OFFICIAL: BATTLE FOR ATLANTIS GAME THREADS

[Pony_Law]

To lessen the blow by 1%, I really hope Zona crushes Purdue..

Purdue is crushing Zona. Does that work for you?

Clearly it doesn’t and doesn’t help our “resume” win. Zona isn’t going to be in the top 40 by Monday. So this was a negative tournament for us... yay

Zona will finish with a top 25 ranking so that was a positive. No excuse for losing the game to western Kentucky. When your sloppy and let a team hang around you can get beat. It sucks but this team was always going to be up and down because of the make up. Shake clearly never got comfortable with the gym.

It’s crazy to watch ponyfans react, disaster, then glory, then back to disaster. We will be ok. I think ultimately we will be the 3rd or 4th best team in the AAC and in the bubble. Team plays hard and has talent. Let’s support them and help them protect moody.

[Stallion]

well Arizona is getting beat by 28 with a minute left-groan-maybe not

but in the Big Picture we are focusing on building a strong team by AAC schedule and March. We've got a big upside from what I'm seeing. Never thought we'd have a freshman like Chargois and I followed him closely in high school. He is much more skilled/talented than I dreamed. Now wait for consistency. Try to think back to when Sterling and Ben were freshman-one was a non-factor scoring and the other was up and down inconsistent. I thought Douglas tonite did a lot of things that Sterling did as a freshman

[Rebel10]

Be interesting if both SMU and Western Kentucky are both bubble teams at the end of the year.

[Stallion]

Douglas 5 rebounds, a big 3 steals and 1 assist in only 10 minutes replacing Emelogu

that could get him some playing time-very Sterling Brown circa Freshman year

[Stallion]

Final-Arizona lost by 25 to Purdue-what a disaster-they look so good getting off the bus

[Pony_Law]

The freshman are playing like freshman, flashing their talent but making mistakes and being inconsistent. This team also lacks a go to finisher. We’ve been spoiled the last 3 years with legit top 15 teams. This team is going to finish with 8-9 losses and we are going to feel disappointed. Take a moment to appreciate that. The team is going to go like 25-8 and people are going to be upset. I think we will make the tournament so long as we protect moody and don’t drop any bad games. Worst case is an NIT team that will likely be a high seed and will make a decent run. How spoiled is it for that to be an “off” year.

[SMU_Alum11]

Very true. I just count on basketball to offset the disappointment that football causes...

[Stallion]

You should really think about drinking a glass of Cabernet-I hear a joint does basically the same thing but its not my bag-Man! The game is over and all SMU can do is continue to build for the AAC and March. This was never a perfect team coming into season and always required some seasoning like a fine wine

[JasonB]

Yeah, I'm excited for how the team will evolve.

What we have learned so far this year:
- Jarrey and Shake are both stepping up (Shake had an off tourney), but neither look ready for the NBA just yet.
- Gu deserves to start
- Whitt has a funky jumper, but is effective from mid-range. Doesn't provide a threat at the arc.
- Ethan is a huge surprise and bonus, but is slow and a little soft defensively which will get him in foul trouble all year
- Ray is a hustle guy and a nice add
- Eli is a hustle and energy guy and will be nice off the bench this year
- Douglas is the most nervous of the frosh, he is the one furthest away, but had his best defensive game today.
- Jank is still experimenting with Georgetown and he even tried two forwards at the same time today. He is experimenting just like last year.
- Last year, we experimented and then waited for a week break and installed positionless basketball and cut the rotation. This year, the longer breaks are after the TCU game and after the Cal Poly game. I would look for us to continue to experiment and play everyone through TCU, and then we will switch to run small ball and our spread offense consistently. Georgetown and Ray have through the TCU game to show that we can run a low post offense and change things up. If it doesn't happen by then, it is back to positionless and spread, and Georgetown won't see much time in the rotation at all, even if he gets more fit.
- It is obvious, I think, that we could use another scorer. McMurray is that guy. That said, his frosh year he shot under 40% from the field, and under 35% from three. His shooting percentages popped up the few games he played his sophomore year, but he was also a turnover machine. He will be like Gu- an inconsistent shooter. At this point, if he plays, he would move into the lineup for Whitt.
- Our rebounding has gotten a lot better. Our transition defense is bad, partially because we crash the boards so [deleted] offense. Our defensive energy is a lot better as well.
- Turnovers are going to determine whether we beat some of the better teams we play.

Our conference will have a good rep this year - UConn is obviously better, Witchita state and Cincy are good. Then there are a lot of decent teams.

Coming into the year, I think most of us thought that we would be a bubble NCAA team or NIT. Too many new pieces. As a whole, the frosh are better than expected. Akoy is a disappointment. But overall about what we thought. We will continue to see experimentation and up and down through the TCU game. Either Eli/Ray/Douglas take steps forward and become reliable, Akoy steps up, or McMurray fits in and we make the NCAAs. Otherwise, we are still above average in conference and make the NIT.

Regardless, enjoy the ride and root the team on as they develop. And NEXT YEAR, if Shake and Jarrey continue to show they aren't ready for the NBA and both come back, with Mike coming in, this is a hell of a basketball team.

[SMU_Alum11]

You should really think about drinking a glass of Cabernet-I hear a joint does basically the same thing but its not my bag-Man! The game is over and all SMU can do is continue to build for the AAC and March. This was never a perfect team coming into season and always required some seasoning like a fine wine

Your wine comments lol

[SMU_Alum11]

Honestly guys what AP voter is seriously going to give Arizona a vote. I just don’t see it. 3 straight losses and got their [deleted] beaten bad on the final game. Main hope is to beat USC and TCU and hope AZ comes roaring back.

[Stallion]

Chargois is much much better defensively than you give him credit for. Once he cuts down on the silly hand check fouls I feel confident you are going to once again look really silly. He will eventually be a high quality defender because he's got great hands--and he's coordinated. Its just a matter of learning to move his feet instead of checking with his hands and body

[sadderbudweiser]

You should really think about drinking a glass of Cabernet-I hear a joint does basically the same thing but its not my bag-Man! The game is over and all SMU can do is continue to build for the AAC and March. This was never a perfect team coming into season and always required some seasoning like a fine wine

Your wine comments lol

Not often i dig out the stash but rolling a fatty was exactly what was needed after that debacle.
Onward.

[Rebel10]

Ray hit a three in the Zona game I believe. I think he has a good outside shot but just has not had the opportunity to shoot it. I think the only truly easy games in the conference will be ECU and South Florida (and possibly Tulsa). Majority of the AAC teams seem to have raised their talent level. Should be a fun conference with multiple bids.

[PonyLawExpress]

Good breakdown JasonB. This should be a different team by the start of conference and we should be able to figure out a rotation and a style of play. UNI we just came out cold and couldn’t dig ourselves out of the whole with Shake and Chargois not giving us anything offensively. This game hurts more because we were so uncharacteristly sloppy..

I am still optimistic, because we still add McMurray and Shake played as bad as he could play and we left 1-2 and should have left 2-1. If Shake plays better, which he will, we win those games. This in my mind should be a bubble tourney team. We need to take care of business the rest of OOC and beat Boise, the easy games and one of TCU & USC. If we do that we are in great position going into conference as we have time to find our identity and actually would have a nice resume at 9-3 (assuming WKU wins C-USA with their new team). Going into conference 8-4 would be rough.. going to be a very interesting next month for these guys.