Fresno Recap

[Original Frank]

Same old story. I just have no idea whatsoever what it is Dement is doing offensively. What we have is a collection of good athletes that have limited basketball organization or coached fundamentals. What is it we do well? Threes, no. Set plays in a half court game, no. Fast break and run the court, no. Rebound and put back, no. What is it we try to do? I see nothing but of bunch of guys passing the ball around the perimeter until they throw it away or shoot an errant three. Defensively, I think Dement is equally clueless. The first five times we pressed they beat it with 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 breaks for fice straight scores to pull away in the last five minutes. Dement's coaching directy turned a 2 point game into a twelve point problem.

And heaven forbid you try to make a play and instead make a mistake. You are sumarilly dismissed from the court. Such ridiculous substitution patterns completely take away a player's desire to make plays. What can you really do in your 30 second stint?

You can tell by the stats that SMU has no organizaion. I bet Fresno had twice as many assists as us, and Fresno had only a few. Typicaly, as in Tech or Wake, we are out assisted about 20 to 6. I hate to say it, but what you see with Dement is wat you will get. He has had plenty of time and he has done nothing. First we blamed Sasser, then Damon. Now we have one of the country's best assist men and he only gets about 4 a game. In my opinion, it is a mess and it is increasingly hard to get excited about it.

I hate to be negative, but that is the state of Mustang b-ball as I see it.

[Guest]

I understand your frustration but I would like to see what you would have to say if we had won...even if we just won on that last three that Q through up when he realized there was only 4 seconds left. I agree on the last play of the game the coach was terrible. The team did not have a play to run with 14 seconds on the clock. I would just be curious to see your reaction had we won. I don't think any negativety would have resulted from a win. Our team played very well against a good team but were unable to keep up with 5 THREE POINTERS in what seemed like 2 minutes. BUT our Mustangs still came all the way back...There was one bad coaching mistake in this game but it came at the most critical moment. The point is if that guy did not get lucky and hit all those threes we would not have been in that mess. I would also like to point out that as horrible as you seem to think the coaching was in this game it was the most entertaining basketball game I've seen in a long time. Let's not take credit away from a great Fresno team. We should have taken care of business earlier so we didn't need this game tonight so badly. The Mustangs I saw play tonight could go the the WAC tourney final game. Dement is going nowhere right now. Put a possitive spin on things and stop moaning. The crowd was very small and the student body doesn't understand when you are supposed to cheer. Get to the games and then we'll talk about how bad Dement is. Right now we're in the middle of the season. Let's build on a close game with a good team and finish the year strong. Complaining gets us nowhere.

[FloridaMustang]

we could have easily won this game...i'll give kris lowe some credit...good game bro...

[The CPC]

Damon Jackson must be the luckiest guy in the world, because he's lit SMU up from 3-point range every time he's played the Mustangs. He's lucky alright, lucky we kept leaving him wide open. Its not like Jackson was a secret or something, anyone who's ever watched him play knows he's Fresno's shooter. When SMU pressed Fresno full court Jackson found the open spots and lit us up. If thats your definition of luck then SMU has faced alot of unbelievably lucky guys over the last few years. Moody must have been built from Rabbits feet, painted to look like red bricks. Rabbits feet and four leaf clovers.
If we had somehow managed to win this ugly dog of a game I still would have called it what it was. An Ugly dog. What do you call a game where one team shoots 30% from the free throw line and commits more than 20 turnovers, but still wins? Fresno missed 9 free throws and committed 4 turnovers in the games last 2 minutes, it was like they were trying to give it away. We just refused to accept the gift.

I'd be interested to hear your thought process on that WAC tournamet thing. To get to the finals, SMU would have to beat either the Fresno State team that just beat us, or the Tulsa team thats currently tied for first in the WAC, and is hosting the tournament. To play either of them, the Mustangs would first have to beat either the Hawaii team that just crushed us, and lit up Fresno, or the La. Tech team that beat us in the conference opener. What have you seen that would indicate that SMU could go on the road and beat any of those teams outside of Moody? CPC is truly curious, who do you see SMU playing in the WAC tournament, who would they beat, and what makes you think that?

[Guest]

You have to fault the team just as much as the coach tonight. They simply didn't show up. Looked like they were just going through the motions, just like in road games. Every aspect of the game was sloppy. Zero concentration. Zero execution. Most of our turnovers were silly ones, like not catching the ball. That's just simply not concentrating.

The substitution patters weren't that weird. Hopkins has to come out for breathers because he's not completely in shape yet. Q was in a little bit of foul trouble in the late 1st/early 2nd. The big men were totally ineffective early so Dement was trying to find something that worked. Lowe and Miller were at least somewhat decent tonight.

Having said that, everything else about his coaching sucks. I have no idea why he can't recognize mismatches. Castro could've had a field day against the lighter Fresno big men. Simpson didn't get many looks either. Seemed like the baseline was open a lot - Isham and Q both had miltiple dunks/layups - yet he didn't exploit it more. Good coaches would play to their weaknesses all night. Ours doesn't. He runs the "stand and watch" offense.

Horrible effort by everyone involved. Yes, I would've said the same thing even if we won. Fresno tried to lose and we still couldn't take advantage.

It's becoming very apparent that we'll have another one-and-out in the WAC Tourney. Making any kind of run would require us to A) win on the road and B)win in the Reynolds Center. I don't believe we've ever won a game there. Ain't happening this season either.

[Pony_Fan]

Dement is a lost puppy. Copeland, please let this be his last season...I am sick and tired of seeing terrible coaching mistakes game after game. Even if we had won I still say it's way past his time...he makes stupid subs, we can't even pass the ball inbounds, nobody boxes out, watch and barely move offense, defense sucks, what is the deal??

