Byron Starks checks all the boxes.
The former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns hardwood hero is having another banner year in a young but impressive coaching career. After winning their conference title for the second consecutive season, Starks led the Baton Rouge Community College Bears to the Region 23 Quarterfinals on Thursday night. It is another box checked for a man who has won at both the high school and college levels as a player and head coach.
A highly regarded and coveted star high school player? Check.
An all-conference player who played in the NCAA Tournament? Check.
A state-championship-winning high school coach? Check.
A multiple conference-winning collegiate coach? Check.
All of which is why the 52-year-old Starks deserves to be strongly considered to be the new head coach at his alma mater. It is time for the former Ragin’ Cajun star to come back home.
Starks, who was the state’s top-rated player in 1990 coming out of Grambling High, would have a Ragin’ Cajun Hall of Fame career under famed head coach Marty Fletcher. Starks was a four-year letterman who scored over 1,500 points while earning First-Team All-Sun Belt Conference honoree, played on two teams that played in the NCAA Men’s Tournament (1992, 1994), including part of the program’s only NCAA Tournament win — the 1992 upset of Oklahoma.
The man proudly wore the vermilion and white and saw firsthand what it took for the Ragin’ Cajuns to be successful. Yet, another box checked.
Starks is a proven program builder.
After a brief pro career overseas, Starks earned his coaching stripes as the head coach at Assembly Christian in 1996. That led to head coaching opportunities at Northside Christian and Vermilion Catholic. Starks led all three programs to the state playoffs.
Starks had even more success when he arrived at Lafayette Christian Academy. In six seasons, he led the Knights to a 170-28 record, winning the 2017 and 2018 LHSAA Division IV State Championships, one state runner-up finish, and making the Top 28 five straight seasons, and was named the 2014 LHSAA Class 1A Coach of the Year.
After 21 years as a high school head coach, Starks arrived at LSU at Eunice in 2020 to start the men’s basketball program. In the program’s second year of existence in 2021, the Bengals reached milestones with 20 victories, a Louisiana Community College Athletic Conference title, and their first postseason appearance. The following year LSUE recorded its first playoff win, besting Hinds Community College in the opening round of the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament.
In five seasons on the Cajun Prairie, Starks led the Bengals to an 84-33 record, winning 39 conference games, and won four Louisiana Community College Athletic Conference (LCCAC) championships. That success was not enough to keep LSUE from suspending the program for the upcoming 2023-24 season due to budget reasons.
Starks landed on his feet at BRCC and has had instant success.
In his first season at BRCC, the Bears won the conference title and made it to the Region 23 Elite 8. This season, Starks has led the program to another conference title, 19 regular season wins, and is back in the Region 23 Quarterfinals.
Along the way, Starks has also developed a reputation for being a good and diverse recruiter.
At LSUE, Starks did a tremendous job recruiting in-state talent including New Orleans, Bossier City, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette while also recruiting players from Texas, Florida, Minnesota, and internationally from Australia and Serbia. That diverse recruiting has carried over to BRCC where this year’s team has a plethora of guys from every corner of the state but also players from Sierra Leone, Jamaica, and Australia.
Starks checks the boxes for building winning programs that win titles, while also recruiting talented in-state players with a mixture of international players.
The other thing that would make him qualified for the Cajuns’ job is that he is already equipped with a skill set to build and maintain a roster in the era of Group of Five programs being poached every offseason by Power 4 conferences. Starks has spent seven years having to transform players immediately to become impact players in year one, much less in year two. Then he has to do it all again every season.
That seems like someone equipped to roster building in this new era doesn’t it? Yet, another box checked.
Starks seems like the ideal candidate to fill the void left vacant after Bob Marlin was fired in the middle of his 15th season at the helm of the Ragin’ Cajuns program.
There are plenty of excellent options for the man tasked to bring excitement and victories back into the Cajundome.
Former Ragin’ Cajuns star and current LSU assistant coach David Patrick, former Marlin assistant-recruiter and current Oklahoma assistant Brock Morris, interim coach Derrick Zimmerman, a former assistant at Mississippi State, and longtime University of Houston assistant and former Louisiana AAU coach Quannas White are all worthy candidates.
There is one thing those candidates have that is missing from Starks’ resume — Power 5 assistant experience.
Many supporters and media members firmly believe that having that experience is necessary to coach at this level. UL Director of Athletics Dr. Bryan Maggard’s track record seemingly supports that.
Maggard’s major sports head coaching hires all have experience as Power 5 assistants. Billy Napier (Clemson, Alabama, and Arizona State), Gerry Glasco (Georgia and Texas A&M), and Alyson Habetz (Alabama).
Matt Deggs was also a highly touted Power 5 assistant (Arkansas and Texas A&M), but his story is different from the others. It is well documented that he got his life and career back on track by serving as an assistant under the late great Tony Robichaux, then became a head coach at Sam Houston for five years and then was hired to replace Tony.
Ragin’ Cajuns football coach Michael Desormeaux is the outlier. Desormeaux is a local from New Iberia who was a star player for the Ragin’ Cajuns. He spent his entire collegiate career at UL before being promoted to head coach after Napier left for Florida.
Starks has a similar connection to the program just like Des and Habetz, who was an All-American player for the softball program. Not only was Starks a star player but he did serve as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball program under Robert Lee in 2008-09.
Should having only one year as a Group of Five assistant keep him from being considered? I don’t think it should.
Whether or not he gets the head job or not, Starks deserves to be considered to coach his alma mater and at minimum should be considered as a top assistant for whoever is hired to lead the new era of Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball.
Having a proven winner at all levels, and one that still bleeds vermilion and white, on the bench checks all the boxes.
Raymond Partsch III is the co-host of “RP3 & Meche” which is broadcast weekdays (11-1) on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles — Southwest Louisiana’s Sports Station.