Lineburg deserves some credit

[LA_Mustang]

Nice win for the Ponies. Hop, Simpson, and Castro each played a great game. Lineburg is doing a good job of coaching this team. He seems to be a solid game time coach. I like the way he uses the minutes and I love that he plays man to man. In his two games we played UTEP very close and beat Tulsa on the road, thats not bad.

[Hoop Fan]

I like the guy. Looks like he should try to get the head job at a small school next. The players have responded with good some effort. I like the man to man too. The zone is too easy to beat, especially if you stay in it all game and let the other team get rythym. Theres a reason not many good programs, except Syracuse, use zone as their primary defense.

[DickerJames]

After seeing him in action last Saturday I was sick that the trigger wasn't pulled sooner. Alot of people wrote the UTEP game off as just another loss, but they probably weren't at the game. I was very impressed with how he handled himself and the game. UTEP isn't leading the WAC by accident, they are a very good team and I think we would have won the game if we had more than two days to prepare after the change.

Tulsa isn't very good this year, but they were at home and favored by 5. I expect this team to beat Rice on Saturday and I think they have a chance to stir things up at the WAC tournament.

[Pony_Fan]

Plus it just didnt seem to make sense, every game the opponent knew exactly what defense we were going to run and could play it accordingly. Especially knowing what to expect the 2nd time we played them.

[PG]

Give plenty of that credit to Coleman Crawford. He's making a lot of the calls and helping out Lineburg a ton. It's definitely a group effort now. The COACHES are doing a nice job, not just Lineburg.

[BigEasyPony]

I think the kids are playing with a lot more confidence now b/c they don't have Dement getting ready to scream at them everytime they take make a mistake.

[LA_Mustang]

PG, your right. Crawford and Brickey should be commended as well. They all have done a good job of making the best out of a bad situation. Josh made a couple of comments during the game that caught my attention. He said that Hop had a big smile on his face after hitting a 3 and appeared to be having fun for the first time in a long time. Also, he said that Lineburg ran up to Simpson after making a big defensive play and gave him a slap on the [deleted] with a few words of encouragement. I think that kind of positive reinforcement is very much needed in this program at this time.

[Hoss]

I've already gone on record as saying I'm in Jimmy Tubbs's corner for the head coach job. But I had a thought: will Coach Lineburg be given an interview for the opening?

[Pony_Fan]

PG, your right. Crawford and Brickey should be commended as well. They all have done a good job of making the best out of a bad situation. Josh made a couple of comments during the game that caught my attention. He said that Hop had a big smile on his face after hitting a 3 and appeared to be having fun for the first time in a long time. Also, he said that Lineburg ran up to Simpson after making a big defensive play and gave him a slap on the [deleted] with a few words of encouragement. I think that kind of positive reinforcement is very much needed in this program at this time.

I hadn't seen Hop smile too much while playing or seem like he was having fun - maybe now he can loosen up.

[Pony_Fan]

Send Lineburg an email, I am sure he would love the support. He does respond to email.

lineburg@mail.smu.edu

[DiamondM]

Another nice thing was that in his post-game interview, Lineberg gave credit to the assistants by name. I don't remember ever hearing Dement praise his assistants for helping with a particular aspect of the game.

There was also some mention during the broadcast about how hard Lineberg had been working the team in practice compared to before.

[Hoop Fan]

Lineburg also gave credit to Dement, which is fine. Lets not overblow this too much. Things are fresh right now and change was needed, but this is the emotional honeymoon period that often happens after a change is made.

[EastStang]

Just remember an interim coach led Michigan to the NCAA finals.

[Hoop Fan]

Good point East, Steve Fisher won the national championship as the interim coach at Michigan in 1989. Besides us not having Glen Rice and Rumeal Robinson, the situations are very similiar. I'm being a smartass, but your point is a good one. The change had to be made and it can only help the way things were going.