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Late in the game, the alley oop play to Feron when he dunked it behind his head was pretty spectacular. He was the most athletic player on the court.

1) The post game interview on ESPN with Davis was absolutely awesome. Basically said that from the Houston game on, teams had been trying to double him and do whatever it takes to take him off the ball. Cincy did it really well, and it worked and shut him and us down. He spent a 4 hour film session with Jank in his office when they got back, talking about how to play off the ball and how to take advantage of the double. Gave props to Jank as a great coach and said it really impacted the game tonight. I don't know if it is available somewhere to watch, but it was a good interview and I really like the kid.

2) Once again, offensive efficiency really perked up when we are playing in front of our bench, and Jank is basically calling the plays and telling everyone where to go. Hopefully next year Davis and others are able to do that on the floor and it will give us more consistency.

3) You can see where Hunt goes in and out of focus on defense. Plays way off players and gives open looks on threes. That will improve with time.

4) Jank got a lot of grief for recruiting Band and White, but I think they are both proving to be solid pieces of this program as we move forward.

5) 1.5 games out of first place. Tulsa and Cincy have both played their way back on the bubble. League has three in right now, it could move up to four, but winning on the road is tough and looking at schedules, I think Memphis will fall completely off the bubble and WSU is going to fall onto the bubble. So probably three teams. WSU and Memphis have the hardest schedules in conference right now.

Tulsa - UConn, @Houston, SMU, @Temple, @Wichita State. I think they have 4 losses left and will finish 13-5 in conference.
Cincy - @WSU, @UConn, Memphis, WSU, @Houston, Temple. They have 4 losses left and will finish 12-6.
Houston - WSU, @SMU, Tulsa, @Memphis, Cincy, @UConn, Memphis. 4 losses left, will finish 12-6.
WSU - Cincy, @Houston, @Cincy, Temple, @SMU, @Memphis, Tulsa. 5 losses left, will finish 10-8 in conference.
Memphis - Temple, @Cincy, @UConn, Houston, @SMU, WSU, @Houston - 5 losses left, will finish 10-8 in conference.
SMU - @Temple, UConn, Houston, @Tulsa, Memphis, WSU. Tulsa and us actually have the weakest schedule left in conference. I think we have to go 7-2 the rest of the way and finish at 13-5. That would put is tied for first in conference, and would get us in the NCAA. If we go 12-6 and are in a three way tie for second, we are going to be the fourth placed team based on OOC, and we will most likely be the odd man out. Our only way in at that point would be if WSU finishes behind us in conference, we beat them in Moody, and the tourney still wants them. That scenario could get the AAC five teams (as crazy as that sounds).

If I were betting, I would put us down for 4 more losses, putting us at 11-7 in conference. That would put us at 21-9 and need a decent performance in the conference tourney to get an NIT bid.

Keep your eye on UCF, UConn, and Temple. Those three teams could really screw things up across the board, have just about everyone in the league at 11-7 or worse, and take it back down to a two bid league.

C.J. and Feron really stepped up last night playing 29 minutes each as Mike only played 23. Announcers said Mike has been sick and just didn't appear to have his usual energy level. This is that time of year that a bug can really affect a team and those are things we don't necessarily know about. Just good to have the depth we do to get through the tough spells.

Watching the replay and it was really funny as the Tulane coach was griping and getting the double technical Jolly was right behind him egging on the crowd. BTW the coach had a pretty good case that was a bad charging call.

JasonB wrote:I think we have to go 7-2 the rest of the way and finish at 13-5. That would put is tied for first in conference, and would get us in the NCAA. If we go 12-6 and are in a three way tie for second, we are going to be the fourth placed team based on OOC, and we will most likely be the odd man out. Our only way in at that point would be if WSU finishes behind us in conference, we beat them in Moody, and the tourney still wants them. That scenario could get the AAC five teams (as crazy as that sounds).

I just checked the selection committee, which this year has representatives from:

Stanford
Duke
Mountain West Conference
Toledo
UNC Asheville
Kentucky
Northwestern
Southland Conference
Atlantic 10 Conference
Bradley

So the lack of AAC representation plus the weak OOC makes me more pessimistic. Maybe that record plus 2 wins in the conference tourney in Fort Worth.

