SMU - UTEP Game Thread

[ponyinNC]

We do not have the player who in a pinch can pick up the team in carry it on his back. Perhaps down the road that may be McCoy. But without a few folks to help him by draining a three or blocking out on the defensive boards, or setting a rattling pick, these are the outcomes you're going to get. I watched a little bit of the Maryland-Duke game that was war. One of the Duke players was knocked out cold on a clean pick. If I were Doh, I would be showing that play to Dia, Nyakundi, Faye, and Fall and ask why he hasn't seen any opponents shaking the cobwebs out. Its little things we aren't doing that lead to losses. In a close game, we're talking about hitting one extra basket or making one extra free throw, or getting one extra rebound.

yup...just watch ACC basketball and the little things are so important. We suck at the little things (free throws, getting the ball inbounds, picks, clean passes, etc)

[George S. Patton]

And yet we have a coach with an ACC background who came from signature school of the conference.

[bagice]

And yet we have a coach with an ACC background who came from signature school of the conference.

Doherty wasn't out their throwing up bricks and committing stupid, unforced turnovers, he was trying to find a player that would step up, just no one could. McCoy played his worst game of the year. Williams did OK but went cold in crunch time.

Even Faye made a bad mistake on his basket to tie it with 25 seconds to go. Doherty drew that up as a set play where Faye would shoot a three to put us ahead. The play was nicely designed and he was wide open and buried it, but he had his toe on the line, If he had set up one more inch back, we might have won in regulation.

Course, there were multiple reasons we lost, but no need to take a shot at Doherty for the sake of taking a shot.

[bagice]

And yet we have a coach with an ACC background who came from signature school of the conference.

Here is what I will criticize Doherty for in the game last night:

Giving Harp So Many Minutes: Either the guy has no confidence in his shot or he has instructions not to shoot. Either way, you cannot have a player like that on the floor during any extended time. He stayed on the bench the whole Rice game, yet got 7 minutes in the critical stretch in the second half where we got cold.

Bamba going quiet in the second half: He couldn't miss and looked to be our best option, yet in the second half, we never gave it to him on the low blocks, even though it looked like UTEP could not stop him.

Walker shooting the Technicals: With 12 seconds to go, Doherty puts in Walker to shoot the technicals, he lucks the first one in and then bricks the second. Bamba needed to shoot those, he is our senior and most likely to handle the pressure, was 4-5 from the line for the night. Walker has only shot 6 Fts all year, and none in that game.

Those were my gripes about Doherty last night.

[MustangIcon]

And yet we have a coach with an ACC background who came from signature school of the conference.

Here is what I will criticize Doherty for in the game last night:

Giving Harp So Many Minutes: Either the guy has no confidence in his shot or he has instructions not to shoot. Either way, you cannot have a player like that on the floor during any extended time. He stayed on the bench the whole Rice game, yet got 7 minutes in the critical stretch in the second half where we got cold.

Bamba going quiet in the second half: He couldn't miss and looked to be our best option, yet in the second half, we never gave it to him on the low blocks, even though it looked like UTEP could not stop him.

Walker shooting the Technicals: With 12 seconds to go, Doherty puts in Walker to shoot the technicals, he lucks the first one in and then bricks the second. Bamba needed to shoot those, he is our senior and most likely to handle the pressure, was 4-5 from the line for the night. Walker has only shot 6 Fts all year, and none in that game.

Those were my gripes about Doherty last night.

UTEP didn't have to stop Bamba, he stopped himself plenty with 5 TO's. That equaled his FG's attempted for the game (although he went to the line twice on shooting fouls so those 2 didn't count as attempts).

[bagice]

And yet we have a coach with an ACC background who came from signature school of the conference.

Here is what I will criticize Doherty for in the game last night:

Giving Harp So Many Minutes: Either the guy has no confidence in his shot or he has instructions not to shoot. Either way, you cannot have a player like that on the floor during any extended time. He stayed on the bench the whole Rice game, yet got 7 minutes in the critical stretch in the second half where we got cold.

Bamba going quiet in the second half: He couldn't miss and looked to be our best option, yet in the second half, we never gave it to him on the low blocks, even though it looked like UTEP could not stop him.

Walker shooting the Technicals: With 12 seconds to go, Doherty puts in Walker to shoot the technicals, he lucks the first one in and then bricks the second. Bamba needed to shoot those, he is our senior and most likely to handle the pressure, was 4-5 from the line for the night. Walker has only shot 6 Fts all year, and none in that game.

Those were my gripes about Doherty last night.

UTEP didn't have to stop Bamba, he stopped himself plenty with 5 TO's. That equaled his FG's attempted for the game (although he went to the line twice on shooting fouls so those 2 didn't count as attempts).

I really don't remember him having that many TOs, and don't recall him being called for his signature walk around the basket..perhaps they happened away from the basket? Either way, I was more in pointing out that we stopped feeding it to him down low.

[George S. Patton]

And yet we have a coach with an ACC background who came from signature school of the conference.

Doherty wasn't out their throwing up bricks and committing stupid, unforced turnovers, he was trying to find a player that would step up, just no one could. McCoy played his worst game of the year. Williams did OK but went cold in crunch time.

Course, there were multiple reasons we lost, but no need to take a shot at Doherty for the sake of taking a shot.

We are 26 games into the season and this team's fundamental flaws have shown little to no improvement. You don't blow a 15-point lead on the road if you know what to do with the ball and manage the clock.

Again, it's the lack of a leader that really hurts here. Why are you taking up for Doherty when he and his staff needed to find a way to try and change the course of the season and the way the team plays the game.

IMO, this is tougher to absorb than UAB.

[bagice]

I think we have improved over the season, unfortunately we are playing much tougher competition now. I have no doubt we would have won a good deal of those early season games if we could start over with the experience we have gained in 26 games. This is a young team and I think McCoy will become the leader we need, its just tough for a true freshman to take that on every night at this stage.

Memphis twice in a short span, at UAB, at Marshall, at UTEP, Houston....those are not bad teams with many games on the road. I see us getting better, we just need to play a complete game from tip off to final buzzer. We still have at least 4 games left which will go along way in determining how much we have improved.

Even a good SMU team could not count on wins at UAB, 2 with Memphis, and at UTEP....in fact we would need to be close to top 25 to even be favored in those games. Yes it does hurt that 2 of the 3 were there for the taking, but we have made great strides since your touchstone loss against UAPB. The team is getting better, we just hit the buzzsaw part of our schedule....Many teams supposedly much better than us would have had the same record we did in those games. After we gave UAB a real scare, a team that has yet to lose at home, their next home game they spanked USM by 30....a team many on this board are touting as much better than us.

I think marked improvement is there and hope it shows in the W column these next 4 plus games.