Dement

[Nacho]

His demise has been greatly exaggerated. Let's see how the rest of the season plays out. You guys sure are a bunch of knee-jerkers. If BHop can hold up this team should be okay. He is the key.

[BUS]

I rarely speak about Bball because I have limited experience but I DONT SEE A STRUCTURED OFFENSE.
Give the ball to #1 and see if he can make something happen.
Well, then give the ball to #3 and see if he can make something happen.
OK, well, give the ball to #1 again
Now, give the ball to #2 and see if he can make something happen.

Am I WRONG??? or is this ignorance of how the game is played?

[Nacho]

My point is that without BHop ,a true PG, the offense does become a shambles. That's why I said BHop is the key. The team looks a lot better when he is running the show than when he is not, e.g the Wake game. I wish this guy was 100% because I don't think we would be having this conversation. Imagine any team at any level not having a PG. The offense, any offense, doesn't work. Was Damon a PG? Answer--a resounding No. How about Sasser--No but a lot closer than Damon. Even Woods wasn't what I would call a true PG. The problem is that Dement has never until now had a true PG and now that he does he is injured.

[wilthestilt]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by BUS:
<B>I rarely speak about Bball because I have limited experience but I DONT SEE A STRUCTURED OFFENSE.
Give the ball to #1 and see if he can make something happen.
Well, then give the ball to #3 and see if he can make something happen.
OK, well, give the ball to #1 again
Now, give the ball to #2 and see if he can make something happen.

Am I WRONG??? or is this ignorance of how the game is played?</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I doesn't take a rocket scientist to see there is no structure to SMU's game. I live in Phoenix and don't get to see many games (TV) but it turns my stomach to watch them play. I watched about 10 minutes of the Wake game and gave it up.
I wouldn't mind if they looked good losing, but nothing has changed since Dement has been there.
It's a shame they lost Bliss, that's the last time they looked good winning or losing.

[Nacho]

BHop didn't play against Wake
SMU beat Bliss and Baylor
Next

[DenPony]

The problem is that Dement has changed since he came. He once ran a five man offense that featured screens (both high and low) and movement. Passes were fast with dribbling confined to one bounce to get a better angle to pass. Skip passes were common. Now we see a three man game with 2 players standing on the other side of the court. The point seems to be for one of them to out manuever his man by dribbling. This is why we have 20+ turnovers per game. Teams who play good help defense collapse on our one (assuming he wins his one on one)and an errant shot is thrown up or there is a TO. This offense stinks and you don't see it out of any top 20 teams. The defense is also very conservative and relies on sagging back on the opponents big men and hoping his teammmates miss their 3s on the kickout pass since we can't get near the shooter after playing so far in. There IS a reason that everyone shoots lights-out from the arc.

[Corso]

I've wavered back and forth on Coach Dement. There have been times when I've been frustrated and thought it was time for a change, and there have been times when I thought he was a very bright coach who will turn the corner with this team.

Last night, Coach Dement was as important as Q, Hop, Castro or Isham in the win. He out-coached San Diego from start to finish. Coach Dement deserves our praise today - he coached a great game. There are a lot of coaches who would have looked at the scoreboard when we were down 18 and realized that with Nigel Smith on the bench, we were hard-pressed to do anything with San Diego's big guy (Castro and Jibran Kelley tried, but that was a man against boys) and he could have given up. No dice - Dement coached his tail off and deserves to be recognized for it.

And did anyone else notice: the loudest fan in the place was .... Phil Bennett.

[Pony_Fan]

This offense is terrible. Despite Hopkins health - (yes, that would make a little difference) BUT did anyone here watch the Wake game, the Tech game, the TCU game, etc.??? all the same results - hardly any pts, and terrible execution and no team play. Ross has been shut down lately and w/out him we are hurting pretty bad.

We have no structure for team offense -there is a screen on a man near the baseline and Ross comes to the top of the key..he moves over and then another guy goes to the top of the key, if that doesnt work, same thing. It is terrible. San Diego knew this and anticipated the top of the key motion and made several steals. The only play that sometimes works is when Isham makes a cut to the hoop with a lob pass for a dunk. Hopkins picks up his dribble usually so this terrible sequence can repeat. Please watch this next game.

Outcoached?? Maybe just b/c they let Keep sit for the last 8 min of the 1st half. (I was exagerrating in the earlier post..he is good but has butterfingers) They had 4 guys foul out in OT so if we didnt win I would have killed Dement. All we had to do was go inside to Castro or Simpson at that point and barely did that.

