Gameday

[ObeyMyDog]

What is ludicrous is Jank's recruiting thus far. He could recruit like he has for 10 straight years and you'll never win anything.

[Wild Mustang]

People seem to have such a short-term memory. Jank was responsible for recruiting Nic Moore and subsequently bringing Nic to SMU.

[Wild Mustang]

So, a couple of things here...

3) For being a players coach, as Jank is, he sure has a lot of players leave early. Transfers are all normal. But if Semi stuck around one more year, he could have been lottery. Shake didn't play the second half of the season, even after being cleared medically, and left early even though he wasn't a first round pick. Jarrey isn't going to play this year even if cleared. One at a time, they are individual circumstances, but put them together and that is a big red flag for someone who is supposed to be a players coach.

JasonB you are better than that opinion. I really thought that I had heard everything before reading your post. Blaming Jank for Semi and Shake leaving early for the NBA is a ridiculous. Blaming Jank for a Shake not playing the last half of last season while he was recovering from his injury is another reach. Shake was more than likely protecting his value so that he would get drafted and did not want to re-injure or jeopardize his potential earning in the NBA. People say that they want NBA talent on the SMU Roster. We all do. We have no business blaming the coach for a player's leaving early for the NBA. If anything, Jank was responsible for helping put the players in a position to become NBA players. No players are leaving SMU because of Jank.

[Pony ^]

People seem to have such a short-term memory. Jank was responsible for recruiting Nic Moore and subsequently bringing Nic to SMU.

And SMU is very thankful for that. But, Nic graduated 2 years ago. Who else has he brought on board? Serious question.

[Wild Mustang]

I would hardly consider myself a Jank sympathizer, and I also do not believe jank was handed keys to a Bugatti. LB is a legend and nobody will disagree with that, but I don't think he built a program for SMU that was sustainable. 2 solid freshman recruits to build a team around for the future in Sterling Brown and Shake Milton. Pretty much the rest were JUCO and other excellent D1 transfers or developmental freshman. With a name like Larry Brown you can rely on having that clout. Those kids weren't coming to SMU, they were coming to play for Larry Brown. That house of cards begins to crumble when you miss on a recruiting class, 2016 was that year. Evidently decent ball players, but they were looking for the quickest path to professional basketball overseas to make money.

Now enter Jankovich. I don't believe the scholarship restrictions can single handedly make a program take a step back. I do believe reduced scholarships, using scholarships on transfers who are sitting, having injured scholarship players while developing freshman will impact on court performance.....Good luck finding walk-ons at SMU who can challenge the team enough to make them better!

If you want a Blueprint for building a consistently competitive program go take a look at Houston right now. With the exception of Hinton this past year our recruiting has been just as good if not better. 3-4 yrs of solid recruiting will give you a consistent experienced upperclass team and an occasional 4star to put you over the top.

LB was like a drug that arrived on campus and gave us what we wanted for a short period of time. I don't want that again for SMU, but I sure loved it when he was doing it. He left when it was convenient for him. No transition period, no recruiting together for the final year putting minds at ease about the transition. Up and left when he didn't get his way.

I, like everyone else, want SMU to be a conference contender and known nationally. But to give up on a guy who hasn't even completed his 3rd yr of recruiting and has 4 returning starters next year is ludicrous.

Enjoyed reading your post. Well said. Keep posting man! Agree with almost all of your points. Pony up!

[JasonB]

So, a couple of things here...

3) For being a players coach, as Jank is, he sure has a lot of players leave early. Transfers are all normal. But if Semi stuck around one more year, he could have been lottery. Shake didn't play the second half of the season, even after being cleared medically, and left early even though he wasn't a first round pick. Jarrey isn't going to play this year even if cleared. One at a time, they are individual circumstances, but put them together and that is a big red flag for someone who is supposed to be a players coach.

JasonB you are better than that opinion. I really thought that I had heard everything before reading your post. Blaming Jank for Semi and Shake leaving early for the NBA is a ridiculous. Blaming Jank for a Shake not playing the last half of last season while he was recovering from his injury is another reach. Shake was more than likely protecting his value so that he would get drafted and did not want to re-injure or jeopardize his potential earning in the NBA. People say that they want NBA talent on the SMU Roster. We all do. We have no business blaming the coach for a player's leaving early for the NBA. If anything, Jank was responsible for helping put the players in a position to become NBA players. No players are leaving SMU because of Jank.

In Semi's second year here, he would have worked on the physically dominant aspect of his game. The guy can shoot really well, but he also can fly. He never showed the physical traits as much as his potential at SMU because he was only playing for one year of college ball. He was a lottery pick if he comes back to SMU and averages 25 the next season.

Shake got hurt, and then was allowed to sit out the rest of the year to protect his status as a second round draft pick? Give me a break. If he came back and played this year he would be a first round lock in a weak draft. Foster is going to sit out the rest of this year, and has no shot of being drafted.

At some point, you have to recruit your own players to do what is best for both the program and their long term success, rather than allowing them to run the ship and make some bad decisions. So, yes, he does bear some of that responsibility.

