Indians try to stop losing streak against division-leading Cajuns
JONESBORO ? Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State are two teams headed in opposite directions, yet their paths cross tonight.
The Ragin? Cajuns have won four straight and nine of their last 10 games to stand alone atop the Sun Belt Conference. On the other hand, Arkansas State has lost five in a row to fall out of title contention as the league enters its final week of play. The two teams meet this evening at the Convocation Center.
Tipoff is 7:05 p.m.
Arkansas State (13-12 overall, 5-7 Sun Belt Conference) hasn?t won in nearly a month, not since beating provisional Division I school South Dakota State on Jan. 29. The Sun Belt?s defending champion, UL Lafayette (17-8, 11-2) has rolled through conference play, losing twice to Denver, but dominating the rest of the conference as it seeks a second straight West Division and regular-season crown.
Arkansas State coach Dickey Nutt said the Indians will face their toughest challenge of the season in the Ragin? Cajuns. Louisiana-Lafayette is No. 43 in the latest RPI, the top ranking of any team in the Sun Belt.
?They are extremely athletic and very talented,? Nutt said. ?They are the most talented team in the league and they are probably playing the best ball in the league. They are an outstanding basketball team, and they have proven it. We?ll have to be at our best to slow them down.?
Arkansas State was unable to slow ULL down in its last meeting. Last season at Lafayette, La., the Ragin? Cajuns turned a three-point lead at the half into an 82-62 blowout as ULL forced a faster pace with fullcourt pressure and long outlets for easy buckets in transition.
This year?s Ragin? Cajuns are very similar in style to last year?s group, according to Nutt. ULL, which has won 5 of the last 7 meetings with Arkansas State, is one of the bigger teams in the Sun Belt with a starting lineup that includes no one under 6-foot-4.
?They want to get up and down the floor. They want to guard you. Their offense starts with their defense. They will get out and gamble, try to steal, try to deflect every pass,? Nutt said.
Louisiana-Lafayette lost three starters from last year?s team but the Cajuns have received a big boost from East Tennessee State transfer Tiras Wade. A 6-foot-6 junior guard, Wade is the No. 2 scorer in the Sun Belt with an average of 19.5 points a game while shooting 45.8 percent from the field.
Wade is equally tough from 3-point range, where he is shooting 39.7 percent.
Arkansas State?s Dewarick Spencer will draw the defensive assignment on Wade. Nutt said Wade reminded him of Spencer.
?He is an outstanding basketball player who can really score. He is one of the best scorers in the country. He reminds you a lot of Dewarick, but he?s a little bigger and stronger than Dewarick,? Nutt explained.
Spencer expects a fullcourt game that will be exciting to watch.
?It?s going to be a run-and-gun game,? Spencer said. ?We expect them to want to come out and run ? they want to play up-and-down. We don?t want to get into too much of a running game but when we?ve got opportunities, we want to take them.?
The Ragin? Cajuns, who are in their first year under new head coach Robert Lee, have three players other than Wade who average double figures in scoring. Lee replaced former UL Lafayette coach Jessie Evans, who took the head coaching job at the University of San Francisco over the summer.
ULL senior forward Brian Hamilton is second on the team in scoring at 13.8 points and he leads the team in rebounding with 7.8 boards a game. Senior guard Orien Greene is scoring 11.8 points while junior guard Dwayne Mitchell is averaging 10.5 points a game.
Louisiana-Lafayette?s size is a big concern for Arkansas State.
?What we have to do is keep them off the boards,? Nutt said. ?Our biggest emphasis is what we?ve been talking about the last two weeks and that?s blocking out.?
The Indians are considering a change to their starting lineup with junior forward Marcus Ardison replacing Kitus Witherspoon on the interior. Ardison has been slowed by a cold-like virus, though, and may come off the bench if he?s not fully recovered by tipoff.
Arkansas State has taken a nosedive with five straight losses, dropping from first place in the East Division of the Sun Belt to fourth. ASU suffered a similar fate last year with a five-game losing streak during the middle of conference play.
The last time ASU lost six straight games was during the 1996-97 season, when the Indians finished 15-12.
Spencer said the current losing streak was not weighing heavily on the minds of the Indians, adding that the week off since last Thursday?s 80-60 loss at Middle Tennessee has given the team time to regroup.
?We know what our record is. We?re trying to get even and go to the tournament playing hard,? Spencer said. ?We are more hungry than ever. We know they are the best team in the conference and we?re ready for them. We have two home games left so we need to capitalize on these two and see what happens.?
