Hindsight on things I said...

[MustangIcon]

Re: Question
by MustangIcon » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:36 am

- Athlon's College Basketball 2009-2010 Preview picked us to finish 6th of 12 CUSA teams.

- We have 2 new coaches that everyone is pretty excited about- Reggie and Reggie. (big article at top of bball forum)

- McCoy was picked preseason All-CUSA Team.

- MoFaye (who transferred from Ga Tech and averaged 10ppg last season for SMU) tore it up in some international hoops this summer leading his national team in scoring often hitting 20+ppg.

- Brought in a promising JUCO guard that can score and shoot from the outside.

- We return 6 of 7 scoring and minute leaders from last season. I would also think we have a good chance of having 4 double digit scorers on the team this season.

- We play in a new bball tourney in Hawaii this year that is sponsored by ESPN. We face UNLV in round 1. Also play A&M at home.

That's the good news. The bad news is:

- Doherty still has to show he can do something in terms of Wins with our improved talent.

- Papa Dia played pretty subpar last season. We need him to play to the level he is capable of, which earned him 'ships from OU and Louisville, and are not sure if he will.

- The one rotation player we did lose last season was Bamba and he was a pretty key contributor. And I will miss cheering for his blocked shots.

- Although there have been some improvements on the schedule still plenty of teams coming to Moody that most would yawn at the prospect of watching. And frankly a few that people would question if they were an actual university.

- We have not yet landed the stud recruit to pair with McCoy and our other young talent to make the next "jump".

That's a pretty high level overview of what changed from last season to this season for someone who doesn't follow very closely.

Re: Question
by MustangIcon » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:31 am

PonyDoh wrote:
wow, that was nice work

Thanks. I tried to capture the high level changes from the end of last season to now. Please feel free to add to the list as I am sure there are a couple of relevant facts I may have overlooked.

I know I am generally on the more optomistic end about the direction of SMU hoops in the future and our prospects for this upcoming season, but just looking at that little recap reminds me of what we have to look forward to. Our biggest areas of concerns are to me:

- a big that was a very promising prospect coming from HS (as much if not more so than McCoy) and his freshman year but had an awful sophmore season. he is just going into his junior season and could still turn out to be a big time impact player.

- a head coach who has shown some questionable in game x and o's and maybe tries to control the game and his players too much during those 40 minutes. hopefully our two new coaches really help loosen doh up in this area.

- we haven't landed a big time stud recruit (although mccoy and dia were both stud-like recruits and mofaye is a semi-stud transfer for cusa) to add to our strong foundation of a team. however, we have been [deleted] poor in terms of Ws and Ls and a solid season this year could certainly change that. all it takes is one as they say.

Call me crazy but I think good things are ahead for SMU Basketball.

[MustangIcon]

-Dia has lived up to his end of the bargain and has made big steps this year.

-McCoy has been MIA. This was something almost no one here expected. When you take your best player and turn him into a marginal starter, at best, that will sink a season.

-Faye has been about what he was last year, which is disappointing. I was hoping he would make a big step forward.

-Clinkscales has shown flashes of being pretty productive, Williams is carrying us even more than last year, and Haynes is showing why Doherty has been so high on him.

-Doherty has shown that even with upgraded talent and a roster full of his guys (although the oldest of "his guys" are only Juniors) he has yet to be able to do anything with that. Rather than find ways to win, as good teams do, this team finds ways to lose. Nothing pains me worse than watching Doh make us let the air out of the ball clinging for dear like to an 8 point lead with 10 minutes left in the second half. Or the perpetual lapses in coming out "ready" to play whether that be 1st or 2nd half.

-The new coaches haven't had the loosening up affect on Doh that I hoped for (although I am sure that they have improved this to some degree and have helped greatly in player development)

-We landed 3 pretty highly regarded recruits, not sure if any would be considered a must have stud, but you could make an argument that each of them is pretty close to a stud-like recruit for CUSA. Problem is we all thought adding those players to a stud McCoy would make us legit. We don't have a stud McCoy. We have a shell of Freshman McCoy.

I expected us to finish at .500 or above this year. I thought we should finish in the top half of CUSA. I still think the talent is there to do it (if McCoy turns it around some). But, after spending the past few years optimistic about the direction of the program under Doherty, I am coming closer and closer to having to agree with the camp that he simply cannot get it done. I really and truly believe we have upgraded the talent on this roster significantly and thats largely what gave me so much hope coming into this season. I find it puzzling that Doherty can't get more success out of this group. I know we don't have a true PG. Who cares? A D1a college hoops coach with this level of talent and this generally low level of competition, should be able to find a way to make his team competitive in just about every game and we should run some of these cupcakes right off the floor.

Just wanted to come clean on some of my failed predictions/thoughts and weigh in a bit on this frustrating season. Haven't posted much because I am sorely upset by our performance but am also turned off by the lack of substance on most of the posts on the basketball board. Saying the direction of the hoops program is awful is fine and dandy, but at least post something worthwhile rather than what happened on your favorite I Love Lucy rerun.

