SMU vs TCU Game Thread

[George S. Patton]

After reading the comments from the followers, it's the same thing time after time after time.

*Rotations are confusing
*We don't hit 3s (0 for our last 24 if not more)
*We don't hit free throws
*Doherty consistently gets outcoached
*People are worried McCoy may transfer (hmm someone else brought this up last week). Personally, I think his play is reflected in the fact that he may regret that he returned to school.
*We don't make good decisions with the basketball.
*People are talking about that we can't get all 5 to play together at the same time. Hell, that hasn't happened in 3 years.

I really believe that the dye is cast on this season, and it's over. We're not going to touch a winning season much less a .500 season. We're going to finish in the lower third of the conference and get swept by Tulsa, Memphis, Houston, UTEP and quite possibly Rice. In short, we'll probably win about 4 conference games.

Get ready for another 9-21 washout.

I don't think these players respect Doherty and what he brings and are going through the motions. And if there really is going to be a change, this season really needs to get brutal for that to happen.

My trips to Moody will only be when the women play. At least there's a program you know where everyone is united. It's certainly not the case with the men's program. And that's a FACT!

[MustangStealth]

i'm one of mccoys biggest fans last year, but its more than an isolated one bad game. We've played 5 home games he has been far behind the standard he set for himself last year. Boy, that stings to type. We had 5 home games to open the season, 3 were decent opportunities to get a nice win and we whiffed completely.

It's a continuing trend of players regressing under Doh. I've said it before, with few exceptions (Killen, Ike) it seems like most of our players either go backwards in their second year or at least don't improve.

[Hoop Fan]

thats my morning after take too, Papa: simply, what a mess. Some of it seems fixable, like substititutions, lineups, timeouts, choosing defenses, free throws, etc. But its all recurring and doesn't seem to change. I will too give credit for Doh putting Haynes on the ball on defense to start the game, and I like Faye coming to trap from the weakside. That was basically the only positive from the night for me.

[therack]

i'm one of mccoys biggest fans last year, but its more than an isolated one bad game. We've played 5 home games he has been far behind the standard he set for himself last year. Boy, that stings to type. We had 5 home games to open the season, 3 were decent opportunities to get a nice win and we whiffed completely.

It's a continuing trend of players regressing under Doh. I've said it before, with few exceptions (Killen, Ike) it seems like most of our players either go backwards in their second year or at least don't improve.

I disagree with you... The players are not regressing... It's very typical for a player to have a sophmore slump after a very good freshman year... As a FR you are typically very unknown and most teams do not concentrate their defense around you... When you get to the SO year, every single oponent has at least one year of information on you so they can tweak their defenses to eliminate your strenghts... It takes experience and talent to adjust to these different defenses... Look at Papa - had a pretty bad year last year as a SO and he back again playing at a very high level this year!!!

[therack]

After reading the comments from the followers, it's the same thing time after time after time.

*Rotations are confusing
*We don't hit 3s (0 for our last 24 if not more)
*We don't hit free throws
*Doherty consistently gets outcoached
*People are worried McCoy may transfer (hmm someone else brought this up last week). Personally, I think his play is reflected in the fact that he may regret that he returned to school.
*We don't make good decisions with the basketball.
*People are talking about that we can't get all 5 to play together at the same time. Hell, that hasn't happened in 3 years.

I really believe that the dye is cast on this season, and it's over. We're not going to touch a winning season much less a .500 season. We're going to finish in the lower third of the conference and get swept by Tulsa, Memphis, Houston, UTEP and quite possibly Rice. In short, we'll probably win about 4 conference games.

Get ready for another 9-21 washout.

I don't think these players respect Doherty and what he brings and are going through the motions. And if there really is going to be a change, this season really needs to get brutal for that to happen.

My trips to Moody will only be when the women play. At least there's a program you know where everyone is united. It's certainly not the case with the men's program. And that's a FACT!

If you don't understand basketball, then please stop commenting about it... I do agree that there are a lot of stuff that is wrong with our team!!! But you're saying that the players are going through the motion is absolutely BS... Have you watched at least one game this year? Yeah, Florida Gulf and Huston games were pretty bad in terms of effort but the competition level was pretty bad as well... However, against TCU, A&M and USF team played really hard and the effort was definitely there...

[George S. Patton]

I'm sorry Rack, I disagree with you on that. I've watched online and I have different perspective on it.

For you to accuse me of not understanding the game is BS in itself. It's one thing to play hard. It's another to play smart. I don't think they play for Doherty. I think we've got a problem there. You kinda neutralized your argument when you conceded the Florida Gulf Coast and Hutson-Tillotson were a mess and the fact that you cushioned it because they were bad teams is unacceptable. Should we or should we have not blown these teams out?

