Gameday

[JasonB]

My bugatti disagreement was incorrect. He was handed a Bugatti when he took over. Unfortunately, it was missing a few pieces which would require a hell of a lot of new parts in the years to come to stay running and when the 2 tires went flat no spares were around. LB blew two recruiting classes in 3 years, 2014 and 2016(i hold to my argument the Australians had no intention of staying anywhere in the US to play ball) and that has greatly impacted the past 2 years. Jankovich is not LB! If LB stays, then yes he continues to compete in recruiting at a high level and pick off D1 and JUCO transfer talent and SMU is in a different situation right now....Possibly, I don't have that answer. I sure as hell assume that he's not stopping Semi from going pro and Sterling and Ben from graduating. He's also not stopping Shake and Jarrey from getting injured or going pro.

I have no clue if Jank is the right person long term for SMU, but as a follower of coaching and solid basketball programs you can see pretty quickly how a program stays relevant year after year. If you don't like the Houston Blueprint now, go look at a school like Dayton(who has a historical richer friggin basketball program than SMU). Brian Gregory - Archie Miller - Anthony Grant(jury still out). Start out with as many 3 stars as you can and land a fringe 4star. Then you move up to higher 3 stars and are in healthy territory for more 4 stars. But you need depth and upperclass experience to compete in our conference. Give me depth for a top 4 finish every year and looking to go to the tournament. If the team stays together next year they are competitive, if not he continues building depth for the future. I believe you have to judge him when Chargois, Mike and Hunt are Juniors and Seniors.

We want everything and we want it now. Just make us look good, we don't care if the infrastructure isn't solid that's the next guys problem.

Look at the class in 2016, when we were still under restriction. Then look at 2017 and 2018 when we weren't restricted and please tell me how we are on the right path.

You are right - Houston is on the right path. 2016: top 50 and a DITR. 2017: 2 top 50, top 250, and DITR. 2018: top 100. Look at what we have done in that time period in my posts above. Jank can't recruit at this level.

[JasonB]

JasonB, I’m curious as to why you think Jarrey has no shot at getting drafted. Is his injury that serious? The history of knee problems?

Teams stayed off of Shake until the second round because he didn't have enough Junior tape and couldn't perform at a high level in the pre-draft workouts.

Jarrey has only half his junior tape and basically zero senior tape. He never dominated the floor in his college career. And won't be full strength for the workouts. Even if he is healthy enough to play now, he won't be maxed out by then. He hit over 40% from 3 one year, which gives you hope as a 3 and D. But the other years he was well under that. There is no way he is drafted. He will be playing in Europe next year if he doesn't find a way to redshirt and stick around.

[Gruffalo]

My bugatti disagreement was incorrect. He was handed a Bugatti when he took over. Unfortunately, it was missing a few pieces which would require a hell of a lot of new parts in the years to come to stay running and when the 2 tires went flat no spares were around. LB blew two recruiting classes in 3 years, 2014 and 2016(i hold to my argument the Australians had no intention of staying anywhere in the US to play ball) and that has greatly impacted the past 2 years. Jankovich is not LB! If LB stays, then yes he continues to compete in recruiting at a high level and pick off D1 and JUCO transfer talent and SMU is in a different situation right now....Possibly, I don't have that answer. I sure as hell assume that he's not stopping Semi from going pro and Sterling and Ben from graduating. He's also not stopping Shake and Jarrey from getting injured or going pro.

I have no clue if Jank is the right person long term for SMU, but as a follower of coaching and solid basketball programs you can see pretty quickly how a program stays relevant year after year. If you don't like the Houston Blueprint now, go look at a school like Dayton(who has a historical richer friggin basketball program than SMU). Brian Gregory - Archie Miller - Anthony Grant(jury still out). Start out with as many 3 stars as you can and land a fringe 4star. Then you move up to higher 3 stars and are in healthy territory for more 4 stars. But you need depth and upperclass experience to compete in our conference. Give me depth for a top 4 finish every year and looking to go to the tournament. If the team stays together next year they are competitive, if not he continues building depth for the future. I believe you have to judge him when Chargois, Mike and Hunt are Juniors and Seniors.

