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There are so many things I want to say but I am choosing to bite my tongue. Bottom line, there is absolutely NO excuse for not winning this game. Yeah, this team is ready to make a run at the NCAA tournament with losses to San Diego and at home to App. St....please. I guess we can put that pipe dream to rest NOW. Nice crowd...pushing 1000.

This might be the worst loss under Dement. There are many questions that need to be answered.

Couldn't check out the game. Read over the posts, and I am very saddened. I support our kids. I want the best for them, but wonder about it all. Losing to sd? No excuse. Now to app. state? Same. Dement is winless against top 25. Yes, I know we can't recruit like others, but I am so TIRED of that excuse. I expect to beat the san diegos, and app states. We beat tech, yeah, but what does it mean when we drop games like these?

After our football season, my disgust and shame is hitting all time highs. SMU deserves better, but I have to wonder if the heart of our university is in it. We have got to turn it around before SMU is totally driven into the dirt.

I love my school. I support my alma mater, but this is beyond belief. EVERYONE involved with SMU ought to bow their heads in shame, and vow to NEVER let this happen again. I thought Dement could do better, but it looks more and more like he ought to go. Copeland should be looking out too. An Acc guy should know better. The kids too. If you can't win for Dement, don't you have any belief in yourself? I haven't accepted being average, why should you?

Go Ponies!

I don't think you can blame this one on Dement. I wasn't able to get to the game until the beginning of the second period, but our players were not even playing like they are capable of playing. The ASU players were swarming around our guys like flys buzzing a water buffalo. We looked lethargic and totally brain dead. I can't count the number of times Hopkins dribbled into the middle with three ASU players waiting to cover him up and then he just kind of flung the ball up hoping it would come close to the basket. ASU's player were for the most part smaller than ours, but they would bust their butts to get to a rebound while our players stood there waiting for the rebound to come to them. It was pretty disgusting. Our passing was sloppy and steeling the ball from us was like taking candy away from a baby.

When are our big guys going to learn to put a rebound back up without taking a dribble first...jez, it's enough to make you want to SCREAM. I think I just did...I feel a little better now.

<small>[ 12-19-2003, 09:08 AM: Message edited by: PK ]</small>

Originally posted by PK:
I don't think you can blame this one on Dement. I wasn't able to get to the game until the beginning of the second period, but our players were not even playing like they are capable of playing. The ASU players were swarming around our guys like flys buzzing a water buffalo. We looked lethargic and totally brain dead. I can't count the number of times Hopkins dribbled into the middle with three ASU players waiting to cover him up and then he just kind of flung the ball up hoping it would come close to the basket. ASU's player were for the most part smaller than ours, but they would bust their butts to get to a rebound while our players stood there waiting for the rebound to come to them. It was pretty disgusting. Our passing was sloppy and steeling the ball from us was like taking candy away from a baby.

When are our big guys going to learn to put a rebound back up without taking a dribble first...jez, it's enough to make you want to SCREAM. I think I just did...I feel a little better now.

Actually, PK, those are all good points, but they're all Dement's fault. You can't coach a player to grow taller or have more athletic ability, but you can--indeed, you have to--coach passing, teamwork, hustle, shot selection, footwork, decision-making ... all the things you describe above as being problematic are Dement's fault.

<small>[ 12-19-2003, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: Dukie ]</small>

Originally posted by Dukie:
Actually, PK, those are all good points, but they're all Dement's fault. You can't coach a player to grow taller or have more athletic ability, but you can--indeed, you have to--coach passing, teamwork, hustle, shot selection, footwork, decision-making ... all the things you describe above as being problematic are Dement's fault.

I'm not at the practices, so I don't know whether or not Dement is coaching those things or not, but judging from the last game I saw...Wake Forest...he must be coaching those things because they did them fairly well. I don't know why they didn't in this game, but the players were the ones not doing it...all the coach can do at that point is yell at them. Maybe it is a psychological thing that they thought the game was going to be easy and didn't prepare themselves mentally to deal with it. As someone else posted, they don't seem to have a killer instinct to put the game away. They definitely did not show the desire and drive the ASU team showed. Once the game starts, the players have to perform...they can't slackup after they get a lead and expect to coast in. That's what it looked like and they allowed ASU to get and keep the momentum.

please tell me that was just a bad dream last night. There is no way SMU should have lost that game. Flush any postseason thoughts down the toilet on December 18.

Hey, dukie! Are you the same from the old MM board? I agree with you. The poor performance rests on the coach's ability to drill the players into not letting these sorts of things happen. Yes, we may not have the greatest players, but that doesn't mean they should be letting games go in the fashion that the app. state game went.

By now there should be a certain level of consistancy that doesn't exist, other than Dement losing all the time to a top team. That should not be happening. This was a game we should've won. Just like losing to sd, it is just sad.

Go Ponies!