There is so much inconsistency on this team, and I do not believe that the players are responding to Doherty. It's what I observe and it's what I believe.

Everyone is so quick to run to the argument, "Well I've got the inside scoop because of XXXX''.

To be honest, that doesn't matter. At the end of it all, there's a reason why you went 9-21. There's a reason why you play bad against these teams. There's a reason why you don't hit FTs and 3s.

And when your coach proceeds to publicly blast his team in the paper and say, "I'M EMBARRASSED TO BE THE COACH OF THIS TEAM,'' how well do you think that's going to go in the locker room with a team that's on the brink of collapse.

We've got so many problems with this program, it's ridiculous.

What should concern everybody is that nobody is going to these games anymore.

[George S. Patton]

And all of us who get on this board and espouse our basketball expertise about great help defense and why switched to zone when we should have stayed in man defense.

That's great that we can quarrel with each other about that all that doo-hickey stuff.

Here's reality for all of us: The general public doesn't care. The casual sports fans see we're 2-3 and that we don't appear to be very good and they just move on to something else that will catch their attention. This program does not give them a reason to even take a further glance at what's going on over here.

Now where do you apply the blame for that?

[therack]

You're right - playing hard and playing smart are two different things... Once again, the problem is not effort...! I think our tactics on offense just don't fit the personnel as we trying run the Princeton type offense! That's where the mistakes happen as the players are uncomfortable with this offense... That's Doherty's fault (or one of many)... But you CANNOT say that the team's effort was not there!!!

[George S. Patton]

You're right - playing hard and playing smart are two different things... Once again, the problem is not effort...! I think our tactics on offense just don't fit the personnel as we trying run the Princeton type offense! That's where the mistakes happen as the players are uncomfortable with this offense... That's Doherty's fault (or one of many)... But you CANNOT say that the team's effort was not there!!!

The height of stupidity is doing the same thing day after day and expecting the results to change.

[EastStang]

I missed the game, did the players look tight, or over-coached? Bad free throw shooting is of course sometimes a symptom of a team that's tight. Shooting free throws requires a relaxed rhythm. If you're tight, you can't get that flow going. Or do they just have bad mechanics shooting free throws? There are players who never get very good at free throw shooting (remember Chamberlain and Unseld in the NBA) not matter what you do. Secondly, is Doh doing these silly rotations in the non-conference schedule to get a feel for his team and why doesn't he have a feel for that during practices?

[FriscoPMG]

Secondly, is Doh doing these silly rotations in the non-conference schedule to get a feel for his team and why doesn't he have a feel for that during practices?

This exact same theory (or excuse) was thrown out last season during non-conference, so the answer is no. He will once again continue with the mindless subbing and rotations because he is a bad coach. It has nothing to do with experimenting since his job is hopefully on the line with every game he coaches now.

[NastyStang]

The TCU players looked like a non-division 1 team. Horrible horrible loss. It's SO redundant - missed tons of free throws, have the worst half-court offense in D-1, a coach who makes TERRIBLE in game decisions (ie. switching to zone and letting their shooter hit 2 threes when man was working). I've said give Doh some more time, but its not working. When you see talent on the court that will not fast break and look scared to take a shot - a change is necessary!

2 games without a 3. 0-24 I think. 18 for something like 40 from the FT line the last 2 games.
Playing pressure D to open the game & then backing off of it. Why?
Poor weak side rotation & poor recognition that #13 is the 3 pt shooter leaving him wide open(happens every game).

This team may be the worst shooting team in America & you just can't play a slow down game.
You gotta to make it crazy on the court, pressing, creating some hell & getting easy baskets.
If you can't shoot, you gotta get a lot of shoot attempts to score. It ain't gonna happen with a slow down tempo type game. This slow down, run down the shoot clock O sucks. Boring brand of basketball & totally not effective.

This team drives me crazy. I'm telling you they have some talent on this squad.

It can only be one thing.

BTW, best home game I've seen Papa play @ SMU & I've seen most of them. Gotta explain to me why he only played 24 minutes in a 40 minute game. Monster game was there for the taking.

Agree 100% that there is talent on this team. Maybe this has been mentioned before, but why the hell are we not a running team? We have two lightning quick guards who can get anywhere they want and a few mobile big guys that can finish. Turn this into a track meet because the pathetic half court offense is offensive. That first half last night was one of the most boring bball games I've ever seen. There were at least 10 times last night where we had numbers going the other way and we pulled up to run the half court garbage...