We want everything and we want it now. Just make us look good, we don't care if the infrastructure isn't solid that's the next guys problem.

Look at the class in 2016, when we were still under restriction. Then look at 2017 and 2018 when we weren't restricted and please tell me how we are on the right path.

You are right - Houston is on the right path. 2016: top 50 and a DITR. 2017: 2 top 50, top 250, and DITR. 2018: top 100. Look at what we have done in that time period in my posts above. Jank can't recruit at this level.

Sorry, but I have no clue who you're referring to at Houston as a top 50 recruit. As far as I know, Hinton was the first splash recruit that Sampson has brought in down there. My memory isn't always the best.

[LA_Mustang]

My bugatti disagreement was incorrect. He was handed a Bugatti when he took over. Unfortunately, it was missing a few pieces which would require a hell of a lot of new parts in the years to come to stay running and when the 2 tires went flat no spares were around. LB blew two recruiting classes in 3 years, 2014 and 2016(i hold to my argument the Australians had no intention of staying anywhere in the US to play ball) and that has greatly impacted the past 2 years. Jankovich is not LB! If LB stays, then yes he continues to compete in recruiting at a high level and pick off D1 and JUCO transfer talent and SMU is in a different situation right now....Possibly, I don't have that answer. I sure as hell assume that he's not stopping Semi from going pro and Sterling and Ben from graduating. He's also not stopping Shake and Jarrey from getting injured or going pro.

I have no clue if Jank is the right person long term for SMU, but as a follower of coaching and solid basketball programs you can see pretty quickly how a program stays relevant year after year. If you don't like the Houston Blueprint now, go look at a school like Dayton(who has a historical richer friggin basketball program than SMU). Brian Gregory - Archie Miller - Anthony Grant(jury still out). Start out with as many 3 stars as you can and land a fringe 4star. Then you move up to higher 3 stars and are in healthy territory for more 4 stars. But you need depth and upperclass experience to compete in our conference. Give me depth for a top 4 finish every year and looking to go to the tournament. If the team stays together next year they are competitive, if not he continues building depth for the future. I believe you have to judge him when Chargois, Mike and Hunt are Juniors and Seniors.

We want everything and we want it now. Just make us look good, we don't care if the infrastructure isn't solid that's the next guys problem.

LB blew the 2014 recruiting class?? Really? Man, that is interesting because I thought transfers Gu and Tolbert were pretty damn good players for this program. And the unused Mudiay 2014 scholarship went to Semi who transferred to SMU in Dec of 2014.

Please define what you consider a non blown class.

I was referring to freshman recruiting classes. All of those guys were incredible additions to the basketball program and I loved every minute of watching them play. What we didn't get was any players to back fill. We got top heavy and good really fast. Last year's roster had no seniors who were came to SMU as freshman which is crucial!

Players are players. It doesn’t matter if they are straight out of HS or transfers. To say LB’s 2014 class was a bust is simply wrong. That class resulted in two starters on a conference winning and NCAA tourney team.

Not having seniors does not keep you from having a good team like you’re suggesting. A majority of the good P6 teams have few to no seniors. That is the way of college b-ball today. You get good players, they leave and you reload. Jank doesn’t reload or recruit at a P6 level which is very obvious. SMU will not have another winning season in conference play as long as he is the coach. You can keep kidding yourself and others by throwing out all this bs about LB to try to make Jank look better but it is what it is. Keep fighting your fight but you’re still going to be wrong.

[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.

Still waiting on an answer to this from Wild or Gruffalo. Why should we continue to employ this man? What does he do better than most that is in his job description? I will give him credit for raising the APR, but that isn't going to cut it to keep your job...

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Still waiting on an answer to this from Wild or Gruffalo.

Same person?

