SportsLine.com Report
March 17, 2000

Round 1: 'Phantom' helps Vols bounce Ragin' Cajuns

After giving its best effort to push Tennessee for all it was worth, Louisiana-Lafayette felt good about its performance, but not about the outcome as it fell 63-58 in the South Regional in Birmingham.

The Ragin' Cajuns were within a basket as Brett Smith's jump shot made the score 60-58 with 45 seconds to go. Later, with the shot clock running down and 15 seconds to play, Vols guard Tony Harris was trying to get to the basket and lost the ball. Smith was called for a reach-in foul that was questionable.

"Often times you see phantom calls that you have to be right on top of to see," Louisiana-Lafayette coach Jessie Evans said. "I guess that's how it was today."

Smith couldn't figure the foul call out. "I just looked at the crowd and was like, 'What just happened?' " Smith said. "I couldn't have made that steal any cleaner than that."

Harris missed the front end of the 1-and-1 but Tennessee got the rebound and the Cajuns claimed a referee was talking to them during the shot and distracted them from going after the rebound.

"We're taught to listen to the ref," Evans said. "I guess we should have been using peripheral vision instead."

Ron Slay got the rebound and was flagrantly fouled by Smith with 13 seconds to go -- allowing Tennessee to keep the ball after the free throws. After Slay missed both free throws, Tennessee inbounded to Harris, who was promptly fouled. Harris made two free throws with 10.8 seconds to go.

Lonnie Thomas led Louisiana-Lafayette with 19 points.

How They Got There

The Ragin' Cajuns, who spent most of their season atop the Sun Belt Conference standings, ended in a regular-season tie for first with South Alabama, but drew the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament because it had been swept by the Jaguars.

The Ragin' Cajuns got their revenge in a wild title game.

Lonnie Thomas nailed a short bank shot with 3.5 seconds left, giving Lafayette a 51-50 victory and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"We won the national championship when I was (an assistant) at Arizona in 1997 and I can honestly say this feels better," coach Jessie Evans said. "It's taking my own team."

Starting Lineup

• PG Blane Harmon (6-2, 210, Jr.): Harmon has been solid at the point all season, dropping in an average of 12.6 points to go along with his 3.4 assists per game. He is the Ragin' Cajuns most frequent 3-point bomber, hitting 84 of 234 attempts (35.9 percent).
• SG Billy Jones (6-4, 195, Jr.): Jones only averages six points and is playing less than 20 minutes per game. He's the only one who usually leaves the game when sixth man Orlando Butler -- averaging nearly 23 minutes -- enters.
• F Reggie DeGray (6-5, 225, Jr.): Has started all but one game this season, averaging 8.6 ppg and a solid 4.9 rpg.
• F Lonnie Thomas (6-8, 255, Jr.): Thomas won the conference's sixth man award as a sophomore, and then proved his worth after moving into the starting lineup this season. He is one of three Ragin' Cajuns to average double figures in points (11.1).
• F/C Brett Smith (6-9, 250, Jr.): Smith is a three-year starter, but is averaging just 4 points. He's on the floor for his defense.

Keys To Success

The Ragin' Cajuns must maintain the balance that got them to the tournament. Leading scorer Orlando Butler is averaging 13.1 points, and five other players average at least 5.5 ppg, including Blane Harmon (12.8 ppg) and Lonnie Thomas (11.1 ppg).

Even though they won a low-scoring game to win the conference title -- and won an extremely ugly second-round game against New Orleans 55-35 -- UL-Lafayette likes to run and will need to get that part of its game revved up early.

The Coach

Jessie Evans got everything he could this season from a team that returned three starters and nine of its top 10 scorers. Prior to taking the head coaching position at Lafayette, Evans was a long-time assistant to Lute Olson at Arizona (1988-97), gaining yearly NCAA Tournament experience, including the 1997 national championship. Evans is 56-37 in his third year at Lafayette.

The Bench

This is probably the Ragin' Cajuns' main strength. Orlando Butler hasn't started a game all season, and yet he is the team's leading scorer and was the only UL-Lafayette player selected to the all-conference team. He carried the team the last week of the regular season, averaging 17.3 ppg in three games. In the conference tournament, he was at 14.3 points per game.

Evans has a generous rotation, with 10 players averaging 10 or more minutes per game.

Offense

The Ragin' Cajuns prefer an up-tempo style, but they proved they can win a slow, plodding game by beating South Alabama 51-50 in the Sun Belt title game. USA purposely slowed the game, and after missing some easy shots early, UL-Lafayette responded with a key run in the second half to earn the victory.

Defense

Led by Lonnie Thomas (7.3 rebounds per game), the Ragin' Cajuns are solid on the boards. Top interior defender Brett Smith is next at 5.5 per game. ... Opponents average 67.8 points per game ... Lafayette limited the opposition to 29 percent shooting from 3-point range.