JONESBORO ? Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State are two teams headed in opposite directions, yet their paths cross tonight.
The Ragin? Cajuns have won four straight and nine of their last 10 games to stand alone atop the Sun Belt Conference. On the other hand, Arkansas State has lost five in a row to fall out of title contention as the league enters its final week of play. The two teams meet this evening at the Convocation Center.
Tipoff is 7:05 p.m.
Arkansas State (13-12 overall, 5-7 Sun Belt Conference) hasn?t won in nearly a month, not since beating provisional Division I school South Dakota State on Jan. 29. The Sun Belt?s defending champion, UL Lafayette (17-8, 11-2) has rolled through conference play, losing twice to Denver, but dominating the rest of the conference as it seeks a second straight West Division and regular-season crown.
Arkansas State coach Dickey Nutt said the Indians will face their toughest challenge of the season in the Ragin? Cajuns. Louisiana-Lafayette is No. 43 in the latest RPI, the top ranking of any team in the Sun Belt.
?They are extremely athletic and very talented,? Nutt said. ?They are the most talented team in the league and they are probably playing the best ball in the league. They are an outstanding basketball team, and they have proven it. We?ll have to be at our best to slow them down.?
Arkansas State was unable to slow ULL down in its last meeting. Last season at Lafayette, La., the Ragin? Cajuns turned a three-point lead at the half into an 82-62 blowout as ULL forced a faster pace with fullcourt pressure and long outlets for easy buckets in transition.
This year?s Ragin? Cajuns are very similar in style to last year?s group, according to Nutt. ULL, which has won 5 of the last 7 meetings with Arkansas State, is one of the bigger teams in the Sun Belt with a starting lineup that includes no one under 6-foot-4.
?They want to get up and down the floor. They want to guard you. Their offense starts with their defense. They will get out and gamble, try to steal, try to deflect every pass,? Nutt said.
Louisiana-Lafayette lost three starters from last year?s team but the Cajuns have received a big boost from East Tennessee State transfer Tiras Wade. A 6-foot-6 junior guard, Wade is the No. 2 scorer in the Sun Belt with an average of 19.5 points a game while shooting 45.8 percent from the field.
Wade is equally tough from 3-point range, where he is shooting 39.7 percent.
Arkansas State?s Dewarick Spencer will draw the defensive assignment on Wade. Nutt said Wade reminded him of Spencer.
?He is an outstanding basketball player who can really score. He is one of the best scorers in the country. He reminds you a lot of Dewarick, but he?s a little bigger and stronger than Dewarick,? Nutt explained.
Spencer expects a fullcourt game that will be exciting to watch.
?It?s going to be a run-and-gun game,? Spencer said. ?We expect them to want to come out and run ? they want to play up-and-down. We don?t want to get into too much of a running game but when we?ve got opportunities, we want to take them.?
The Ragin? Cajuns, who are in their first year under new head coach Robert Lee, have three players other than Wade who average double figures in scoring. Lee replaced former UL Lafayette coach Jessie Evans, who took the head coaching job at the University of San Francisco over the summer.
ULL senior forward Brian Hamilton is second on the team in scoring at 13.8 points and he leads the team in rebounding with 7.8 boards a game. Senior guard Orien Greene is scoring 11.8 points while junior guard Dwayne Mitchell is averaging 10.5 points a game.
Louisiana-Lafayette?s size is a big concern for Arkansas State.
?What we have to do is keep them off the boards,? Nutt said. ?Our biggest emphasis is what we?ve been talking about the last two weeks and that?s blocking out.?
The Indians are considering a change to their starting lineup with junior forward Marcus Ardison replacing Kitus Witherspoon on the interior. Ardison has been slowed by a cold-like virus, though, and may come off the bench if he?s not fully recovered by tipoff.
Arkansas State has taken a nosedive with five straight losses, dropping from first place in the East Division of the Sun Belt to fourth. ASU suffered a similar fate last year with a five-game losing streak during the middle of conference play.
The last time ASU lost six straight games was during the 1996-97 season, when the Indians finished 15-12.
Spencer said the current losing streak was not weighing heavily on the minds of the Indians, adding that the week off since last Thursday?s 80-60 loss at Middle Tennessee has given the team time to regroup.
?We know what our record is. We?re trying to get even and go to the tournament playing hard,? Spencer said. ?We are more hungry than ever. We know they are the best team in the conference and we?re ready for them. We have two home games left so we need to capitalize on these two and see what happens.?
