Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball
2021–22 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball team
University	University of Louisiana at Lafayette
First season	1911–12
Head coach	Bob Marlin (11th season)
Conference	Sun Belt
Location	Lafayette, Louisiana
Arena	Cajundome (Capacity: 12,362)
Nickname	Ragin' Cajuns
Colors	Vermilion and white[1]
Uniforms
Home Away
NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
1972, 1973
NCAA Tournament Round of 32
1972, 1973, 1992
NCAA Tournament Appearances
1972, 1973, 1982, 1983, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2014
NIT Final Four
1984
NIT Quarterfinals
1980, 1984
NIT Second Round
1980, 1984, 1985
NIT Tournament Appearances
1980, 1984, 1985, 2002, 2003, 2018
Conference tournament champions
Southland: 1982 Sun Belt: 1992, 1994, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2014
Conference regular season champions
Gulf States: 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 Southland: 1972, 1973, 1977, 1982 Sun Belt: 1992, 2000, 2018
Conference division season champions
Sun Belt West: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2011[2]

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball program represents intercollegiate men's basketball at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.^[3] The school competes in the Sun Belt Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and play home games at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana. Bob Marlin is in his eighth season as head coach.

History[]

Conference affiliations[]

• 1914–15 to 1924–25: Louisiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• 1925–26 to 1940–41: Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• 1941–42 to 1946–47: Louisiana Intercollegiate Conference
• 1947–48 to 1970–71: Gulf States Conference
• 1971–72 to 1972–73; 1975–76 to 1981–82: Southland Conference
• 1982–83 to 1986–87: NCAA Division I Independent
• 1987–88 to 1990–91: American South Conference
• 1991–92 to present: Sun Belt Conference

NCAA sanctions[]

1968 infractions[]

In 1968, Southwestern Louisiana was placed on two years' probation and barred from postseason play during that time for recruiting violations and for student-athletes receiving financial assistance from an outside organization.^[4]

1973 death penalty[]

In August 1973, Louisiana—then known as Southwestern Louisiana—became only the second school to receive the so-called "death penalty" from the NCAA. The basketball team was found guilty of over 120 violations. Most of them involved small cash payments to players, letting players borrow coaches' and boosters' cars, letting players use university credit cards to buy gas and buying clothes and other objects for players. However, the most severe violations involved massive academic fraud. In the most egregious case, an assistant coach altered a recruit's high school transcript and forged the principal's signature. Several boosters arranged for surrogates to take college entrance exams for prospective recruits. The NCAA Council found the violations so egregious that it wanted to throw Southwestern Louisiana out of the NCAA altogether. It settled for scrubbing the Ragin' Cajuns' 1972 and 1973 NCAA Tournament appearances from the books canceling the 1973–74 and 1974–75 seasons, and stripping the school of its vote at the NCAA convention for three years. ^[5][6]

2007 major violations[]

In 2007, The Ragin Cajuns were found guilty of major violations in its men's basketball program. An NCAA investigation found that now-former player Orien Greene had relied on 15 hours of correspondence courses taken through another institution in order to remain eligible for the 2004 spring semester and the entire 2004–05 academic year. NCAA rules do not allow student-athletes to use correspondence courses taken from another institution to remain eligible. According to the NCAA, this was an "obvious error" that should have been caught right away, but the school's then-compliance coordinator, director of academic services and registrar all failed to catch it. When school officials learned about the violations, they vacated every game in which Greene participated—43 games in all, including NCAA tournament appearances in 2004 and 2005—and scrubbed Greene's records from the books. The NCAA accepted Louisiana's penalties and also imposed two years' probation.^[7][8]

Postseason[]

NCAA Division I Tournament results[]

The Ragin Cajuns have unofficially appeared in 10 NCAA Division I Tournaments. However, they have officially only appeared in six; the other four appearances have been vacated. In 1972, they became the first school to make the tournament in their first year of eligibility, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. They repeated this feat in 1973. However, both of these appearances were vacated as a result of the 1973 infractions case. The Ragin Cajuns participated in the 2004 and 2005 NCAA tournaments, but both appearances were vacated due to major violations involving Orien Greene. Their official combined record is 1–6. All appearances prior to 2000 were when the school was still named Southwestern Louisiana.

Year	Seed	Round	Opponent	Result
1972*	N/A	First Round Sweet Sixteen Regional 3rd Place Game	Marshall Louisville Texas	W 112–101 L 57–61 W 100–70
1973*	N/A	First Round Sweet Sixteen Regional 3rd Place Game	Houston Kansas State South Carolina	W 102–89 L 63–66 L 85–90
1982	No. 8	First Round	No. 9 Tennessee	L 57–61
1983	No. 8	First Round	No. 9 Rutgers	L 53–60
1992	No. 13	First Round Second Round	No. 4 Oklahoma No. 12 New Mexico State	W 87–83 L 73–81
1994	No. 11	First Round	No. 6 Marquette	L 59–81
2000	No. 13	First Round	No. 4 Tennessee	L 58–63
2004*	No. 14	First Round	No. 3 NC State	L 52–61
2005*	No. 13	First Round	No. 4 Louisville	L 62–68
2014	No. 14	First Round	No. 3 Creighton	L 66–76

* appearance and records vacated

NCAA Division II Tournament results[]

The Ragin Cajuns appeared in the 1971 NCAA Division II Tournament. However, that appearance was later vacated due to the same rules violations that stripped them of their 1972 and 1973 Division I Tournament results.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1971*	Regional Semifinals Regional Finals Elite Eight Final Four National 3rd Place Game	New Orleans Tennessee State Assumption Evansville Kentucky Wesleyan	W 113–107 W 86–82 W 110–99 L 74–93 W 105–83

* appearance and records vacated

NAIA Tournament results[]

The Ragin Cajuns appeared in two NAIA Tournaments. Their combined record is 3–2.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1965	First Round Second Round	Colorado State-Pueblo Oklahoma Baptist	W 66–59 L 82–95
1967	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals	Findlay Central Michigan Oklahoma Baptist	W 110–73 W 70–62 L 65–66

NIT results[]

The Ragin Cajuns appeared in six National Invitation Tournaments. Their combined record is 6–7. All appearances prior to 2002 were when the school was still named Southwestern Louisiana.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1980	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals	UAB Texas Minnesota	W 74–72 W 77–76 L 73–94
1984	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Third Place Game	Utah State Weber State Santa Clara Notre Dame Virginia Tech	W 94–92 W 74–72 W 97–76 L 59–65 L 70–71
1985	First Round Second Round	Florida Tennessee	W 65–64 L 72–73
2002	Opening Round	Louisiana Tech	L 63–83
2003	First Round	UAB	L 80–82
2018	First Round	LSU	L 76–84

CIT results[]

The Ragin Cajuns appeared in three CollegeInsider.com Tournaments (CIT). Their combined record is 4–3.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
2012	First Round	Rice	L 63–68
2015	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals	Incarnate Word Sam Houston State Evansville	W 83–68 W 71–70 L 82–89
2016	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals	Texas A&M–Corpus Christi Furman UC Irvine	W 96–72 W 80–72 L 66–67

Home venues[]

Earl K. Long Gymnasium[]

Blackham Coliseum[]

Cajundome[]

Notable players[]

• Frank Bartley (born 1994), basketball player for Ironi Ness Ziona of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Johnathan Stove (born 1995), basketball player for Hapoel Galil Elyon of the Israeli Basketball Premier League

See also[]

• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball programs
• 2020–21 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team

References[]

External links[]

• Official website