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Dement's style of playing easy teams to make the record look good, being scared of his overhyped stars, and having no control of his team on or off the court has proved not to work. It's time to get a big time coach like Baylor did with Bliss. How did we ever let him go anyway???

I am not too sure what to think about that comment. I think Dement is a decent basketball coach, but I think he lacks the ability to coach a college team. It sounds like he cannot communicate with the players or staff too well.

To be a successful coach you must do more than know the game, you must have the respect of the team and know how to treat them.

I think he has not instilled a level of discipline.

I also think that the teams on our schedule are too easy. This years was better than last, but I think we could challenge ourselves some more and that would prepare us more for bigger games.

But I think SMU may have problems scheduling great teams. I think teams fear us.

To give the team credit this year, we had 19 road games and 12 home games. All of the tough games came on the road and then we finish the season with UTEP, TULSA, TCU, and Fresno all at home.

The teams on the schedule were not that hard but the schedule was hard.

In response to "how did we let Bliss get away?"...he left after we were given the death penalty and the new recruiting restrictions were imposed. Larry Johnson had already committed to SMU but was denied admission because he did not qualify academically.

Bliss could see he was going to have difficulties trying to sustain a top 25 caliber team at SMU and siezed the opportunity to bolt.

Dement has done a good job of building a consistently competitive program, given our recruiting restrictions. It's unrealistic to expect a top 25 team year-in, year-out.

CP-

I don't think that anyone here is expecting a top 25 team year in and year out. We just want 1. When is the last time we were top 25 for a legitimate amount of time?

Also, I would credit Coach Tubbs for building the competitive program. He is the one that had gotten Sasser, Davis, Q, Hancock, Voc, etc. I am not sure that Dement could get those caliber players, I credit Coach Tubbs. Now you can credit Dement for coaching them, but please, give Coach Tubbs his credit. I think he is a master when it comes to recruiting.

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Ponies to the NCAA Tourney in 2002!

I wasn't too sure why Bliss took the job in Baylor but it looks like he may be turning things around. He is a good coach. The Larry Johnson thing was a fiasco and SMU shot themselves in the foot. That could have been a great thing for SMU and local recrutiting.

Anyway,
I have watched this team closely since Sasser's arrival. I think Tubbs has done a great deal for recruiting and I agree that we probably wouldn't have gotten Q or the other quality players. We SHOULD be better and we have the talent. I am not sure Dement knows what to do with these kids. We have had numerous suspensions etc this year. Do the kids not listen to him or respect him...that may be the problem. I think there are many disagreements over things. It seems like a constant struggle between Dement and his players (of course I am not there) but it appears that way.

I wouldn't expect at Top 25 team every year either but we have the talent this year and last year and have blown it. You have the same core guys and we played better last year and the beginning of this year. This team started playing worse and worse rather than better. With really poor starts they almost lost more games than they did. Our offense hit the skids in several key games. What happened to the mid-range jumper?

Yes, it would be nice to get more Tennessee type programs on our schedule but I think it's difficult.

Maybe Mullet Mike can shed some light and opinions on Dement

I think that Dement has taken this team as high as he can. He doesn't treat these guys like men. Granted, they can be immature, and act like kids, but he is on a power trip. He doesn't know how to let talent work. With 2 teams in the last 2 years, that in the pre-season were predicted to dominate, sucking butt, something is wrong with the program. We have the talent, we need someone to run them. We will have the support on the court with Voc. Damon has become kind of selfish. With Voc bringing the ball up, we may actually run an offense. Now all we need is off-the-court leadership.