Challenge for Ragin' Cajun defense continues

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University of Louisiana basketball coach Robert Lee knows the Ragin' Cajuns newfound defensive success will be sorely tested Thursday. The Cajuns take a season-first two-game win streak on the road against South Alabama, the Sun Belt Conference's leader in scoring margin (7.4 points per game) and the number two team in the league in fewest turnovers. In fact, UL (7-14, 3-7 Sun Belt) faces the two league teams that have turned the ball over the fewest times this weekend. The Cajuns face USA at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at the Mitchell Center in Mobile, and trek from there for a first-ever road matchup with Troy at 7 p.m. Saturday. The challenges, though, will be greatly different. "South Alabama has a number of guys that can shoot it," Lee said Monday, "but they'll also try to keep the score down. They'll press a lot at home and try to keep the pressure on you. "Against Troy, you know you're going to have to score a lot of points to win. They shoot so many 3-pointers that some of them are going to go in. We'll have to score over 70 to win, and that's a concern since we go through a lot of stretches where we can't score." The rest of the story dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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Which is easier: Figuring out what was going wrong for the University of Louisiana's basketball team in its first 16 games, or figuring out what has gone right in the last five? The answer: Neither one. Both are more complex issues than the obvious - poor shooting early and improved defense recently. The only thing certain is that the Ragin' Cajuns will look for less of the former and more of the latter tonight when they take a semi-hot streak on the road. UL (7-14, 3-7 Sun Belt) faces West Division leader South Alabama (16-5, 7-2) at 7:05 p.m. in USA's Mitchell Center, and still harbors memories of the 61-51 slapping the Jaguars handed them in their return to the refurbished Cajundome back on Jan. 12. "I always felt that if this team ever started finding success, they'd start playing better," said Cajun coach Robert Lee. "Their confidence was pretty fragile after the first time we played South Alabama." "We owe them a little something," said senior center Chris Cameron. "We've got two bad home losses, and we've got to make up for them if we're going to be a factor in the West." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com