Happy 2009 to all PonyFans. I wish and hope that all of you will continue your strong support of SMU Mustangs athletics in 2009, just like you all did in 2008 — maybe you’ll even bring somebody along! I hope everybody enjoyed the holidays and are ready for a great start to 2009. I got a chance to visit my family back in Lithuania during the holidays. It was really neat to be back again for Christmas because I was not able to do that back in my playing days. It’s really tough to visit your family during the holidays for the college basketball players as they get only 2-3 days off during that time.

I’d like to think of a college basketball schedule consisting of three parts: non-conference games, conference games and postseason (conference and NCAA/NIT tournaments).

Head coach Matt Doherty has boosted his players' confidence by showing they won't get pulled for a single mistake (photo by SMU athletics).

At this point, SMU just finished the first part of the season. Well, it was an up-and-down stretch as we saw some great plays as well as tough losses. Most people I talk to believe that SMU should be at 7-5, instead of 5-7. Yeah, you can say that losses to Arkansas-Pine Bluff and UT-San Antonio were not expected, but that is a beauty of college basketball: there are upsets every night that happen in college basketball, which makes each and every game very important. For example, take a look at North Carolina. Most analysts and fans believed that this team will not lose this year and it might have an undefeated season just like Indiana did back in the ’70s. And who do they lose to? Not Duke, not Wake Forest, but Boston College. Now, I am not trying to say that BC is a bad team (they are definitely a NCAA-caliber team), but most of us expected North Carolina to run over them just like they’ve done in all of their games before. Then, as if to prove my point, BC got beaten this week by ... Harvard.

I think our team learned a lot from the non-conference games. First of all, we learned that we can not take any opponent lightly — unfortunately, we learned that the hard way with the losses to Arkansas-Pine Bluff and UT-San Antonio. SMU’s young players started realizing that you have to come prepared to play every single night, no matter whether you play Houston Baptist or Texas A&M, and if you don’t, you will suffer a defeat against virtually anybody.

Secondly, we start seeing some leaders emerging from the bunch. As I said in my previous article, I am really impressed with Paul McCoy and his leadership. Paul, along with Derek Williams and Mouhammad Faye, could provide the leadership for this young team that was so lacking in the early parts of the season. I also like the maturity of Bamba Fall. If he continues to play at this level, it will open up some space for our guards and small forwards.

Finally, I think Coach Doherty has finally settled on the lineup that he wants to play majority of the minutes. Why is that so important? Well, it is very tough for any player to go into the game knowing that for any mistake or missed shot, he will get replaced on the floor. That adds additional pressure on the player and makes him play timidly

Trust me, it is very hard to play when you know that you will get taken out of the game as soon as you mess up. Instead of losing yourself in the game and getting into the rhythm, all you think is how not to mess up. With the settled rotation, Coach is showing the players that they won’t get pulled out of the game for every mistake. It takes away part of pressure and helps them play more relaxed. It also helps them to get into the game rhythm better. Overall, I really like our starting lineup as well as the back-ups coming of the bench. We definitely have great athleticism, height, speed and shooting ability in all of our positions. You can also see our guys starting to gel together and becoming a team, not just a bunch of individuals.

I hope that our team will continue improving and learning valuable lessons from each and every game. We need that because the second part of the season — the games against Conference USA opponents — is upon us, with UTEP coming to Moody this Saturday.

Conference games differ from the non-conference games because all of the teams know each other pretty well. Coaches and players remember their opponents, their offensive and defensive strategies, tendencies, etc. The preparation for the conference games is more important because you want to surprise your opponent with something that they haven’t seen yet this year. A great start to the conference play is essential because it puts you in the great position to compete for the top seeds in the conference tournament. It is very hard to go through the conference schedule after losing the first few games — I can personally vouch for that.

Let’s hope that our young team will come together this Saturday and gives us a great performance that will lead to victory against a very talented UTEP team. Let’s start this C-USA season with a fantastic win at home.