Gameday

[mtrout]

We can’t beat the opponent or the spread.

[mustangxc]

Tie game at Temple. I will take it! Pony up!

Who is coaching tonight? Oh, that is right... Coach Jank. The same coach that coached our team to a school record 30-5 (W-L) with 6 players only a few seasons ago. The same coach that stepped up and won the first 10 games a season before that when LB was suspended. The same coach that beat #2 Arizona last season. The same coach who has inherrited a storm of injuries and sanctions. The same coach that gets bashed in 10 different threads on ponyfans. The same coach that gets blamed for poor attendance. The same coach that gets blamed for scheduling. The same coach that gets blamed for injuries. The same coach that gets blamed for a re-seat. Wake up. This is Crazy!

Coach Jank has someohow kept our team in the past 4 to 5 games. There are always going to be people second-guessing play calls. Not every coaching adjustment is going to work everytime. Not everything is going to go SMU's way, but Coach Jank has given our team opportunities to win games.

You are right, Jankovich coaches this team that lost the game by 8 to extend our current skid to 5 games! We have now lost 7 of the last 8 games. Who has been the coach? Tim Jankovich
Funny how you gave him all the credit while the team was playing well but after the loss go on to blame it entirely on the players, especially McMurray. Who recruited all the players besides Whitt? Tim Jankovich
This is a rapidly sinking ship because Jankovich sailed directly into an iceberg! Do you really want him in charge of the life rafts? I don’t because I don’t want to drown. We will be lucky to win 10 games next season unless a change is made.

[lwjr]

SMU has a game tonight?

[RI Stang]

Wild - I'm curious what you think Jank is particularly good at? For instance, which of these below is he above average at and thus earning his above average pay?

In-game coaching?
Recruiting?
Scheduling?
Fan engagement?
Alumni engagement?
Promoting the school in the press?
Promoting the school in the community?

Thanks.

[Gruffalo]

Too many Jankovich haters out there accusing anyone with a different thought process of being incapacitated or ignorant of how to sustain a recently elevated basketball program. You've got to give the guy some credit for his attempt at continuing to put a competitive team on the court.

1. His 6 man rotation of 16/17 is completely gone with the exception of Foster whom we all still hope has an incredible finish to his career during the AAC tournament as well as the last 3 LB recruits defected during the '16/'17 season.

2. 3 top players last year all sustained season ending or shot altering injuries(Emelogu) leaving the team with predominantly underclassmen and an often injured Akoy Agau(who was nothing more than a big man brought in for depth). Same team that knocked off 2 top twenty teams in the first half of the season and I believe a top ten shocker team in conference before injuries completely took them under.

3. His first recruiting as HC included both Will Douglas and Chargois whom were regarded very highly among many basketball coaches and recruiting "experts". As well as Landrum and Everett Ray who absolutely were solid developmental players to bring on board hoping that by their junior/senior year they are solid role players or strong bench players. Along with Isiah Mike as a transfer and Jahmal McMurray. At the time I don't believe he believed he'd be looking at Jahmal as the go to guy this season.

4. Second recruiting class includes Feron Hunt(fringe 4 star, high 3 star) and I think everybody can agree this kid is special! Along with 2 more developmental players in White and Young. Neither of which were signed to be stars, but rather the hope they are the 4 yr players who develop into solid role players their junior and senior years.

5. Current recruiting class includes an above average JUCO guard in Bandoumel who was recruited by plenty of schools out of high school as well as this year during the JUCO season, a High Major transfer in Jasey who has held his own down in College Station when given PT and was recruited by plenty of solid colleges out of HS. As well as two guards in Cook and McBride who once again should be good developmental players for their later years. We still have at least one scholarship left.

To only beat on a guy given the circumstances he inherited and has dealt with is absurd. He's absolutely swung and missed on some recruits, but he's also done a pretty decent job of bringing in some underclassmen who are a strong foundation for the next few years. Not every recruit needs to be a walk in starter....if they think they are and don't, they end up walking(see Kaden Archie).

[One Trick Pony]

Lol

[ObeyMyDog]

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Wild Mustang]

East Coast Mustang... Got to love your first grade comments. Keep it classy. More than happy to listen to your basketball take if you have one.

OK, here ya go: Jank is an average in-game coach and a lazy, terrible recruiter. Go look at our c/o 2019 commits and tell me if that’s a class that can help us compete with the best teams in AAC after McMurray, Jarrey, and Dixon graduate.

Jank's 2019 Freshmen Class and transfers will significantly raise the talent of our team, improve our team chemistry, improve our depth, and consequently improve our rotation.

Yes replacing McMurray, an injured Jarray, and Dixon will improve our team next season.

Replacing McMurray. McMurray is definitely replaceable, not a leader, circus ball, not good at running an offense, misses too many forced shots. Yes, we all understand that just might be how McMurray plays. He won'ts the ball in his hands. He is a confident player. His confidence does not always turn into buckets. Rarely does McMurray make the effort to make other players look good. McMurray plays for himself. He plays to get his. Combine that with a guy that makes very little effort on defense. McMurray is definitely replacable.

Replacing Jarray. Well that is a very strange question. Jarray has been injured for the better part of the past 2 seasons and no one can tell if his career at SMU is over due to his latest injury. Can an injured Jarray be replaced? Yes without a doubt. No faut to Jarray for getting injured. When healthy Jarray is both a leader and a force on both sides of the court. Jarray is a winner. Getting back to reality for a second, Jarray is not healthy. Jarray has not played many games this season and is injured. Can we replace an injured player who is sitting on the bench not giving us any minites. Definitely. I would say the same for Ray. Can an injured player be replaced who has not played all season. Yes.

