Tired, tired, tired.........

[friarwolf]

"We're playing all these freshmen and sophomores" Please............

Last time I checked, we start a senior, a couple of juniors, a sophomore transfer (translation: a junior), a sophomore, and a freshman with sophs and juniors backing up. We are not an especially young team and even if you want to say we're "young" from the standpoint of playing together, it's the freaking end of the season and we're playing worse than ever. We just got spanked by a team with a worse record than us for chrissakes.

Excuses, excuses. I am tired, tired, tired of them. Tubbs and his staff are almost 2 years in to their regime. It's time to see a smidgeon of improvement and I see none. And please, don't bring up individual players like Bamba. I want to see team improvement. Who have we beaten in conference play that has a better record than us? I refuse to drink the koolaide.

[Pony_Fan]

I agree, the team has not improved over the season...they have gotten worse. Seem to be going through the motions. I saw about 10 minutes of hustle from Epps but other than that, nothing. Hopkins is ghost walking out there. (yea, yea..he has been focused on his entire career) We made Tulsa look like a top 3 team in the league. Even with the distractions they should be showing better effort against an awful team. I wonder how many games were won with Hopkins not scoring 20 pts. Seems the only way to create points is by turnovers but they can't run a fast break or make layups so that is out....

Gillen had some decent insights actually.

[Hoop Fan]

"We're playing all these freshmen and sophomores" Please............

Last time I checked, we start a senior, a couple of juniors, a sophomore transfer (translation: a junior), a sophomore, and a freshman with sophs and juniors backing up. We are not an especially young team and even if you want to say we're "young" from the standpoint of playing together, it's the freaking end of the season and we're playing worse than ever. We just got spanked by a team with a worse record than us for chrissakes.

Excuses, excuses. I am tired, tired, tired of them. Tubbs and his staff are almost 2 years in to their regime. It's time to see a smidgeon of improvement and I see none. And please, don't bring up individual players like Bamba. I want to see team improvement. Who have we beaten in conference play that has a better record than us? I refuse to drink the koolaide.

You don't have to drink the Koolaid, but at least tell the full and correct story. Even though Ike started the past two games, he is only a starter by default and you know it. Morris clearly won the job and was way ahead of Ike on the depth chart before he got hurt. And Pearson has proven ineffective at the 4 spot so they have to play someone there. So our top 6 players on the ROSTER include 2 true freshman and 2 sophomores. As for Dez being a transfer, true, but how much did that one year at Mountain View not playing help him? Dez is a sophomore.

I do agree that this team has been in the ditch for most of the past few weeks. Ever since the "one on one" meetings that you posted about and ever since the close loss at Utep we have faded. Do I like it? No. Does it happen? Yes. You cant always make lemonade out of lemons. Its an average team, with deficiencies in size and skill and experience overall. Sorry if you thought after 13 years that this was the magic year. We all knew it wasn't, go back and read the criticisms and expectations everybody had on this board before the year started. Start with your own.

[MustangIcon]

I certainly did not expect a magic year, but I didnt expect to get run out of the gym by mediocre teams either. I am not as terribly worried about this year (bc it is already in the crapper) as I am our future. We have no recruiting class as of right now. Nyam at best will be another Justin Isham from what it sounds like. I really think this team is going to waste what could be a very formidable front line for CUSA next year in Bamba, Morris, and Rack of the bench. Who will score? All of our current players have shown they cannot consistently do it and it doesn't appear as if we have anyone coming in to replace Hop. I really don't see us improving much next year, if at all.

[Hoop Fan]

next year is a challenge too. Frankly, the roster was in disarray when Tubbs came back. The only scorer that Dement recruited those last two years was Roberts. I'd say Morris has a scoring mentality and Dez can put up points, but you are right we need more. We need a guy who can fill it up from the wing, not the point like Hop. Maybe that guy from Mississippi will be an option. I doubt Shady will be here very seriously. All we can do is let Tubbs reconstruct the roster. And this recruiting season is not over, there will be players around this spring, there always are if you get in on them early enough.

[LA_Mustang]

and Roberts is certainly not the scorer I expected. I really thought the leading scorer in Houston 5A would be able to create his own shot and score on consistent basis at this level. That definitely hasn’t happened yet.

[Hoop Fan]

and Roberts is certainly not the scorer I expected. I really thought the leading scorer in Houston 5A would be able to create his own shot and score on consistent basis at this level. That definitely hasn’t happened yet.

yep, Roberts had the profile of scorer, but it hasnt really turned out to be a real scorer, at least yet. He really struggles with his confidence when shots don't fall. He goes to the rack hard, but can't seem to get the shots to fall when he drives.

[friarwolf]

I didn't expect it to be a magic year, hoop. What I did expect was for us to see some progress or some indication that things were getting better. I can't think of one player in the last 2 years that has shown any type of improvement in his game. That for the most part is why I am not shouting to the rooftops about Tubbs and his staff. By the way, I initially was impressed with how Tubbs came in last year and busted butts including BHOP's.

