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VIDEO: SMU men's basketball head coach Rob Lanier and guard/forward Stefan Todorovic met the media after the Mustangs fell to Arizona State, 75-57, at Moody Coliseum.

As Coach Lanier says, Williamson's confidence (as a shooter) definitely needs a boost. He's now 0-9 from three on the young season. Not that he was ever a good 3 point shooter, but it sure would be nice for him to either hit a couple or just stop taking them, His overall FG percentage has been coming down year after year and that has to be a concern. It would certainly help if our offense could generate more open looks for guys because both Williamson and Phelps continue forcing plenty of contested shots. Both of those guys are all over the place rebounding and playing great D at times but right now it looks like Coach has about 7 guys he has any confidence in to give minutes. I was really hopeful this roster would be deep enough that nobody would have to play more than 30 minutes but that's just not turning out to be the case.

Lanier is saying the right things (the right way). His situation is tough for comparison purposes. Probably Shumate's first year because of the death penalty halo. Basketball chemistry takes a long time. It's important that NIL keeps a core group and Lanier and staff can recruit good high school and multi-year portal players to compliment the core group (who ever that ends up being. Had Kendrick and Band stayed, chemistry (and talent of course) would be better but still a challenge. One and done portal players really don't help develop chemistry needed to have a "program." See Memphis and, conversely, Houston.

Doesntmatter wrote:Lanier is saying the right things (the right way). His situation is tough for comparison purposes. Probably Shumate's first year because of the death penalty halo. Basketball chemistry takes a long time. It's important that NIL keeps a core group and Lanier and staff can recruit good high school and multi-year portal players to compliment the core group (who ever that ends up being. Had Kendrick and Band stayed, chemistry (and talent of course) would be better but still a challenge. One and done portal players really don't help develop chemistry needed to have a "program." See Memphis and, conversely, Houston.

There's no question this team would be better with Band and KD with Phelps looking like a really good 2 guard/back up PG (who would take minutes from Nutall) but they would still suffer from a lack of talented bigs who can compete at this level