Mustang Baseball

[CUSAFAN]

What are the chances of baseball returning to SMU? You are in a gold mine for college baseball and are missing out on a great opportunity.College baseball is becoming one of the major sports.

I know you are landlocked, but is there any chance on buying some of the adjoining commerical property to build a baseball/softball complex? Such a complex with the same style as Ford Stadium would be very attractive for local recruits.

JMHO, but you have to wonder if the lack of baseball hurts your chances for a new conference?

[OlePony]

That's what we need. Another unfunded comittment to another sport when we can't even support football.
Congrats to Rice but Title 9 won't allow SMU to do the same unless donors step up huge. I'm talking 5 more Jerry Fords. Even then, I'd rather see the money spent on B'Ball and F'Ball until we are a top program in both.

[Mexmustang]

While I believe you have a reasonable suggestion, the quickest way to make ourselves more attractive, is to perform with what we have--while an avid football fan, the most disappointing sport already on campus has been basketball--this has been the sport which has broken our fans hearts for the past four years. While every sport has been affected by our past, basketball should have been the first to recover. This was SMU´s true history of success in the old SWC. Football, just given the expense and the numbers of recruits is simply a much slower turn around challenge, than basketball should have been.

[OlePony]

Unfortunately, b'ball was under the same recruiting standards as f'ball. No one has stepped forward with $20 million to improve Moody. However, SMU has never supported basketball well either. When we played in the SWC, our opponents fans masked the problem. Hell, we can still sell out for UT, A$M or TT. Other big alumni bases in Dallas such as Ark and KU will sell our arena out too. No SMU fans. That is the problem. Our basketball IS better than our football. It is probably not Top 50 but close. Major $ invested in b'ball facilities and budget could get us there fairly quickly. I would rather see money spent there than for baseball.

[Mexmustang]

I was not referring to attendance, but wins and losses. Small private schools with high admitance standards, have been far more successfull in basketball than football. We simply have been a disappointment.
A far a Moody is concerned, a major improvement in appearance could be acheived with the installation of proper lighting and painting the floors of the concourse. It has the appearance of dimly lit basement. Simple imrovements can be made without waiting for $20MM to drop out of the sky.

[Bergermeister]

Okay, Mex. Fork over the pesos for the "simple improvements."

[OlePony]

It isn't a matter of waiting for it to fall from the sky. The sad fact is none of the wealthy have seen fit to invest in b'ball even thouugh it can be and has been improved faster than football. Shu and Dement labored under the same recruiting restrictions although Shu did have SWC to help. There are a handful+ of small private U's which excel in b'ball. Most all have either BCS affiliations or huge followings like ND. They usually also have athlete friendly majors which allow for JC recruiting. Princeton may be an exception. We don't have NY area to recruit from nor a history of b'ball excellence nor PU's academic rep. Other than that we are on equal footing. It is time to either accept medicrity or push for changes in recruiting standards and admissions. Great programs for neither sport will emerge until we do.

[Mexmustang]

I am really trying to express two opinions.
First, certain improvements can made to Moody without waiting for a major campaign or donor. Obviously improving the lighting and the floors, etc. isn't free, but Moody could serve us for an intermediate period with some obvious cosmetic improvements (taste).
Second, the year-end collapses of our team was a major disappointment to alot of our fans. We seem to just spark the interest enough to disappoint. The coaches mentioned previously simply didn't have it. Personality, drive and coaching ability. This wan't meant to be an attack on our current coach, but I for one have grown tired of the lack of success at year-end.
With regard to the pesos--my group has given over US$1,000,000 to SMU and I have given annually. All it got me was disappointment and years ago the unfortate experience of serving on the board with our deceased, narrowed minded President I think Bennett is the real deal, but b-ball should be way out in front of our football progress.