[Wild Mustang]

People seem to have such a short-term memory. Jank was responsible for recruiting Nic Moore and subsequently bringing Nic to SMU.

And SMU is very thankful for that. But, Nic graduated 2 years ago. Who else has he brought on board? Serious question.

Everyone seems to forget that Jank was on LB's staff. Meaning that Jank could be responsible for recruiting and then developing players when LB was HC. People seem to draw this hard line between LB and Jank and then act like sanctions did not happen.

Addressing your question...
Freshmen: Feron Hunt, Ethan Chargois, and Jahmar Young Jr. All of these guys either fit into the category of really talented or players that still need to be developed, but have a big upside. Think of these guys on a deeper roster and now we might have something.

Yes there have been some misses on Freshmen. There will always be misses. No one is going to argue with that Will Douglas is not a D1 player. Everrett Ray has not shown much and then got injured. Landrum was not a D1 player. Landrum transfered out. I would not call the Aussies D1-ready players. I would not exactly put all the blame on Jank for those misses since the timing of when they attended SMU was right after LB left the program. Jank was thrown into a very tough situation. The timing of LB 's decision to leave SMU did not help the coaching transition or the recruiting transition.

Addressing your question...
Transfers: Jimmy Whitt, Isiaha Mike, McMurray (not a fan) Not saying that they guys are NBA Talent, but these guys can be strong contributors on a deeper team. Dixon was a miss, but he could be the 7th or 8th man on the bench on a deeper team.

[JasonB]

I would hardly consider myself a Jank sympathizer, and I also do not believe jank was handed keys to a Bugatti. LB is a legend and nobody will disagree with that, but I don't think he built a program for SMU that was sustainable. 2 solid freshman recruits to build a team around for the future in Sterling Brown and Shake Milton. Pretty much the rest were JUCO and other excellent D1 transfers or developmental freshman. With a name like Larry Brown you can rely on having that clout. Those kids weren't coming to SMU, they were coming to play for Larry Brown. That house of cards begins to crumble when you miss on a recruiting class, 2016 was that year. Evidently decent ball players, but they were looking for the quickest path to professional basketball overseas to make money.

Now enter Jankovich. I don't believe the scholarship restrictions can single handedly make a program take a step back. I do believe reduced scholarships, using scholarships on transfers who are sitting, having injured scholarship players while developing freshman will impact on court performance.....Good luck finding walk-ons at SMU who can challenge the team enough to make them better!

If you want a Blueprint for building a consistently competitive program go take a look at Houston right now. With the exception of Hinton this past year our recruiting has been just as good if not better. 3-4 yrs of solid recruiting will give you a consistent experienced upperclass team and an occasional 4star to put you over the top.

LB was like a drug that arrived on campus and gave us what we wanted for a short period of time. I don't want that again for SMU, but I sure loved it when he was doing it. He left when it was convenient for him. No transition period, no recruiting together for the final year putting minds at ease about the transition. Up and left when he didn't get his way.

I, like everyone else, want SMU to be a conference contender and known nationally. But to give up on a guy who hasn't even completed his 3rd yr of recruiting and has 4 returning starters next year is ludicrous.

Enjoyed reading your post. Well said. Keep posting man! Agree with almost all of your points. Pony up!

You left Ben out of your original list, but I agree with the Houston blueprint. However, please look at Jank's recruiting. As the sanctions and restrictions have dissipated, his recruiting has gotten worse and worse over the last 3 seasons. That is a problem.

We don't HAVE to get top 50 players to have a good basketball program. That isn't the point. However, in a recruiting class of 4 players and a thin team, you need to have 3 top 250 players and one DITR. That might not even be good enough, because the 2016 class had Douglas at 200, Ethan and Eli at 250 and then Ray as a DITR, and we can see that class was lacking. The 2017 class was worse with Hunt top 250 and the rest DITR. And 2018 has nobody top 250. So it is going downhill. That is a problem. We need deep classes because sometimes you just miss. It happens to us in football all the time - look at Chad and June's recruiting classes which would be very top heavy and then a bunch of wasted scholarships. In the end, you miss on some of the top players, and the number of DITR you hit on doesn't make up for all the wasted scholarships.

The Frazier-Sterling-Ben class may have been an anomaly of greatness. But I think Top 100-Top 200- Top 250 - DITR is what we should be shooting for. And has not shown the ability to recruit at that level as a head coach, at any of his previous stops or here at SMU.

At the beginning of this season, I made a point of saying that we needed to let everything play out. At the end of the day, the recruiting rankings and rumors and all that are indicators of smoke, but the record is the real fire.

- He has had two seasons of results that should not be the expectations of the program
- There isn't anything in the recruiting pipeline that indicate that things will change
- He doesn't have a strong, proven history of developing DITR into immediate contributors

The fire is here. You need to put it out before the entire program burns down.

[LA_Mustang]

People seem to have such a short-term memory. Jank was responsible for recruiting Nic Moore and subsequently bringing Nic to SMU.

