Ask members of the SMU men’s basketball team for a catalyst, and the answers will be as varied as the buildings that make up the New York City skyline.

Some players have admitted that they have been inspired by the chance to give head coach Larry Brown a trip back to Madison Square Garden, where he coached the New York Knicks and not far from where he grew up on Long Island. Brown insists that the inspiration for the Mustangs’ recent surge, which reached four games after the Ponies knocked off the Clemson Tigers at MSG to advance to Thursday’s NIT finale against Minnesota, is to send seniors Nick Russell and Shawn Williams out as winners in their final campaign with the Mustangs. Others cite the Mustangs’ defense, or the emergence of the team’s three talented freshmen: Sterling Brown, Ben Moore and Keith Frazier.

Guard Nic Moore said reserves like Jean-Michael Mudiay have been invaluable for the Mustangs this season (photo by SMU athletics).

But sophomore guard Nic Moore — one of the team’s leaders and the owner of team-leading scoring average (13.5 points per game) and assists this season (174) — said he has found inspiration from some teammates that Moore said never get the credit they deserve: guards Kevin Dunleavy, Jean-Michael Mudiay and Jonathan Wilfong.

The three reserves at the end of the suddenly-deep Mustangs’ bench do little that appears on the stat sheet. Between them, they have played 35 minutes and have 10 points, six rebounds, 1 steal and no assists … combined … all season long. By scoring 13 points Wednesday in the NIT semifinal win over Clemson, Moore alone outscored the trio’s season output in a single game … for the 25th time this season. But to hear Moore tell it, the trio is as important as he, No. 2 scorer and rebounds leader Markus Kennedy and defensive ace Nick Russell.

“Those guys don’t play as much as they want to — we all want to play — but they work just as hard as anyone else in practice, in the weight room, even though they know they’re not going to play a lot,” Moore said. “They might not realize it, but everyone sees that. They push us in practice. When we’re not playing well, they pick us up on the bench.”

Now, least known of the SMU players are starting to speak up to their more celebrated teammates.

“Jean-Michael said something, either right before the Cal game or right after,” Moore said. “‘J-Mike’ said, ‘what’s the common denominator that all successful people have? They have all failed.’

“It’s true, and we failed, too. We didn’t get into the NCAA Tournament, and it was our fault. We didn’t do what we had to do. At first, we were pretty bummed, but now look at us. There are a lot of teams that would want to be in our situation. A lot of teams aren’t still playing — we are.”

Dunleavy also recently spoke up, and Moore said it got the Mustangs’ collective attention.

“Kevin called me and Markus (Kennedy) out,” Moore said. “He challenged Markus to run the floor hard, and to fight through everything (opposing teams) did to him. He told me, ‘Nic, you’ve got to control your emotions.’ I thought about it, and he was right.”

Moore said Mudiay and Dunleavy were anything but out of place when they spoke up, because the number of minutes a player gets on the floor has nothing to do with the impact of his voice.

“With people like that, (media and fans) don’t talk about them as much, but they are just as important as anyone else on the team,” Moore said. “We expect so much of them in practice. They work just as hard in the weight room, they pick us up when we’re not playing well, and they don’t get the same opportunities to play. So when one of them opens his mouth, in a way, it’s more important than when I do.

“You might not see it on the stat sheet, but without those guys, we’re not where we are.”