[RGV Pony]

I thought the UTEP announcers got it right. "Their players just never get better."

That said, what of the development of Ike and Killen? How did this happen? At the time I thought it was a sign of Doh being able to develop players.

[MustangIcon]

I agree with you completely. Ike and Killen both truly transformed as players under Doh. And Ike's change was much more of a jump than the typical Junior season to Senior season improvement that you see. And Killen as a Soph could be likened to Harp as a Soph, but 2 years under the Doherty regime and he was carrying our entire team. Really odd.

[PoconoPony]

I thought the UTEP announcers got it right. "Their players just never get better."

That said, what of the development of Ike and Killen? How did this happen? At the time I thought it was a sign of Doh being able to develop players.

You have posed the 64 thousand dollar question re Doh that no one can answer. The answer at ND, UNC and thus far at SMU appears to be that his players do not develop or progress, but for Ike and Killen who may have been anomalies who were experienced and mature kids ready to blossom at the end of their careers under anyone. I think the total discontent on this board centers around the apparent failure of his kids to develop and his apparent inability to even inspire them to perform at their existing talent levels let alone at higher levels.

[friarwolf]

Ike was hungry to show what he could do as was Killen. Both players were mentally tough with Killen being almost unhuman-like. He needs to go be a Navy Seal..............

Point is, these two kids are the exception to the rule and most kids no matter how tough and seasoned eventually break under the kind of mental mind games Doh puts them through...........McCoy and yes, Harp are good examples............

[friarwolf]

I thought the UTEP announcers got it right. "Their players just never get better."

That said, what of the development of Ike and Killen? How did this happen? At the time I thought it was a sign of Doh being able to develop players.

That comment is a dagger to the heart. That ought to be framed and put on Doh's desk..............

[ponyscott]

Or on a more dark level.. it could be his epitaph.

[shadowman]

That was my main complaint about Dement, that he could not develop players, whether they were marginal or potential stars. In my opinion, Sasser and BHOP were no better their senior year as when they first walked onto the court as true freshman.

WIth Doherty I loved the fact that when he first got here he took two players buried on Tubb's bench in Killen and Ike and turned them into outstanding college players, this gave me great hope that we finally had someone that could develop talent.

But, as pointed out, that seems to be just a fluke, those were two guys that worked hard, and Doherty had very little, if anything to do with it.

Not sure what went wrong here, but it is time for Doherty to go. A big bunch of this failed season falls squarely at the feet of McCoy, if he was going to play like this, it would have been better if he would have left, he has made ZERO impact this year, we would get more production from Walker or Clinkscales in that spot.

Either way McCoy has screwed himself, his only two options now are to stay at SMU and play mid major D1 basketball and try and get his degree or transfer to a super small school or a lower division. He will not be able to upgade.

[RGV Pony]

A big bunch of this failed season falls squarely at the feet of McCoy, if he was going to play like this, it would have been better if he would have left, he has made ZERO impact this year, we would get more production from Walker or Clinkscales in that spot.

compelling argument. I'd like to see more discussion on this...

[Charleston Pony]

All we need is McCoy to be the same player he was last year and this is a completely different team. We miss Nyakundi's shooting, too

[angryfan04]

All we need is a coach who knows what he is doing instead of one that is all hype

[friarwolf]

A big bunch of this failed season falls squarely at the feet of McCoy, if he was going to play like this, it would have been better if he would have left, he has made ZERO impact this year, we would get more production from Walker or Clinkscales in that spot.

compelling argument. I'd like to see more discussion on this...

Perhaps June should talk to him about dusting off those football skills.............

[PonyDoh]

this season is mostly on McCoy, he's a head case right now, and he didn't work his game all summer, from what I'm told Whether you like Doh or hate him, this O is designed to get he & Will looks, and McCoy isn't even trying. I'd be very comfortable pulling his starters role, moving Clink in, and see what he's got. We have 3 or 4 more wins, if McCoy shows up at all. This isn't a matter of Doh brow beating Paul, cause if anything, they are massaging a fragile ego right now. They know they need him, and they know he's so far in his own head, that he needs some tlc. It's as strange a regression as I've ever seen.

[papawasamustang]

this season is mostly on McCoy, he's a head case right now, and he didn't work his game all summer, from what I'm told Whether you like Doh or hate him, this O is designed to get he & Will looks, and McCoy isn't even trying. I'd be very comfortable pulling his starters role, moving Clink in, and see what he's got. We have 3 or 4 more wins, if McCoy shows up at all. This isn't a matter of Doh brow beating Paul, cause if anything, they are massaging a fragile ego right now. They know they need him, and they know he's so far in his own head, that he needs some tlc. It's as strange a regression as I've ever seen.

Good take on McCoy. After 13 games I've seen enough of McCoy for a while. Having said that, I can understand the staff wanting to give him a chance to play through his problems, whatever they are.
Give him & Faye a couple of DNP's & see how they respond. At this point, I want to see what guys like Clink, Nyakundi & Otis can do on a regular basis. Team might just surprise everyone & play better as a unit without them.