And SMU is very thankful for that. But, Nic graduated 2 years ago. Who else has he brought on board? Serious question.

Everyone seems to forget that Jank was on LB's staff. Meaning that Jank could be responsible for recruiting and then developing players when LB was HC. People seem to draw this hard line between LB and Jank and then act like sanctions did not happen.

Addressing your question...
Freshmen: Feron Hunt, Ethan Chargois, and Jahmar Young Jr. All of these guys either fit into the category of really talented or players that still need to be developed, but have a big upside. Think of these guys on a deeper roster and now we might have something.

Yes there have been some misses on Freshmen. There will always be misses. No one is going to argue with that Will Douglas is not a D1 player. Everrett Ray has not shown much and then got injured. Landrum was not a D1 player. Landrum transfered out. I would not call the Aussies D1-ready players. I would not exactly put all the blame on Jank for those misses since the timing of when they attended SMU was right after LB left the program. Jank was thrown into a very tough situation. The timing of LB 's decision to leave SMU did not help the coaching transition or the recruiting transition.

Addressing your question...
Transfers: Jimmy Whitt, Isiaha Mike, McMurray (not a fan) Not saying that they guys are NBA Talent, but these guys can be strong contributors on a deeper team. Dixon was a miss, but he could be the 7th or 8th man on the bench on a deeper team.

There is a pay site that tells you what assistant recruited every SMU recruit. So you can go check it and quit throwing out this garbage.

AGAIN - how was Jank thrown into a tough situation?? He suddenly started making 1.7 million a year. Over a 100% pay increase. Poor guy. Mo money mo problems?? He inherited arguably the most talented roster at SMU in over 30 years which had four NBA players. He was coaching in front of packed home arena every game and playing on ESPN every game. My god that was such a tough situation for the poor man.

Lastly, for the tenth time tell us one player the sanctions prevented Jank from getting. Thanks for your time.

[JasonB]

People seem to have such a short-term memory. Jank was responsible for recruiting Nic Moore and subsequently bringing Nic to SMU.

And SMU is very thankful for that. But, Nic graduated 2 years ago. Who else has he brought on board? Serious question.

Everyone seems to forget that Jank was on LB's staff. Meaning that Jank could be responsible for recruiting and then developing players when LB was HC. People seem to draw this hard line between LB and Jank and then act like sanctions did not happen.

Addressing your question...
Freshmen: Feron Hunt, Ethan Chargois, and Jahmar Young Jr. All of these guys either fit into the category of really talented or players that still need to be developed, but have a big upside. Think of these guys on a deeper roster and now we might have something.

Yes there have been some misses on Freshmen. There will always be misses. No one is going to argue with that Will Douglas is not a D1 player. Everrett Ray has not shown much and then got injured. Landrum was not a D1 player. Landrum transfered out. I would not call the Aussies D1-ready players. I would not exactly put all the blame on Jank for those misses since the timing of when they attended SMU was right after LB left the program. Jank was thrown into a very tough situation. The timing of LB 's decision to leave SMU did not help the coaching transition or the recruiting transition.

Addressing your question...
Transfers: Jimmy Whitt, Isiaha Mike, McMurray (not a fan) Not saying that they guys are NBA Talent, but these guys can be strong contributors on a deeper team. Dixon was a miss, but he could be the 7th or 8th man on the bench on a deeper team.

Here is the thing, though. We were hamstrung with recruiting restrictions in the Aussie class. So excuse granted. We were hamstrung in the 2016 class, but still managed to get Douglas (top 200), Ethan (top 250), Eli (Top 250), and Ray (DITR). Even though it isn't enough to be really successful in the AAC, you could argue a job well done in the class from a rating perspective, given some of our restrictions.

However, there were no restrictions in recruiting for 2017 and 2018. And the classes are sub part. Hunt (200), White (DITR), Young (DITR) is NOT a good recruiting class for our level of play, especially on a thin team with immediate playing opportunities. 2018 is even worse, with an average JUCO and two DITR recruits.

The fact is that as the recruiting restrictions have gone away, the recruiting has gotten worse. That is a fact. Jank has not demonstrated an ability to bring in top recruits. And he historically hasn't shown the ability to develop the DITR recruit (Nic wasn't developed, he was a stud straight away). That is a fact.

When you are recruiting a deep team, then I get it. You pull in the Young's of the world and develop them. It absolutely makes sense. But you still don't have the DITR outweight the ranked recruits in your classes. And you can't do that when you have immediate playing opportunities rather than stocking the end of the bench. If a coach was here that kids wanted to play for, there would be a bunch of studs jumping at the opportunity to slide into the starting lineup next year given our recent history and quality of the school. That isn't happening under Jank, and that is a big time problem if you want to be a big time program.

[ponyboy]

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?

[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.

[redpony]

Yes, and the Dayton program is dirtier than a new babies diapers. I used to live near Dayton and knew players whose fathers were offered fat jobs if their sons would go there.

[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.

[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.

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!