[Gruffalo]

I clarify my statement for you to say that his freshman recruiting class for 2014 was a bust, which it was. I don't disagree that transfers are a key component to basketball programs. It is very hard to build a program when you only rely on transfers where you get 1 or 2 yrs max out of them. Eventually you have got to have your own players that you've developed and can rely on to be leaders their junior and senior(if they don't leave early) years. Cannen Cunningham, Ben Moore, Sterling Brown, Shake Milton, Jarrey Foster. Pretty sure I can make a blanket statement and guess that every coach in the NCAA D1 basketball ranks would tell you they love to bring in Freshman recruits and have them for 3-4 yrs.

[ObeyMyDog]

What stake do you have in Jank? Just give it a rest. We suck.

[LA_Mustang]

I clarify my statement for you to say that his freshman recruiting class for 2014 was a bust, which it was. I don't disagree that transfers are a key component to basketball programs. It is very hard to build a program when you only rely on transfers where you get 1 or 2 yrs max out of them. Eventually you have got to have your own players that you've developed and can rely on to be leaders their junior and senior(if they don't leave early) years. Cannen Cunningham, Ben Moore, Sterling Brown, Shake Milton, Jarrey Foster. Pretty sure I can make a blanket statement and guess that every coach in the NCAA D1 basketball ranks would tell you they love to bring in Freshman recruits and have them for 3-4 yrs.

You did say you were taking about freshmen but classes are defined by all incoming players which are both HS recruits and transfers. So it is inaccurate to say LB’s 2014 class was a bust when you include the transfers. The class wasn’t perfect but it definitely resulted in keys pieces for the program. BTW, transfers are not a max of two years. Nic, MK and Gu all played at SMU for three seasons, and if Whitt doesn’t bail (which is likely) he will be here for three years too.

I agree that classes need to be a mix of quality freshmen and transfers. A lot of it depends on need which makes the two HS signings last year by Jank unexplainable. Those scholarships needed to go to immediate impact players, not development players like White and Young. As we have said over and over you can’t [deleted] about scholarship restrictions when you sign two development players. That just doesn’t fly with people who are paying attention.

[Gruffalo]

I clarify my statement for you to say that his freshman recruiting class for 2014 was a bust, which it was. I don't disagree that transfers are a key component to basketball programs. It is very hard to build a program when you only rely on transfers where you get 1 or 2 yrs max out of them. Eventually you have got to have your own players that you've developed and can rely on to be leaders their junior and senior(if they don't leave early) years. Cannen Cunningham, Ben Moore, Sterling Brown, Shake Milton, Jarrey Foster. Pretty sure I can make a blanket statement and guess that every coach in the NCAA D1 basketball ranks would tell you they love to bring in Freshman recruits and have them for 3-4 yrs.

You did say you were taking about freshmen but classes are defined by all incoming players which are both HS recruits and transfers. So it is inaccurate to say LB’s 2014 class was a bust when you include the transfers. The class wasn’t perfect but it definitely resulted in keys pieces for the program. BTW, transfers are not a max of two years. Nic, MK and Gu all played at SMU for three seasons, and if Whitt doesn’t bail (which is likely) he will be here for three years too.

I agree that classes need to be a mix of quality freshmen and transfers. A lot of it depends on need which makes the two HS signings last year by Jank unexplainable. Those scholarships needed to go to immediate impact players, not development players like White and Young. As we have said over and over you can’t [deleted] about scholarship restrictions when you sign two development players. That just doesn’t fly with people who are paying attention.