There still has never been an AAC or AAC school representative on the committee since SMU has been in the AAC.

Keep in mind that if we go 7-2 somehow, it means winning four of these games: @Temple, UConn, Houston, @Tulsa, Memphis, WSU. That would give us at least two more high quality wins.

But you are correct, if we finish second in conference, we also need to finish ahead of the third and fourth place teams in the conference tourney to lock ourselves into a bid.

I don't see it happening, making it to the Dance. Maybe if we win out.

A good half against a bad team.

At home.

Fun to watch but nothing new here.

Now we get a full week of five-on-five practice to prepare for Temple! We should see a lot of improvement in our defense!!!!

Really surprised to read Kendricks words since I got the impression that Jank didn't coach any of the players.

SMU is No. 9 in Offensive Efficiency. Its turnover (no. 152) and defensively(No. 164) where we really struggle. We don't have a big man who can post up inside- both Chaggy and Jasey are turnover machines inside with every dribble an adventure. The lack of an inside offensive presence makes us a very inconsistent team. Usually hot at home and cold on the road.

In fact, I think we have 1 player who is really comfortable dribbling the ball and that's Kendric who is about 2nd in the Country in Assist/Turnover ratio among teams above the Mendoza Line. Tyson Jolly is not bad with the ball on the perimeter but doesn't know his limitations on drives to the basket-it would be really nice if he learned to drive and dish when he draws 2-3 defenders-but even then Chagois and Jasey can't consistently finish inside

Other than Kendric, we got a bunch of spot-up shooters who are looking for their shot and only occasionally make the extra pass. Let Kendric run the show all the time-every time -I really don't trust another player on the Court with the ball in his hands.

Stallion wrote:SMU is No. 9 in Offensive Efficiency. Its turnover (no. 152) and defensively(No. 164) where we really struggle. We don't have a big man who can post up inside- both Chaggy and Jasey are turnover machines inside with every dribble an adventure. In fact, I think we have 1 player who is really comfortable dribbling the ball and that's Kendric who is about 2nd in the Country in Assist/Turnover ratio among teams above the Mendoza Line. Tyson Jolly is not bad with the ball on the perimeter but doesn't know his limitations on drives to the basket-it would be really nice if he learned to drive and dish when he draws 2-3 defenders. Other than Kendric, we got a bunch of spot-up shooters who are looking for their shot and only occasionally make the extra pass. Let Kendric run the show-I really don't trust another player on the Court with the ball in his hands.

C.J. White has been a pleasant surprise this season with his 2:1 assist to turnover ratio and his shot selection and shooting percentages are much improved...he's suddenly right up there with Davis and Jolly. Yes, we'd rather have the ball in Davis' hands but C.J. has been a pretty dependable guy off the bench.

Charleston Pony wrote:

Stallion wrote:SMU is No. 9 in Offensive Efficiency. Its turnover (no. 152) and defensively(No. 164) where we really struggle. We don't have a big man who can post up inside- both Chaggy and Jasey are turnover machines inside with every dribble an adventure. In fact, I think we have 1 player who is really comfortable dribbling the ball and that's Kendric who is about 2nd in the Country in Assist/Turnover ratio among teams above the Mendoza Line. Tyson Jolly is not bad with the ball on the perimeter but doesn't know his limitations on drives to the basket-it would be really nice if he learned to drive and dish when he draws 2-3 defenders. Other than Kendric, we got a bunch of spot-up shooters who are looking for their shot and only occasionally make the extra pass. Let Kendric run the show-I really don't trust another player on the Court with the ball in his hands.

C.J. White has been a pleasant surprise this season with his 2:1 assist to turnover ratio and his shot selection and shooting percentages are much improved...he's suddenly right up there with Davis and Jolly. Yes, we'd rather have the ball in Davis' hands but C.J. has been a pretty dependable guy off the bench.

CJ, just like Jolly, isn't comfortable driving with the ball like Davis is.

As efficient as our offense is overall, I would argue that it actually gets split in half.

When we are on the offensive end on the side of our bench, our efficiency is absolutely through the roof. When we are on the offensive end away from the bench, it drops to average or below average. But that one half bumps the overall numbers through the roof.

If we can run an efficient offense away from our bench, that is going to take the offense to the next level and try to overcome some of the defensive flaws against better teams.