So, let's recap. Existing players have shown little or no improvement in their game, the team is not showing any signs that better things are around the corner, our recruiting efforts have found some guy "who's shot is getting better" and a Niemi clone from Pearce, and our head coach is the center of investigation regarding handing out money to players. I am feeling so much better.......

[Hoop Fan]

hey, the honeymoon is over no doubt about that. Honeymoons rarely last more than a year, the problem is this was much more than a 2 year rebuild job. Look at the roster Tubbs inherited. Totally unbalanced and weak. As for no one getting better, that is really such a blanket statement. Jon Killen is tons better than he was last year. Roberts and Pearson are not. Ike is better, he was much more erratic last year. Rack is better, lots better, just not there yet by any means. Morris got better between the first game and when he went down hurt. So I just gave you several specific examples of improvement. What were you expecting, Killen to become an all-american???

I'm concerned about taking the guy from Pearce too. I didnt think we needed to do that. Some people think Malone can play. At least one knowledgeable person i have talked to likes Sloan better than Malone though, so who knows. At least Tubbs is targeting and getting guys early. If they bust, we know he wanted them and you can blame him then. But Bamba and Morris have shown me why he picked them up, so you have to give a coach some benefit of the doubt at this point.

[SoCal_Pony]

Hoop Fan,

If an outside reader with no knowledge of SMU BB read your posts on this thread, they would think SMU was an ok team, your words earlier were ...'It's an average team'...that needs some tinkering but can be OK.

I don't think that is the case at all. Recent RPI has us at 285. We lose our most consistent scorer in BHop. Yes, maybe some players like the Rack have improved...but what does that mean exactly...instead of us being a 300 ranked team, Rack and others have 'improved' so we are now a 285 ranked team...and hey, with more 'improvement' next year maybe we can crack the top 260????

With the players coming in next year versus the players we lose, how can anyone say we are going to be marginally better than this team today?

[Hoop Fan]

So Cal, I think I've been pretty clear. I think you are misquoting me too. I said next year would be challenging as well. I have also said that the entire roster needs to be reconstructed. I never used the word tinkering for this process and not sure how you got that impression. Dement had a team that couldnt shoot, couldnt rebound and couldnt defend. And not the greatest ball handlers collectively either. Try that combo on for size. That won't change overnight and I am certainly not expecting next year to be great either. Tubbs has a challenge in front of him and has to somehow overcome our obstacles and do it through recruiting. Bamba and Morris are a start, but they wont be leading this team until they are juniors anyway.

[SoCal_Pony]

Hoop Fan...the words in bold were your exact words...tinkering was mine...

My point is I think you are sugar-coating it more than a little bit...but that is just my opinion.

And criticize Dement's teams all you want, but take the average of his last 4 teams here, and that team would SMOKE this crummy product..

And one last point...that Dement team that couldn't shoot / rebound / defend....were they recruited by Tubbs or Dement?

[Hoop Fan]

I'm tired of arguing about this, but I cant believe that someone like you will not at least acknowledge that Tubbs wasnt even here for the last few years of the Dement tenure. Tubbs has NOTHING to do with the positives or the negatives of nearly 3 years worth of recuiting which forms our upperclasses right now. Plus he was an assistant here before, an important one, but not the head guy. I guess if thats sugarcoating, so be it.

And by the way its a "below average" team we have here right now, are you happy now?

[friarwolf]

Ok, hoop, let's go with your prediction that next year mirrors this year. We lose Hop but a couple of guys improve enough to cover his loss. Recruiting even picks up a little. So with that scenario, Tubb's 3 year record at the end of next year's season is 14 -14, 12 - 15, and 12 -15. Tubb's says ok, my guys are ready to step up in year 4 (keep in mind Dement's record his last 3 years at SMU were 15-14, 17-13, and 12 -18) . Where's my contract extension?????? Will you buy what he is cooking? What do you say Mr. Athletic Director?????

[SoCal_Pony]

I'm tired of arguing about this, but I cant believe that someone like you will not at least acknowledge that Tubbs wasnt even here for the last few years of the Dement tenure. Tubbs has NOTHING to do with the positives or the negatives of nearly 3 years worth of recuiting which forms our upperclasses right now. I guess if thats sugarcoating, so be it.

Not last few years HF, last 2 years ...so the starters you are dogging from Dement's final season were recruited during the Tubbs years.

Listen that is a nit...my over-riding point here is this team stinks...really stinks...and it's not going to get materially better with the current players on this roster, nor will it get any better with the player Tubbs has recruited thus far this year. So our future at this point in time does not look good at all.

I think there is a problem here when respected posters like yourself won't acknowledge the train wreck called SMU Athletics. That is why I respect Stallion so much. I respect you too...I just want you to criticize SMU more....one again, it is just my opinion.

But what isn't my opinion is that we are ranked 285....and that ain't average