I have watched Dement since he has been here and I still think he doesn't play a team offense and I agree with DenPony that he was better when he first got here and has changed his methods for some reason. It also doesnt help that we have no pure shooters like most of our opponents.

BUS and wilthestilt
- no, you are not wrong at all. If someone wants to watch an offense, come see the Tulsa game or the Hawaii game. you will see the picket fence, screens and good motion.

[Nacho]

For the life of me I can't figure out how such a horrible coach has beaten TCU, NTSU, Baylor, GW and SD. Almost beat UNLV there.
TT--barely a Bhop
Wake--no BHop
Appl--barely a BHop
ORU--no BHop?

[EastStang]

I think the reason that Dement won those games was on pure talent. The players on those teams just aren't very good. What is Baylor's record, TCU's, UNT's? That said, Dement has recruited some solid respectible players. I guess if he gets the horses, he figures, the players will just play and we'll win. He also has to work with what he has. Some players thrive on a structured offense. Others don't. Look at Georgetown under John Thompson. During the Ewing years and after, they ran a very structured offense and made the NCAA finals three out of four years. When Iverson showed up, he abandoned that offense.
I suspect this lack of structure is an intentional choice by Dement given his personnel.

[Pony_Fan]

Well, Nacho - you must be watching different games than I am... Regardless of the wins against mediocre opponents, he really is NOT any good in my opinion and I guess I'll have to live with that. EastStang - I would agree with you in the Sasser years, but not now. I'm just not sure how anyone can look at the offense and say "this is working".

[The PonyGrad]

How short our memories are.

Dement followed Shumate. A guy who had a losing season every year but one. Shumate handed Dement nothing and after having one losing season his first year Dement has never had a losing season since. Yes we would like to get to the NCAAs but let's be patient and thankful for what we have.

Remember Hayden Fry!

[PK]

I have to agree somewhat with EastStang...I'm not sure the guys we have can play a structured game. On the other hand we need to give some credit to SD's team. They were really very quick. Some of Hop's TO's would not have happened against some of the other teams we have played...SD's players adjusted very quickly to what we were doing and made attemps at dishing into the middle almost impossible. Perhaps had we been shooting better from the perimeter early in the game it might have opened up the middle more. I still remember the TCU game when B-Hop made some great dishes to other players rushing to the bucket along the baseline. Sometimes you just have to take what you can get. I think before the season is over and Hop gets his game form in shape and the other players get use to having a true point guard around, we will see some better team play happen.

[Hoop Fan]

No doubt a healthy Hop will make a difference because he is strong with the ball and can create space. One of the big problems is we are not phyically strong enough against good competition and havent been. The defense constantly pushes us away from our spots and easily denies the ball on the wings and post. Think about our best players: Q, I-man, Simpson are all finesse players. Thats putting it nicely. College hoops has become a brutally physical game the last 20 years. San Diego abused us and the refs cant and wont call all the fouls. Tcu and Tulsa have consistently abused us defensively in the past too with their in your face styles. The offense looks really bad when you cant get into your sets. I really dont think Dements challenge is X and Os so much is as it is getting a few physically tougher yet skilled players into the program and motivating them as a team. We need a Jason Keep or a Kevin Johnson to start with, and a better weight training program.

[DenPony]

Gosh- If we are to compare against Shumate, ALL coaches would be good. Dement's a genius. Unfortunately, Shu is not the benchmark. I don't know if we should consider firing Dement or not. He is an excellent recruiter which, I believe, will be demonstrated even more this year without Tubbs to take the credit that Dement graciously gives him each year. I'm waiting to see if this team ever runs an offense that makes sense or uses our athletes to run a full court pressing defense etc. instead of the sagging "let'em shoot 3's" that we run now. I simply don't understand what he is trying to do. Even if we continue to run this inane offense, I still want to see a better qualified coach who would come to SMU before we get rid of a guy who is at least mediocre and a good recruiter. What coach wouldn't want to come to SMU and have 2000 quiet fans on hand for a game? Last night, on the radio broadcast, the only times I could hear cheers (until the end of the game) was when Delzell scored. His parents must have brought all their friends and outnumbered the Pony fans. BTW-The broadcasters are HORRIBLE!
To the Hayden Fry fan. I was there when old Hayden was around and he wasn't all that great. Good but not great. His one stroke of genius was to go after black players when no one else in the SWC was and he got some really outstanding young men and players like Levi and Rufus. You have to remmeber that it was his first head coaching job and his inexperience showed quite often. That said, we would have been better off keeping him for 40 years. He might have been our Grant Teaff.