Here's a Miracle Worker

[DickerJames]

Joe Scott at the Air Force Academy. This is his 3rd season at the academy, and they are currently 13-2 and 3-0 in the MWC. They just spanked BYU and are favored by 3 over Utah tonight. For the first time in school history they are playing an all Div.I schedule since he arrived, and we are talking about a program that hasn't had a WINNING season since the 1977-78 school year. He's a Princeton graduate with a Law degree from Notre Dame.

[DickerJames]

Make that 14-2 and 4-0 in the MWC. They beat Utah last nite 62-49.

[LA_Mustang]

Talk about a shocker…..go ahead and give him national coach of the year. This might be the biggest surprise story in college bball over the past 10 years.

[Waz]

Unbelievable. Talk about level playing fields. Let see, No Juco's, extremely high academic standards, no jock majors, living conditions that 95% of incoming freshman would laugh at, and after graduating, a five year commitment to get shot at while defending your country. I can't believe that someone would actually accept a job like this that is doomed to failure and when you compare it to the conditions that exist here, no wonder so many posters feel that we couldn't possibly attract any coach with talent, proven or otherwise. Wake up.

I'll bet this guy has the audacity to teach fundamentals and make sure that the team practices them and uses them in games. Why, I'll even bet that he matches his game plan and philosophy to the type of player that he can get into school and plans around their abilities. He may even mold this bunch into a group that maximizes their ability to achieve a level of success utilizing the talent that he has without whining about the inequities in the system. What a concept. I wonder if that would work here?

For those of you that think that our 'current' situation is hopeless in attracting gifted enough athletes and coaches to have a program that we can be proud of, (ie sit in the stands and watch basketball that can be identified as something other than random cranks when we feel it is time to shoot, lackadaisical D, and no team attitude)I continue to say that it is not. However, coaching is the key element, not level, uneven, mountainous,dessert, wet, or slippery playing fields. Everything matters, but coaching is the key.

Is there anyone that reads this board that thinks that Mike Dement has gotten close to top productivity out of his teams in the last 6 years?No excuses for or against, just a simple yes or no for the records that we have, against the teams that we have played, with the players that we have.

[Sam I Am]

The coaching is good, but the sexism at the USAF academy has given the cadets the kind of bad publicity for date rape that usually comes from a lawless athletoc dorm instead of budding young officers barracks. Win some, lose some.

[OldPony]

Make him an offer. He won't stay at AF but he sure as hell won't come to SMU. His options will be much better.

[Uncle Morty]

Waz, you left out two things: First, Height and weight restrictions. Since the entire purpose of the Air Force academy is to train pilots, they cant admit anyone who doesnt fit into the cockpit of a jet. Maximum weight used to be 255, not sure if that is still the upper limit, but do remember that Chad Hennings couldnt exceed that weight until he left the Air Force and joined the Cowboys. Height limit is 6'6", to admit anyone taller than the academy has to get permission from the Pentagon. Not exactly conducive to high caliber basketball.

The second thing is a letter of recomendation from a Congressman. Every cadet needs one for admission.

Did you mention the eyesight test? Cant get into the Air Academy without perfect sight, wouldnt want any pilots wearing coke bottle glasses.

What that guy is pulling off at USAFA this year is a miracle.

[DickerJames]

Here is their starting line up.

A.J. Kuhle 6'3" 189 G/F
Tim Keller 6'3" 185 G
Joel Gerlach 6'6" 205 F
Nick Welch 6'8" 215 F/C
Antoine Hood 6'5" 189 G

If jucos and partial qualifiers are the magic ingrediant, then why hasn't San Jose won a conference game this year, and why are there so many other crapy teams with dumb thugs that don't do squat. It's because really good coaches are hard to come by. You have to have the players and the coach to be a top 25 team or one of the 65 to make the dance, but don't you think during the last 8 years we should have at least come close to winning the WAC or the WAC Tournament. I do. It's gonna take alot of money to get the right coach in here, but if we don't try then lets pack it in.

[ponyboy]

Insert Stallion diatribe and spin here.

