Know Your Foe: Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
2023 Record: 5-2
Head Coach: Jason Simpson (14th Year)
Previous stop:
Sam Houston State - 12 seasons
Last Meeting: Louisiana W, 75-58 (2022)
TV: ESPN+
Tip: 7:00pm CT
Fun? Fact: Samford is 0-10 all-time against Louisiana.
Team Overview:
We have officially transitioned to basketball season and we will be doing Know Your Foe stories for Samford’s biggest matchups. Louisiana comes into the Pete Hanna Center being ranked 147th in KenPom while Samford is ranked 146th. As of now this will be Samford’s toughest remaining test in the non-conference schedule. Samford students are back on campus so it will be a great atmosphere.
Louisiana is coming into Homewood with a three-game winning streak beating a solid Long Beach State team and Loyola New Orleans. The Ragin’ Cajuns can shoot the basketball from the outside. They average 10.9 made threes per game which is 11th in the entire country as they shoot 37.8% which is good for 41st. Samford will have to be effective in running them off of the three-point line. Louisiana does have two games with making 18 or more threes.
This team also does a great job on the defensive end of limiting the opponent’s outside shooting. Opponents are shooting only 25% from beyond the arc against these Ragin’ Cajuns. In a game that will be up-and-down, Samford needs to have their best shooting game of the year because it is not a good recipe for trading threes for twos. Just like Samford, Louisiana forces turnovers at a high rate as opponents average 15 turnovers.
One key player to watch is leading scorer Kobe Julien. The 6’6” forward is averaging 18.6 points along with 3.4 rebounds as Julien was the Sun Belt Player of the Week last week. If Jermaine Marshall does not go, look for Samford F AJ Staton-McCray to be the primary defender on Julien.
Samford plays with much more pace than Louisiana per KenPom so the Bulldogs being able to speed up the Cajuns will be key. As mentioned at the top, this is Samford’s toughest game of this 9-game non-conference homestand as it will be a great atmosphere. I would get to the Pete Hanna Center at 7:00 if I were you.
