Win tonight, or cancel the season.

[DickerJames]

Becasuse the WAC is weak as water this year, we actually can contend for the title, but we Must win tonight. This team blew chances to win at home against Fresno and Boise which makes home against Hawaii a must win. I personally don't think they will. I honestly can't remember the last time we won a late season conference game against a quality team that we had to win to stay in the race. My season ending prediction is: Hawaii (loss) at Nevada (loss) at Fresno (loss) Tulsa (loss) Rice (win) at Boise (loss) at UTEP (win) Louisiana Tech (loss)

After watching the crowd steadily dwindle from 3000 to 1000, Big Jim steps up to the plate and anounces "he has seen enough". I hope I'm wrong, and if they actually win tonight, well, I'll change the rest of my predictions. See you at the game.

[FloridaMustang]

You're right, and Hawaii scares me...they are a GREAT 3-pt shooting team, they spread the ball around well and have a great rebounder in Haim Shimonovich. I was looking at BHop's TO/Assist ratio and it's 0.9. That's 75 turnovers to 70 assists this season. He's leading the WAC with steals per game, but he's got to protect that ball and find the open man.

I'm not confident going into this game. We have to play good perimiter defense and be explosive offensively in order to win, and we've been inconsistent all year doing both of these things.

[PX]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DickerJames:
<B>Becasuse the WAC is weak as water this year, we actually can contend for the title, but we Must win tonight. This team blew chances to win at home against Fresno and Boise which makes home against Hawaii a must win. I personally don't think they will. I honestly can't remember the last time we won a late season conference game against a quality team that we had to win to stay in the race. My season ending prediction is: Hawaii (loss) at Nevada (loss) at Fresno (loss) Tulsa (loss) Rice (win) at Boise (loss) at UTEP (win) Louisiana Tech (loss)

After watching the crowd steadily dwindle from 3000 to 1000, Big Jim steps up to the plate and anounces "he has seen enough". I hope I'm wrong, and if they actually win tonight, well, I'll change the rest of my predictions. See you at the game.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

A couple things to think about: First, we start 3 sophomores and 1 freshman. I know you are being facetious when you say cancel the season, but even when there is no championship left to play for every game is important because they give our younger players important experience. Personally, I dont think we are going to win the WAC, I didnt think that was likely even after we beat Tulsa, and I thought it was crazy for people to talk about winning a championship when we were just 4-3 in the conference. The newspaper articles that talked about a WAC championship almost made me tear my hair out. This is such a recurring theme around SMU, we see a little success, and then start spouting dreams about championships and playoffs (or bowls) instead of just taking care of business one game at a time. When you dream about something out of reach you lose focus on the task at hand.

Hawaii is a beatable team, they havent played well at all on the road. Even if we lose, though, the season isnt over. Thinking like that is part of the reason why we've seen some ugly collapses at the end of the last 3 seasons. The last thing you want to do is tell the team there's nothing left to play for.

[Charleston Pony]

there's no question this is a big game tonight. These guys still have a good chance of going 10-8 in WAC play, but to do so, they are going to have to win at Moody. PX is right; don't lose sight of the fact we start a FR and 3 Sophs. We will miss Q next year, but if the rest of these guys keep improving, the future looks bright. The key is to get better as the season wears on and for the 1st time in years, that's what is happening. Think back on how ugly our road trip to North Carolina was. These guys have shown dramatic improvement from those days.

[Chavo]

I see what you're saying, and winning the majority of our remaining games is very possible, if it wasn't for the zone that is. Dement loves the zone, but the zone hates Dement. We'll get pummelled by threes from whoever plays us. Oh what fun!

[DickerJames]

The fact that this team is young is only reason I have any optimism left in me. I have been a season ticket holder and game attender for a long time, and this is the first season that I have felt hopeless for the future of this basketball program. It feels like Cavan's last year in football did to me. I am an optimist at heart (don't all SMU fans have to be), but the only thing I see at Moody is a group of young men playing hard and trying to win in a helter skelter fashion. Can anybody tell me what the plan was at the end of the Fresno and Boise games or if we had one.

[Pony_Fan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DickerJames:
<B>The fact that this team is young is only reason I have any optimism left in me. I have been a season ticket holder and game attender for a long time, and this is the first season that I have felt hopeless for the future of this basketball program. It feels like Cavan's last year in football did to me. I am an optimist at heart (don't all SMU fans have to be), but the only thing I see at Moody is a group of young men playing hard and trying to win in a helter skelter fashion. Can anybody tell me what the plan was at the end of the Fresno and Boise games or if we had one.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I'm with ya on that..I have been watching this 'helter skelter' stuff for some time. Next year we don't have a Go-to Guy like Ross...Hop is clutch but he doesn't need to be scoring like H and Sass.

Plan?? Plan?? Ha, we are talking about Dement here... The end of the Fresno home game was a joke. Tonight - not feeling confident at all..we had better come out and play well in the beginning and maybe get some Gaybows in foul trouble. Riley Wallace is a MUCH better X and O's coach than Dement.

Is it me or can Hop not beat a guy off the dribble w/out a screen?? Is he still hurt?

[Hoop Fan]

I'm not a fan of the 1-3-1 half court trap at all. Saw alot of that against San Jose. If you are going to trap, you either have to go all out or forget it. A soft trap will get you carved up every time. Isham is great on defense, but having him chase from side to side at the top of the key is a waste of energy. I hate to see what Carl English and Hawaii shooters would do to that soft zone. Having said that, I have a feeling we play well tonight. Thursday was very flat, the team will come back stronger tonight. As for Hopkins, until he dunks on somebody I wont believe he is 100% yet.