of high school standouts Kimani Jackson (Arlington, TX/Seguin) and Hayward Register (Lafayette, La./Comeaux) to National Letters of Intent to attend Louisiana and play basketball starting next fall. Jackson, a 6-7, 220-pound forward, was a pre-season all-league selection this year. Ranked as the No. 88 player in the State of Texas by TexasHoops.com, he is averaging 11 points, nine rebounds, three assists and 1.8 blocks this season at Arlington's Seguin High. Register, a 6-2, 170-pound shooting guard, earned second team all-state honors a year ago after averaging 20.1 points and 5.6 rebounds a game, helping Comeaux High to a 23-11 record. He was named the 2011-12 All-Acadiana MVP by the Lafayette Daily Advertiser. “This is a very good start to our recruiting effort for the year. They both should fit into our system well” Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin said.

RAGIN' CAJUNS CELEBRATE 100TH SEASON: The Cajuns are celebrating the 100th season of basketball during the 2012-13 season. The first season was in 1911-12 when the Cajuns posted a 4-1 record. Louisiana has gone on to win 20 or more games 21 times since, entering the year with a 1,296-984 overall record. Louisiana did not have a team in either 1973-74 or 1974-75 because of NCAA sanctions. In the first 99 seasons, the Cajuns have advanced to postseason play 18 times, including 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, winning 16 conference titles. Eight UL players have earned All-America honors with 94 being named all-conference.

NEXT UP: After playing eight games in the 20 days to open the season, the Cajuns take a break for final exams, returning to action on Saturday, Dec. 8 with a 7:00 p.m. game at McNeese State.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

UL Kicks Off December, Finishes Sun Belt Opening Weekend at NT

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