[OldPony]

We possibly came within a shot of winning the WAC tournament one year. All JUCO's are not equal. Maturity helps with athletics and everyone can see that. Why do you have trouble seeing that a team with all 21-22 year olds should beat a team with similarly talented 18-19 year olds? Hey though, we finally found a coach who is winning at AF with student athletes. Let's come up with 10 more coaches. It should be easy to find that many who will excell at SMU and who might come. I don't see them but I'm sure many of you coaching experts can. Put together that list guys. Give poor old Jim some help.

[Stallion]

I shouldn't even bother to respond to the teaming masses that want to hire a coach they had never heard of just because he's got a 4 game winning streak-BUT I couldn't resist because once again there is some VERY inaccurate information being assumed here. Air Force has its own JUNIOR COLLEGE called the Air Force Prep Academy and 9 members of the squad(3/4th?) were NOT recruited as freshmen out of High School but went to Prep School. Many of you may have remembered the article discussed on this forum last fall where it discussed the fact that the Air Force Football team actually signs 75-100 players per year in FB and places the rest in this Prep School. I can't remember the exact percentage but over 1/2 of the Air Force squad went to this Prep Academy. This is why Air Force is so much more competitive than Army or Navy. Obviously, the BB program is using the unlimited scholarships and the Prep school to improve its team BUT the situation is nothing like SMU at all. Let's wait a little longer than 4 games to annoit him as the next Bobby Knight.

<small>[ 01-27-2004, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[DickerJames]

They actually have a 12 game winning streak going. They are 4-0 in conference with those wins coming from the traditional top teams in their conference. Colorado State, New Mexico, BYU, and Utah. Their conference currently has a #5 Saragin rating which I don't put alot of stock in, but it sure beats the reversal.

I'm currious, if the Academy Prep School system is such a gold mine and advantage for Air Force, why has it been 25 years since they last had a WINNING SEASON.

[OldPony]

AF didn't really put much effort into basketball until about the time they hired Scott. I went to see SMU play there when AF was still a conf mate and they may have had 500 people in the gym. I think that was 5 years ago. AF never even played an entire schedule of D-1 teams until that time. SMU had about 50 fans and we were actually louder than the few AF fans. I believe they may have found an excellent coach. Time will tell but he appears to have all of the makings of a good one. Many of their wins this year are over very poor teams but they appear to be coming on. That said, do you think we could hire him? I don't. Why would he come to SMU? He is a young guy who will possibly become a great coach. There are all kinds of great coaches out there. Why would they come to SMU? We still have a dowdy gym, no history, a mediocre conference at best. Throw in an uneven field for recruting and this (for the umpteenth time) is not an attractive job. Every kid in the country knows who AF is. Go to the Northeast or Mid Atlantic regions of this country and tell them you went to SMU. Most will say either "what is that" or "where is that". The same will happen on the West Coast and Mountain States. Those who know will reference the death penalty. So we have to build out of Dallas. We are the school of about 8th cchoice for an athlete in the Dallas region for sports. I know SMU has a lot of good points but when you are trying to recruit players who aren't old enough to remmeer the last time you were good at basketball or football, the challenge is overwhelming. We are excited about the job being done by Bennett. His classes are probably about 8th in rank in our region yet many of you think we should be talking top 25 in both sports. Some of you need to quit breathing your own smoke.

[Pony_Fan]

We might as well throw in the towel and quit - all this negativity is making me sick!
Doom and gloom...

<small>[ 01-27-2004, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: Pony_Fan ]</small>

[Stallion]

actually I am VERY optimistic in SMU's ability to compete in CUSA assuming that the Coaches are given a reasonable opportunity to compete on an even playing field. Give me TCU's Model right now and SMU will kick their BUTT just about every year in both FB and BB. But after 15 years of false "Commitments", inaccurate information, scapegoats and an unbalanced playing field I'm going to forceably make the argument that a strong athletic program based on the Athletic Model of all our natural and traditional rivals(excluding Rice) is the only way SMU will enjoy long term success in Athletics. If you don't agree make your point-but you better come with some factual support or I'm going to often point out that many of those opinions are uninformed.

<small>[ 01-27-2004, 03:04 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>