Team preview: Louisiana-Lafayette

Blue Ribbon Illustrated previews the 2004-05 college basketball season, exclusively on Insider.

Updated: October 20, 2004, 5:07 PM ET
Blue Ribbon Yearbook
Editor's Note: Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, long known as the Bible of college basketball, to provide a comprehensive look at all 326 Division I teams.

COACH AND PROGRAM

Veteran Louisiana-Lafayette assistant Robert Lee wasn't happy last spring when Oklahoma State assistant Glynn Cyprien was announced as the successor to San Francisco-bound Jessie Evans.

But as it turned out, the fact Cyprien got the job rather than Mississippi State assistant Robert Kirby or Louisiana State assistant Butch Pierre -- who along with Lee were the other finalists -- was the best thing for Lee. That's because Cyprien was fired in mid-July, barely 10 weeks on the job, when it was learned he didn't have the bachelor's degree from Texas-San Antonio that was listed on his resume. And while Lee was still coming to grips with Cyprien's sudden departure, he was offered the job.

A Nicholls State alumnus who went 109-29 at Opelousas High in the early 1990s, Lee was an assistant at Lafayette seven years under Evans and one year under Marty Fletcher before that.

Now, he inherits plenty of personnel left over from an NCAA Tournament team.


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