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More surprised at our defensive struggles than anything else. Lots of fresh faces means struggles on the road until someone steps it up in a leadership capacity.

Not to be debbie doomsday, but the other thing no one is really mentioning is that the incoming recruiting class (as best I can tell) is very mediocre (no top 150 players; still no height) and not on par with what we've seen in the last few years , and so we can't point to the future, either.

Back to the original point of the thread, I'm really surprised by poor execution on both ends of the floor. Jankovich seems like a very bright guy and has had the opportunity to learn from the best coaches for an extended period of time - you would think that would translate into effective coaching, but to this point it hasn't.

Ponyneighbor wrote:Not to be debbie doomsday, but the other thing no one is really mentioning is that the incoming recruiting class (as best I can tell) is very mediocre (no top 150 players; still no height) and not on par with what we've seen in the last few years , and so we can't point to the future, either.

Back to the original point of the thread, I'm really surprised by poor execution on both ends of the floor. Jankovich seems like a very bright guy and has had the opportunity to learn from the best coaches for an extended period of time - you would think that would translate into effective coaching, but to this point it hasn't.

I'd completely disagree w your first point. It's a very good class and better than almost all of Browns, minus transfers. As for height, it's not like we're getting beat on the boards or having bigs go nuts on us. Our issue down low is that we don't have bigs w low post acumen. We have Semi who clearly doesn't use his size well and doesn't play over his shoulders and Ben Moore who is a tweener that can't really face or beat you over his shoulders. He's a 6'7 athletic garbage man.

Ponyneighbor wrote:Not to be debbie doomsday, but the other thing no one is really mentioning is that the incoming recruiting class (as best I can tell) is very mediocre (no top 150 players; still no height) and not on par with what we've seen in the last few years , and so we can't point to the future, either.

Back to the original point of the thread, I'm really surprised by poor execution on both ends of the floor. Jankovich seems like a very bright guy and has had the opportunity to learn from the best coaches for an extended period of time - you would think that would translate into effective coaching, but to this point it hasn't.

http://smu.247sports.com/Season/2017-Basketball/Commits
William Douglas is a 4-Star, Top 150 player (113). Might end up in the top 100. He had a great summer and was a big time scorer this summer. He is a real nice player. Outside of him most of the guys are under the radar and lack a true rim protector. Ethan Chargois had a nice final 4 of us, KSU, CU, and UH. He is a shorter, but similar player to Froling. More athletic, but will need to shape his body. Landrum is a nice change of pace PG and Everett Ray is a late bloomer, kinda unknown, but supposed to be good on the glass and D. Its not a star heavy class, but it has a real good 4-star Guard and a solid change of pace PG and two bigs. I would have liked us to wait on Ray and keep looking for someone bigger, but we needed bigs and took two. Think it is easily as good (I think better) than the 2016 class..

I see HoopmanX beat me to it.

Ponyneighbor wrote:Not to be debbie doomsday, but the other thing no one is really mentioning is that the incoming recruiting class (as best I can tell) is very mediocre (no top 150 players; still no height) and not on par with what we've seen in the last few years , and so we can't point to the future, either.

Back to the original point of the thread, I'm really surprised by poor execution on both ends of the floor. Jankovich seems like a very bright guy and has had the opportunity to learn from the best coaches for an extended period of time - you would think that would translate into effective coaching, but to this point it hasn't.

Can't disagree with your second point.

TidePony wrote:I'm glad we were putting up our Christmas Tree last night, or I would of been nasty after reading about the game here.

Live tree or other?

PonyLawExpress wrote:

Ponyneighbor wrote:Not to be debbie doomsday, but the other thing no one is really mentioning is that the incoming recruiting class (as best I can tell) is very mediocre (no top 150 players; still no height) and not on par with what we've seen in the last few years , and so we can't point to the future, either.

Back to the original point of the thread, I'm really surprised by poor execution on both ends of the floor. Jankovich seems like a very bright guy and has had the opportunity to learn from the best coaches for an extended period of time - you would think that would translate into effective coaching, but to this point it hasn't.

Can't disagree with your second point.

I disagree with the second point.

Q. What is the difference between last year's 9-0 start and this year's start?

A. The players on the court.

We all know that last year's team was the best group to hit the floor for SMU in decades. It was our team that was built to make a run. They never got that chance. If you thought that this year's version would be better (with Jank or Brown as the coach), you have to be kidding yourself.

This is funny to read back on in retrospect. I and others were (thankfully) wrong about a lot of things. Also speaks to the coaching job Jank has done since the Boise game- really remarkable.

When the low point of your season is pre- Christmas well thats a whole lot better than experiencing it in, say, March?

Heh, nice post bump. This is right in the wheel-house of the darkest period. I remember watching that cruddy internet feed from Boise watching us play horribly. Then I remember USC pulling away from us at the end during the next game. Then, for me, the bottom point was actually the win against Bakersfield where neither team got out of the 40's. What a beat down that was.

Still though, I had faith in the team and thought we could pull it together by conference play.

Hard to imagine us sitting where we are now though, compared to when this thread was made.

Team was extremely lucky when the two Aussies cut bait and bailed. They were square pegs and when Jank no longer felt obligated to give them minutes, the streamlined lineup gelled quickly and continues to improve. If Harry was still here, we would probably be in about 4th place in the conference trying to still figure out our identity.

Harry leaving is probably the most perfect example of "addition by subtraction" I have witnessed.

3 losses in 4 games will bring a lot of doubts.

This board is bi-polar. They will come out in droves with doomsday scenarios if we lose even one game in the next 3.

A lot of SMU people haven't watched a college basketball game before March until about two years ago.

People??