RE: Cheer on your Louisiana Ragin Cajuns!
While I don't know the fellow who wrote the piece, I assume he's not necessarily a big Cajun fan. Having said that, he was about as objective as anyone I've seen on the subject. Good find!
Full Article:
What’s really in a name anyway.
Louisiana will have a basketball team in the big dance, though not everybody will rally behind the team.
Nor does anybody really know what to call it, either.
The team from Lafayette, which wants to be called the University of Louisiana will have to settle for representing the state in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
No matter what you want to call the Ragin Cajuns, you have to a least realize what is going on down the road in Lafayette and admire it.
Louisiana-Lafayette, or for our purposes ULL, has seen a growth spurt that is leaving other institutions envious.
The trip to the big dance, which the Cajuns earned Sunday by winning the Sun Belt championship in overtime over Georgia State, shows the school is making noise now on all levels.
People in Lake Charles, Monroe, Ruston or even New Orleans may not want to hear this, and clearly the folks in Baton Rouge don’t care, but ULL has become a hot bed for athletic programs.
It’s clearly not the top school in the state, but it’s just as clear that ULL has become Louisiana’s second banana.
That’s not too bad when you consider all that is going on.
The school’s men’s basketball team is just the latest in a line of programs that have shown vast improvement in recent years.
However, the NCAA tournament does give the school a great place to once again showcase itself, even if its stay in the tourney proves to be a short one.
That doesn’t matter.
Over the next few days T-shirts will be sold with the Cajuns proclaiming themselves as a tourney team.
Stories on websites and in newspapers will give the university exposure and the Lafayette community a chance to gloat — as if it doesn’t do enough of that already.
And most importantly it will give the school an extra opportunity to get its name out in the general public.
That’s what the NCAA tournament does for schools and basketball programs.
For ULL, this comes as part of a pretty good run.
The Cajuns have already beaten LSU in baseball this year, even if the game was called early because of weather. The baseball Cajuns also lost to the Tigers in the Baton Rouge Regional last May, showing they are at least on the playing field with one of the nation’s best programs.
The softball program has been good for more than a few years, twice beating LSU to win last year’s regional before losing in the Super Regional.
As far as football goes, we have all seen the three-year run the Cajuns are on.
They have not only made three straight trips to the New Orleans Bowl, but have won all the games.
ULL has an athletic program that is on the rise, one that could serve others who are thinking about moving up as a blueprint to long-term success.
Are you watching, McNeese fans?
Of course not all schools that have tried this have had the same success. Louisiana-Monroe serves notice of the troubles that await if things don’t go right.
Still, it is clearly working out for the Ragin Cajuns.
While that may make others around the state dislike them more, or take shots at what the school wants to be called, it does make you talk about them if nothing else.
And, yes, their fans will be obnoxious for a few days but you have to give credit where credit is due.
We may not know what to call them, but their basketball team is still playing.
Like it or not, no other Louisiana basketball team can say that.
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