San Jose State Preview

[PonyPride]

SMU men try to regain momentum
Mustangs host San Jose State with opportunity to tighten WAC race

By RICK ALONZO / The Dallas Morning News

UNIVERSITY PARK – Appalachian State, Oral Roberts and Boise State have at least one thing in common. They've beaten SMU this season.

As SMU prepares for Thursday's game against visiting San Jose State, the Mustangs are still dealing with a deflating 88-85 overtime loss at home to Boise State last weekend.

"It hurt," SMU senior Quinton Ross said. "They came out here and played well."

The Broncos had lost five of their last six heading into the game and were the worst shooting team in the WAC. But Boise State shot 45 percent from the field and hit 10 3-pointers to snap SMU's four-game winning streak. It was Boise State's first conference road win in five tries.

"If you look at our track record, we hadn't hit 10 3's in probably three months," said Broncos coach Greg Graham, whose team improved to 10-9 overall.

In the push for the postseason, it's losses such as the 75-62 decision to Oral Roberts and the 22-point embarrassment at Appalachian State that have humbled the Mustangs. Those games essentially ensure that SMU will need to win the WAC tournament to have any hope of reaching the postseason.

Midway through the WAC schedule, SMU (10-9, 5-4 WAC) must beat San Jose State (5-13, 2-7) to make a serious push at the regular-season title. League leader Fresno State (15-4, 8-2) fell to Nevada (11-8, 6-3) last weekend, which moved the Wolf Pack ahead of SMU for second place.

The Mustangs find themselves in the middle of the pack, tied with Hawaii and Rice with four losses. Hawaii visits SMU on Saturday to end a four-game homestand.

SMU coach Mike Dement has won at least 15 games for six straight seasons. The Mustangs need to win five of their last 10 outings, including at least one game in the WAC tournament, to keep that streak alive.

Appalachian State, Oral Roberts and Boise State were all winnable games on paper. As of Wednesday, those teams had an RPI ranking of no better than 153, according to CollegeRPI.com. Losses to those schools drag down SMU, which has a ranking of 121.

Dement said he's not thinking of the postseason at this point. He said he wants his players to focus on winning the WAC's regular-season championship. At 5-4, the Mustangs are still in contention.

Two of the losses came at home, to Fresno State in addition to Boise State. To be a legitimate contender, teams must dominate at home and be competitive on the road.

"Considering we had five of the first seven [in the WAC] on the road, it's not a terrible place to be," Dement said. "It's just we're disappointed we did not win at home."

With a sweep of two home games this week, SMU can still emerge with a 3-1 record in its four-game homestand. San Jose State is 1-8 on the road this season, while Hawaii is 1-5.

E-mail ralonzo@dallasnews.com