[OlePony]

My point is that b'ball IS way out in front of F'ball. Out of roughly 115 competitors in D1 f'ball, we are barely in the top 100. Out of over 200 b'ball programs we are about the 50-60 range. This is in spite of all the money going to f'ball.
We need more contibutors like your group and we need more of that money going to b'ball. B'ball has been disappoining because we have been on the verge of breaking through. Football is a total embarrassment. We beat only the weak sisters of the WAC last year which were ranked nearly dead last in D1 football. In b'ball we beat TCU and Tulsa last year. There is no comparison between the relative success of the 2 programs. I hope Bennett is part of the answer but he did no better last year on the field than Cavan the year before including a horrible loss to Navy where we were favorites. His recruiting puts him well above Cavan but some of the restrictions have been lifted. That should help Dement too. Like Bennett,Dement has pulled some recruiting coups including Sass, Willie, Q, Simpson and Bhop. We haven't had ENOUGH players of that caliber nor the ability to fill holes with JC players. So far, Bennett hasn't shown anything that Dement hasn't. Dement has had longer to build the program so he is now a target of those expecting success without money commitments or a level recruiting field with his competitors. Bennett will be in the same boat in a few years (if he is a good coach)unless concrete steps are taken to allow for JC recruitment (ie tranferable credits and jock friendly majors like PE). We are excited about a recruiting class ranked in the top 50 (maybe).Does that tell you how far we need to go in f'ball? Wishing things were otherwise won't make it happen. Those, by way of large contributions to SMU, who have the ear of the administration must convince them that SMU's reputation academically isn't going to suffer if 40-50 students aren't quite the academic peers of the rest of the student body. Stanford has figured this out. So has Duke. So has ND. Why can't SMU?

[Dement-ed]

But with the progress Coach Bennett appears to be making, and with the question marks surrounding Bryan Hopkins and Patrick Simpson on the basketball court, couldn't those positions reverse themselves in the next few years?

[OlePony]

I'm not sure what you mean by question marks surrouding BHop and Simpson. Bhop came on pretty strong as he got healthy last year and Simpson had a very solid year. I expect to see them both better this year as well as Isham and Castro.
Bennett is making progress we THINK. We know his recruiting class was the best in a long time but certainly not Top 30. His coaching, I thought, showed little last year. Not bad but little improvement. The d'backs seemed not to be able to tackle at all esp Moodley. He chose the wrong QB to start the season evidently. The team only beat 3 of which 2 were the very worst in the NCAA. I hope we'll see vast improvemnets this year but that could mean winning 5. That's possibly still a losing season against the WAC. I don't see the b'ball team getting worse although we'll miss Q badly. Football is King in the southwest. If we supported b'ball as well as we do f'ball in terms of attendance and $, b'ball would get better too. In fact, I think it is still improving even with being the "ugly sister".

[Mexmustang]

My opinion is that this administration does know this. They have a very open mind to the importance athletics have to the school and to attract alums back to campus and have an interest in the entire university. Unfortunately, some of our fellow alums and faculty still don't get it. Faculty in perticular believe that the university's finances are a zero sum game. The fail to understand that contributions and overall revenue is step one in a budget--the "goose that laid the golden egg". Without athletics chances are the deficit would be greater and the need to attract alumni giving even more important and more difficult.
PS ranking in the top fifty isn't success.

[SoCal_Pony]

Since there are 105 teams playing in post-season tournaments (NCAA 65 +NIT 40) and since in the last 10 years we have only played in 1 post-season game (an NIT loss), I would hardly say SMU BB is a top 50 - 60 program.

There appears to be little recruiting momentum following BHop. This last class was mediocre at best.

[EastStang]

You'd need $10-20 Million to start a solid baseball program at SMU and it would take a decade or two to get competitive. First, you would need a place to play. Then, you'd need to fund scholarships for softball and baseball (Title IX). Then you'd need a name coach for both teams (formerly baseball coach was in sinecure position). Then you'd need travel expenses (the WAC is pretty far flung). If anyone can write that check, I'm sure they'll start a baseball program immediately. Anyone know Laura Bush's phone number, I hear her husband likes baseball.

[OldPony]

There are many reasons a b'ball team is invited to NIT. One large one is attendance and drawing power. We strike out on both counts. The lack of quality opponents also hurts.
Basketball is,however,more successful than football at SMU from whatever guage you want to use.