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I really hope we make a move to replace this staff at the end of the season no matter what the metrics show. This staff can recruit transfers, but not elite HS prospects, and can't coach worth a damn. It is clear as day that if we are the superior team we win by double digits, but can't win a single close game even against a terrible team like Wichita State. We are not going anywhere as long as Lanier is the coach.

Ditto

We are going to get killed in the ACC.

The ACC opponents are licking their chops. SMU represents an automatic win on their schedule. Same with football. SMU will be a perennial doormat in both both sports.

geezerdonk wrote:The ACC opponents are licking their chops. SMU represents an automatic win on their schedule. Same with football. SMU will be a perennial doormat in both both sports.

Your obsession with SMU is entertaining but also kind of pathetic. Be sure to let Florida State know that SMU is going to be a cupcake on their basketball schedule...oh wait

I kind of agree with the original post, except how much does HS recruiting matter? Maybe hoops goes the way of football, and relies heavily on transfers?
Wouldn't hate a splash hire for the next MBB and WBB coaches.

BleedingRed+Blue wrote:I kind of agree with the original post, except how much does HS recruiting matter? Maybe hoops goes the way of football, and relies heavily on transfers?
Wouldn't hate a splash hire for the next MBB and WBB coaches.

The "Elite" programs in the ACC tend to be in the hunt for "one and done" NBA level talents and SMU has NEVER had that kind of coach...even Larry Brown couldn't attract that type of talent to SMU but some would at least give us a look. I should add that coming off a 10 win season (one of the worst in SMU's basketball history), expecting Coach Lanier to bring in 4 star recruits is probably a stretch. Let's see how he does going forward with the improvement we've seen this year and now ACC membership.

After missing out on our key opportunities against USF and FAU and now the brutal loss to UTSA at home to go with the brutal loss to Wichita State on the road and the collapse in several games at the start of the season I still have no confidence in this staff.

I knew Lanier's reputation coming in was coaching hard nose defense but he really needs to have an offensive minded coach on his staff. Our half court offense is just ugly with very little ball movement leading to open looks. Time after time in close games we toss it around the perimeter until someone decides to go one on one often leading to forced shots and ugly offensive possessions. Of course it would help if we had more talented bigs because even when our guards find them in the paint these guys don't anticipate well or seem to have bricks for hands. We have a guard oriented team and playing without perhaps our most dependable scorer in Chuck Harris really exposes this team

plain sucks

This team should have been fired up and hungry after the Florida road trip. I expected a Memphis type performance from this team today. We’re a 17.5 point home favorite against a bottom dweller…and we get this? Huge turn around from last year in terms of record but I agree that questioning whether this is the right staff to lead us into the ACC is a valid question. Strong fade down the stretch in close games…strong fade down the home stretch of the season…the pattern seems pretty clear at this point. If this was a successful coach with a history of excellence it would be easy to say ‘give it time’. The reality is that this was a flier…at best.

Another in a long list of collapses and just terrible losses without a single solid win. Time to move on. This ship has no captain and it's time we find one!

mustangxc wrote:Another in a long list of collapses and just terrible losses without a single solid win. Time to move on. This ship has no captain and it's time we find one!

We don't have championship DNA guys who know how to close games when we have a big lead but on the flip side these guys have erased late deficits and come back to win games I thought were over. The real problem is that we rely on Harris and Phelps to carry the scoring load and everyone in the gym knows it.

Lanier assembled this team, so if his players don’t have ‘championship DNA’ that’s on him. It’s either he assembled the wrong guys or failed to develop a tough/winning mentality to ‘not’ lose big late leads. I’ve lost track of the games we blew this season. How does that change next season because a 6th place finish with a critical and embarrassing home loss to UTSA is not anything close to what we should expect at this stage in my opinion.

The question is whether this team really disappointed or whether they slightly overachieved this season. Did any of the college basketball pundits think this team would finish 6th and win 20 games in the regular season? The pre-season coaches poll had SMU finishing 7th, presumably on how the league's coaches saw our roster talent. FAU was the favorite followed by Memphis & Tulane. USF was picked 9th and UNCC 13th, so I guess one of those 2 latter schools' coach will be coach of the year

https://theamerican.org/news/2023/10/9/ ... orite.aspx

I will have to go dig up any thread where we all made predictions coming into the season...just for grins!