We’re officially in the crossover season for collegiate sports! College football is nearing the tail end of the regular season and basketball is about to start their regular season.
With that in mind, let’s dive right into a full preview of the 2017-18 season for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns men’s basketball team!
Last Season:
The 2016-17 season for the Cajuns was a little bit of a mixed bag. The non-conference record was a respectable 11-4 record highlighted by a close game against the Georgia Bulldogs and a big win over Pepperdine.
However, the Cajuns had a rough start to conference play before going on a six game win-streak to end the regular season 21-12 overall and 10-8 in the Sun Belt. The Cajuns season ended after a second round loss to Georgia State in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.
Returning Starters of Note:
The Cajuns may have lost Jay Wright, but there’s still quite a bit of talent coming back, including senior Bryce Washington. The senior picked up right where Shawn Long left off, becoming a double-double machine with 13.5 points per game and 11.2 boards. Add the fact that he was named to the Lou Henson watch list, it’s going to be a big senior season for Washington.
Frank Bartley will be another returning player that you need to keep an eye on. The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year averaged 15.3 points a game and looks to follow up on that this year.
Another senior to keep an eye on is Jonathan Stove. The Baton Rouge native has steadily improved each year and will have to continue to do so with a lot of talent now eligible to play after sitting out last season.
What to Watch For:
Transfers Set to Make Impact: Looking at the Cajuns roster, you have to be excited for the Cajuns having the trio of JaKeenan Gant, Malik Marquetti, and Marcus Stroman (not the Blue Jays pitcher) all on the team and ready to perform. All three of these guys have performed well despite being used less in their respective schools, but will likely be used in the starting five with perhaps Gant being the odd man out.
One of the key things for this team is to develop team chemistry amongst the two groups of players. It seems like head coach Bob Marlin has been working on it all season long and the trip to Cuba really helped bring that point home.
“Our culture is as good as it’s ever been.” Marlin said, “We’re excited about what experience the Cuba trip brought to the guys both on and off the court, probably more off than on because they’re on it all the time. When you go to a foreign country and you don’t have internet, you tend to talk to one another.”
Improved Defense: The Cajuns had a pretty solid defense last year with Washington leading the way in terms of defensive boards and Wright leading the conference in steals. What’s crazy is that there’s a legitimate chance that this team could be even better defensively.
During the trip to Cuba, Marlin’s crew worked hard on making sure that their defense was on point and the head coach stated that it looks like the defense looked improved following a closed scrimmage a couple of weeks ago. If this defense can continue to improve, the gap between second and fifth place in the Sun Belt could be a lot smaller.
Deepest Bench Under Marlin? The bench depth for the Cajuns has been an issue, especially late in the season when injuries begin to pile up. Last year, the bench had to rely on freshmen PJ Hardy and Justin Miller to carry a good chunk of the workload when Washington, Wright, and crew were off the court. While both put together solid numbers, it’ll be refreshing to see a lot more bench depth because of the fact that there’s now more talent to keep the stars fresh.
Marlin has gone on record saying that there are perhaps nine or ten guys on the roster that could possibly play every night. If the Cajuns can get that kind of balance on the bench, it’ll be huge for some of these big non-conference games like the season opener at Ole Miss.
Season Expectations:
The expectations for this season are pretty high for several reasons as mentioned previously. With the Sun Belt getting better by the day in basketball, the Cajuns are keeping up with the Joneses and have a solid chance to finish towards the top of the conference with the amount of talent that the Cajuns have on the roster.
That being said, it feels like the very top of the Sun Belt is going to difficult to crack with Georgia State and UT Arlington being the gatekeepers, at least according to the preseason polls. However, Marlin knows how much those matter.
“I like our chances.” Marlin said of the Cajuns being picked fifth in the preseason polls. “We have no one that made first-team All-League last year, so a lot of teams have players back that are ranked ahead of ours and that’s fine with me. I like our guys sitting out, I like our newcomers, it’s not about the preseason poll, but the end of season poll that matters the most for All-Conference and season standings.”
Personally, I’d pick the Cajuns to finish third based off of what kind of schedule they have both in and out of conference.
-Clint Domingue