Fresno is a decent team but we let that one slip away. How many times can you leave Jackson WIDE FREAKIN' OPEN? This seems to happen every single game with one opponent player or another - i am really sick and tired of the 1-3-1 which leaves the wings with ridiculous looks at the basket.

There is 11 seconds left on the clock, Q has the ball....please call a TO. Gimme a break.

H&Y - I am sorry but this team is going nowhere near the WAC Final ..come on dude..wake up.

I've seen enough - with a better coach, this team could be much better. I really like Isham but he isnt' being utilized or coached...the kid can sky. Simpson is a total wuss and needs to get aggressive and tough...no development from last year.

Gimme Lopes any day over Dement..we should have snagged him.



[This message has been edited by Pony_Fan (edited 01-17-2003).]

[Original Frank]

H&Y, may I explain further:

1. Of course I was there. How else would I make any assessment. This is my frst anti-Dement post in six years of watching. I am just fed up. Last night was the first time I can remember that I really did not care to go.
2. Crowd was small because the same old thing has been at show in Moody for five years now. It doesn't get any better, it shows no improvement. The newness and excitement is completely gone. What is on display to attract crowds?
3. I don't think it was exciting. It was flat. Atmosphere was dead because everyone has seen this game before over and over again and, while fairly close, nobody thought we had any chance to win. The final look with Q's three was highly impausible as Fresno had just missed 7 of 9 FTs and turned it over twice. To forgive all the coaching mistakes and lack of fundamentals as displayed in the game as coached just because we might have won is to put your head in the sand. And if the kids were not ready to play, I ask "why not?". Fresno was read, why not us?
4. I did not respond to all the the other games in which we were ill-prepared and Dement was brutally out coached (Tech, Wake, Hawaii, La Tech, etc.). After watching vrtually all of the home games for six years, I can attest that I am still searching for the first coaching magic from our side. It's just this way night after night, year after year. Do we ever get a shot at coaching genius?
5. How do you account for our lack of assists year after year? Can you explain why we simply do not do assists? And what exactly what do we run offensively?
6. Finally, Dement is one of the few coaches who could waste Bhop. I fear 4 years of this stuff. Never better; never worse. What a waste. Can you imagine what Bhop could do in a real bball system?

I would love to like and admire Dement. But, the truth is, he is a very poor floor general. He is out coached in every single game. Even SMU victories or cse losses do not change that.

[Charleston Pony]

attendance was announced at 2874. Absolutely pathetic support. I feel sorry for the team. This game is ours if 5-6,000 show up and energize this team. From reports, I've always assumed the announced crowd was the "paid" attendance and assume there were a lot of empty courtside seats.

Long Live The Fifteen Hundred and thanks, again, for your support!

[IslandBoy]

PonyFan-
When SMU got the ball with 14 seconds left, they had no more timeouts left. I'm sure they would have called one to set up a play if they had one remaining.

[OldPony]

Same story, different night. No coaching, no crowd, no excitement, no changes planned. It is hard to be an SMU fan.

[Hoop Fan]

I'm with Frank, I honestly had to force myself to go to the game last night. I think that comes from several things. At 6-7 overall and 1-2 in the WAC, realistically we just were not playing for much last night. Most of us invested alot of emotional energy into the Sasser/Davis years, which never panned out beyond a melodramatic NIT appearance. Its tough to go to the arena and see the same thing, its getting stale. It doesnt mean Dement is a bad guy or even a bad coach, but the fact is things are stale right now, very stale. It doesnt help that BHop is not himself. If someone would have told me that 15 games into the season, BHop would not have one single dunk, I would say youre crazy based on what I saw him do in high school. Playing hurt and out of shape is a no win situation. Also, Q is a great player, but he's a senior. There is no promise or hope for the future when your star is a senior and you are still 6-8. We are at a crossroads for this program. Something positive needs to happen.

[Random Thoughts]

This gets really frustrating. Look at the boxscore and you see that Fresno shot 50% for the game (indicating poor defense) and Fresno outrebounded SMU 42-34. The only reason we were in this game was b/c an absolutely abysmal FT % from Fresno. Dement cannot get it done. The things which have always troubled me about SMU under Dement is that we have a bad perimeter defense and terrible substitution patterns. Even the most ardent Dement supporters cannot disagree with those assesments. As for the absurd argument of what we would have said had we won the game. The point is made irrelevant by us actually losing the game, but it would probably be that we were lucky to have won the game. Also, had we been winning these games I don't think anyone would be complaining.

[Pony_Fan]

I beg you all who are with me - write Copeland your opinions on Dement.
It NEEDS to be heard. Dwindling attendance, etc. The 1500 and diehards like myself are going to stop showing up if this continues.

[Nacho]

Normally I would look forward to the upcoming Tulsa and Hawaii home games. Not this year. The outcome is pretty obvious to everyone. Why bother going? Football recruiting is much more interesting than SMU basketball this year.

[Guest]

The five three pointers that he shot were shot within two minutes. That is luck. No matter how good a player is they don't get a three get the ball back and get another three much less do that five times. That's what I call luck. I'm not saying he isn't a great shooter. I'm saying regardless of how opened he was and I will tell you he was so opened on the fifth one that Q actually hit him in the hand and the ball still went in. He was so opened we were close enough to touch him...Anyways maybe you did not go to the game. That is luck. I am not dogging on him. He is obviously a great player but MJ never through up 5 consecutive three pointers and knocked them all down.