Vermilion Parish's Ragin Cajun fans excited for basketball team

Written by Laura Trahan

Thanks to a dramatic 82-81 overtime victory over Georgia State to claim the 2014 Sun Belt Conference title, the UL Lafayette Men’s Basketball Team earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, and to say that their fans are excited about it would be an understatement.
Lately, UL sports have been doing extremely well, which has brought a lot of positive press for the university. It shows how much the school is improving and has inspired more people to root for them. Those who have been fans for a while are more than excited about not only the basketball team’s win, but also about how this has bettered the school’s reputation. On top of that, one of the members is an Abbeville native. J.J. Davenport, a junior who graduated from Abbeville High School, plays center.
“I think its great that so many of our sports teams are doing so well,” said Emily Trahan, a senior psychology major from Maurice. “The publicity is great for the university and the area, and of course, our fans are really supportive and we are really excited that our basketball team is off to the big dance! It is an awesome opportunity to showcase their talent as one of the best teams in the nation, and those boys fought hard this season and they deserve it!”
The win also makes UL’s fans feel proud to be part of the school, alumni or not. Abbeville High School Principal Ivy Landry is a big Regin’ Cajuns fan, with both his wife and his daughter working there, and he enjoys learning about their successes as of now.
“We are ecstatic at the success of not just the basketball team, but all of the athletics at UL,” he said. “Football, baseball, softball, everybody’s doing well right now and it just makes you proud to be a Cajun!”
The 2014 Sun Belt Conference Tournament was held from March 13-16 at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. For this, the team had to take on University of Texas-Arlington, Western Kentucky University, who were last year’s champions, and finally, the top-seeded Georgia State with a game that left fans at the edges of their seats.
Tony Meaux, owner of Meaux’s Grocery and Chuck Guardia, band director at J.H. Williams Middle, were both at the game, watching the action from up close. It proved to be a thrilling experience being there to witness the moment where UL once again became champions.
“It was a pretty exciting moment, I can assure you. A guy spoke to me after the game and he said ‘This is very unexpected,’” said Meaux. “I gave my seat up to another guy and I went and sat on the fourth row. When we went into overtime, I couldn’t take it. I was on the rail. It was pretty exciting.”
“I was in college a while back the last few times they were in the NCAA Tournament, so it had been a while since I was able to see that,” recalled Guardia, a UL alumnus. “The last two times they went, and then this time, I was actually at the game whenever they went to it. It’s nice to have that feeling, not just for the basketball team, but for the entire program that’s starting to grow from that.”
The UL Men’s Basketball Team will be traveling to San Antonio to face off against No.3-seed Creighton on Friday at 2:10 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on truTV.