Lumping transfers together(average) between grad and undergrad is why I said the 2 yrs max, but thanks for pointing it out as it does make a difference in discussion. I absolutely would have taken 2 immediate impact players coming in this year, but if he couldn't land them he did the next best thing which is to use the scholarships on developmental players. He held out til the very last minute before using them on white and young. If you burn your scholarships on 2 fringe immediate impact players then you lose the ability to develop and you're another year behind on depth. I remember reading how Nat Dixon was a top 25 grad transfer. He's a hustler, but not a game changer. In a little over 2 years of recruiting he's brought in Mike, Chargois, Hunt, Jasey and Bandoumel(premature I know, but he did and does have interest from above average schools). And I never know if I should love or hate McMurray for being here. Every trip down the court is either a benching or a high five waiting to happen. I just know SMU is at a crossroads with their coaching decision. If I had complete faith they could land a 5 yr coach who would keep SMU on the map I'd back that move. But, it took a legend in LB to get them to the point that they were finally sniffing the tournament. My perfect scenario is this: Jank has one more year at SMU and somehow all our players with eligibility left stick around. We finish in the upper half of the conference and SMU decides at that point there is enough momentum to go out and land a well known coach and we make the transition with enough time to recruit for the following season. I also hope my kids sleep in tomorrow!

[Gruffalo]

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.

Still waiting on an answer to this from Wild or Gruffalo. Why should we continue to employ this man? What does he do better than most that is in his job description? I will give him credit for raising the APR, but that isn't going to cut it to keep your job...

Appreciate you calling me out after posing the question to Wild.

In game coaching - I have no clue what adjustments are made during the game by the coach, I have no clue what adjustments the coach makes and the players don't execute. I also have no clue what adjustments he wants to make, but feels that adjustment will create a bigger weakness. I have yet to sit with Jankovich or any of his players after a game and listen to them decompress so I know the whole story.

Recruiting - What 3rd party site are you intending on referencing cuz I don't know which one is the most accurate....And I look at all of them like I assume most do to see what's out there. 247 will tell you in 2017 he had the 3rd best recruiting class in the AAC and they added McMurray on top of that. 2018 they had the 6th best in the AAC and they added Mike as well as Dixon who was perceived as a top 25 grad transfer. 2019 will tell you they are 5th and they added Jasey and still have another scholarship maybe more. That is above average, but not sure how much water it holds.

Scheduling - I have no clue what goes into scheduling and how easy or hard it is to schedule big names and how far in advance it has to take place. Without having any figures in front of me, I would assume most big OOC games occur at neutral sites or they're rivalry games. When money is involved I don't think the HC gets to make all the decisions. In Texas I don't think A&M, Tech, UT or Baylor really has any interest in playing SMU a lot. Upside to them is negligible.

Fan/Alumni Engagement, Promotion of school - Once again no clue what he does, nor do I know what any college coach does with the community, fans, alumni. I do know that I have yet to see any negative publicity about the man.

If you want to lob a volleyball to yourself ready to spike it on somebody more power to you, but that's not usually the best way to engage someone in discussion. Two years ago Jank was perceived by many on this board as a great coach for taking a 6 man rotation and basically running the table. Then when we fall to USC it was bad coaching. That USC team was no slouch and had more bigs than we could overcome with foul trouble! The following year consensus was that his recruiting class coming in was going to be a great complement to the returning players and the addition of Whitt and McMurray. Injuries hit us and the impact was felt and we didn't have enough to overcome...or even be competitive. Now this year we don't quite have the depth built up and injuries affect us again.....But we are competitive in a stronger conference top to bottom. Losing games in the last seconds or couple minutes to me is a sign of a young team, not a weak team. That is why I don't carry a pitchfork and call for Jank's head just yet.

[ObeyMyDog]

Jank clown. Give it a rest or entertain us and disclose your relationship to Jank. Jeez

[RI Stang]

Appreciate the response, despite the underlying snarkyness. Included you because the two of you seem to have the same viewpoint that is so hard for some of us to understand.

If you feel his recruiting is above average than there is no point for further dialogue as nothing constructive will result. Thanks.

[hoopmanx]

I want to take this thread out behind the farmhouse and make love to it.

Wild Mustang and Gruffalo, you guys should stop posting before I decide to make an example of you

[One Trick Pony]

I want to take this thread out behind the farmhouse and make love to it.

Wild Mustang and Gruffalo, you guys should stop posting before I decide to make an example of you

Just do it. This is not an endorsement for Nike