Replacing Nat Dixon. Nat was not recruited to be a starter. He was a filler on the roster. A Grad Transfer. Sure we all want more production from him. He is not that guy. Many years playing football and basketball does not make you into an automatic contributor on the team. I appreciate his effort at times, but I really don't see Dixon as a player deserving of more than 10 min a night. Can we replace Nat Dixon? Without question.

[sadderbudweiser]

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[PonyKai]

Jank's 2019 Freshmen Class and transfers will significantly raise the talent of our team, improve our team chemistry, improve our depth, and consequently improve our rotation.

lulz

[PonyKai]

Too many Jankovich haters out there accusing anyone with a different thought process of being incapacitated or ignorant of how to sustain a recently elevated basketball program.

Probably because it's true.

[East Coast Mustang]

East Coast Mustang... Got to love your first grade comments. Keep it classy. More than happy to listen to your basketball take if you have one.

OK, here ya go: Jank is an average in-game coach and a lazy, terrible recruiter. Go look at our c/o 2019 commits and tell me if that’s a class that can help us compete with the best teams in AAC after McMurray, Jarrey, and Dixon graduate.

Jank's 2019 Freshmen Class and transfers will significantly raise the talent of our team, improve our team chemistry, improve our depth, and consequently improve our rotation.

Yes replacing McMurray, an injured Jarray, and Dixon will improve our team next season.

Replacing McMurray. McMurray is definitely replaceable, not a leader, circus ball, not good at running an offense, misses too many forced shots. Yes, we all understand that just might be how McMurray plays. He won'ts the ball in his hands. He is a confident player. His confidence does not always turn into buckets. Rarely does McMurray make the effort to make other players look good. McMurray plays for himself. He plays to get his. Combine that with a guy that makes very little effort on defense. McMurray is definitely replacable.

Replacing Jarray. Well that is a very strange question. Jarray has been injured for the better part of the past 2 seasons and no one can tell if his career at SMU is over due to his latest injury. Can an injured Jarray be replaced? Yes without a doubt. No faut to Jarray for getting injured. When healthy Jarray is both a leader and a force on both sides of the court. Jarray is a winner. Getting back to reality for a second, Jarray is not healthy. Jarray has not played many games this season and is injured. Can we replace an injured player who is sitting on the bench not giving us any minites. Definitely. I would say the same for Ray. Can an injured player be replaced who has not played all season. Yes.

Replacing Nat Dixon. Nat was not recruited to be a starter. He was a filler on the roster. A Grad Transfer. Sure we all want more production from him. He is not that guy. Many years playing football and basketball does not make you into an automatic contributor on the team. I appreciate his effort at times, but I really don't see Dixon as a player deserving of more than 10 min a night. Can we replace Nat Dixon? Without question.

If your point is that the talent departing isn’t that great, well, I don’t necessarily disagree, but that just underscores how bad of a job Jank is doing in recruiting because the talent coming in is significantly worse.

Bandoumel is a lightly recruited JUCO with average stats...he’s a role player at best, not a difference maker

McBride’s offer list is underwhelming to put it charitably; same goes for Cook (whose coming off a serious health scare and who knows if he’ll even be able to play). Our recruiting class is nowhere near what we were used to under Larry. Perhaps some drop off is to be expected, but this is a cliff dive.

As for the roster now, White, Young, and Douglas are not high major players. The only legit AAC talent we will have next year are Chargois, Mike, Hunt, and Whitt — and who knows, Whitt may explore the option to grad transfer as he should be able to.

We will be worse next year than we are this year if we bring Jank back. Get excited!

[PonyTime]

Even the announcers were commenting that SMU was playing "Ole" defense in the critical stretch of that game last night. (For those who do not get the Major League reference, essentially letting your guy run right past you and score without making any attempt to stop the ball handler). If that is the defense that is going to be played, they simply are not going to win games.

[LA_Mustang]

The ironic thing about these couple of Jank defenders is just like Jank, they are constantly throwing LB under the bus by bringing up sanctions and the terrible conditions Jank supposedly inherited. In reality, Jank won the lottery when LB picked him to be the HCIW. Go ask anyone at Illinois St or in the MVC how Jank was perceived, or if he was long for that job. Instead he came to SMU with a nice pay raise to work under a legend with little to no pressure. He got incredible notoriety being the second guy in charge at the hottest up-and-coming program in the country.

Then as everyone knew would happen, LB was gone and Jank was handed the keys of a Bugatti. All he had to do was stay out of the way. Jank had a HC job at a sleeping giant making probably 3x what he was at Illinois St, and even had the convenient excuse of having a couple of less scholarships to make his coaching job seem that much better. Seriously, all he had to do is roll the ball out and get out of the way. That 2017 team had sweet 16 talent and he blew it against USC.

Moving forward all he needed to do is recruit at a decent level, promote a positive image of the program, and he could’ve rode this job into retirement. But instead of seeming grateful for the opportunity, he has become an industry laughing stock in recruiting and he has done nothing but whine and [deleted] 247 since LB’s talent started leaving. His 2019 class is a mediocre C-USA level class and 2020 looks even worse. The culture is eroding and the fan support is dwindling at an alarming rate, and despite what the defenders will tell you, that has nothing to do with sanctions. We should all want and expect much better for SMU.

[ericdickerson4life]

The reality is, attendance tells you everything you need to know. Remember when Cuban took over the Mavs? They were awful. But I remember the last game of that year, they win and confetti comes down and the fans were genuinely excited about the future, and they weren't in the playoffs. Where's the excitement with the program? If what Jank and Jank's supporters were stating was actually true the fan base would know it. They would know the program is going in the right direction and support it. That we are one year away from competing where we were a couple of years ago.

But the exact opposite has happened. This isn't a complacent fan base that has out sized expectations. This is a fan base that can recognize the direction of a program and no one wants to be involved with a program that is one of the worst in the country.