SMU vs Tulsa game thread

by **friarwolf** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:59 pm

I'll say it again. An offense that relies on 3 point shots and outside jumpers is a fools' gold offense. What were we the second half? O for 9 from 3 point land. Yucch......

We start off the second half going down low to Bamba and he is converting and then what do we start doing? Shooting 3's.......This one goes on Doherty...........

by **Hoop Fan** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:23 pm

Our coach did nothing to help our team tonight. second half strategy was non existent. I dont think we even used a timeout to stem their momentum. Once again, the refs acted like we were the visitors by giving lots of questionable calls to tulsa. they were over our backs all night, but we do rebound like girls. no offense to the conference champs that do play in moody. Doh weakly whimpered at the refs a few times but quickly backed down each time. He gets no respect from the officials whatsover. Lots of coaches would have demanded calls at home, and they would have done some tactical things to stop the avalanche of momentum tulsa got. just so frustrating to watch over and over again.

by **One Trick Pony** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:45 pm

gerrrr...

by **FriscoPMG** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:05 pm

Outscored 21-9 over the last 10 mins...another classic SMU meltdown...

by **Pony_Fan** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:27 pm

I wasnt happy with nuk's bombs from 3 all 2nd half.
Bamba did a good job on jordan. Just another meltdown.
you just know they are going to lose at 3 min left

by **NastyStang** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:49 pm

100% agree about the refs. Doh HAS to step up every once in a while. Direct that stomping and yelling towards the refs for once. One of the worst rebounding performances I have ever seen. They were all over our backs and that travel in the lane-dish for the three was the killer...horrible and costly.

by **papawasamustang** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:45 pm

Hoop Fan wrote:Our coach did nothing to help our team tonight. second half strategy was non existent. I dont think we even used a timeout to stem their momentum. Once again, the refs acted like we were the visitors by giving lots of questionable calls to tulsa. they were over our backs all night, but we do rebound like girls. no offense to the conference champs that do play in moody. Doh weakly whimpered at the refs a few times but quickly backed down each time. He gets no respect from the officials whatsover. Lots of coaches would have demanded calls at home, and they would have done some tactical things to stop the avalanche of momentum tulsa got. just so frustrating to watch over and over again.

Gotta agree with the statement above. As I was headed home last night driving up 75 I was thinking the same. Doh really did nothing to try to stop the bleeding. Coaches can make a huge impact in the game by calling timeouts @ the proper time to try to stop TU's mo but I don't recall any of that. Just kind of let things play out. Also, there were several x's when I thought he should have gotten very vocal & involved & he just sat back & observed instead of working the refs trying to earn that $650 k per season. Unlike our fan on the baseline under our basket in the 2nd half giving the ref's [deleted] about all the over the back non calls. Good job to that dude.

Also, I will say that the first 20 minutes of the game was the best half of basketball I have seen this team play this year & I have been to most of the games. As far as the game went, great job of not turning the ball over. I thought the sub patterns were good, only playing 8 players.
Just got killed on the O boards by Tulsa in the 2nd half & that was the difference. You could just see that physically they were much bigger & it paid off for them. I do think that you could see the intensity really pick up by the visitors & with that I could see a lack of confidence from our guys.

Finally, nice crowd. Quiet, but nice. Thought the fans could have been alot louder & supportive but with record & all I guess I should have expected it.

by **Pony_Fan** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:24 pm

The 1st half play was pretty darn good. We shot like 50%. ..up by 12 or 14pts...didn't take advantage.

I think it was tied with 3 minutes left. Nuk made a stupid shot and missed a 3.

I was also thinking - Tulsa doesn't have a true PG - we should have pressed more with 5 minutes left. They are a very TO prone team and we didnt try to take advantage of that. Their offense doesn't really flow all that well b/c of PG play - they hit like 10 3 pointers to keep them in the game.

by **EastStang** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:24 am

Didn't see the game, was Tulsa clogging the inside and forcing us to shoot from the outside, or were we just bombing from Downtown?

by **MustangIcon** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:30 pm

Made the trip up from Houston for this one. My thoughts on the game and responses to some posts/questions made above:

* We did a great job of taking Jerom Jordan out of his comfort zone on offense. I think he averages 15ppg and shoots 60% from the field. We held him to 7 points on 2 for 7 from the field.

* I agree with papa that we played fantastically for the first 20 minutes.

* CRUCIAL non-call late in the game. Tie game, 61-61, less than 4 minutes left. Jerome Jordan walks all over the place-no call- kicks out to Reese for a 3. That really hurt.

* Did we ever get dominated on the boards during the second half. Wow. I agree there were some over the backs you could have called on Tulsa, but it shouldn't have caused us to be manhandled that badly. Their second chance points really did cost us the game I think. One play with under 4 minutes left Tulsa got 4 or even 5 offensive rebounds before Justin Haynes fouls Reese and he sinks 1 of 2 at the line. Unreal.

* As mentioned above, getting Tulsa in the bonus so quickly hurt us in the second half. And they sunk their free throws. 5 of 6 from the 8 minute mark until the final minute when we had lost the game and were fouling intentionally. Meanwhile, we got to the line twice during that same time frame and McCoy missed the front end of a 1 and 1 and went 1 for 2 on the other trip.

* The 3 point shots we took in the second half were for the most part good looks. The two man game with Nayakundi screening for the dribbler yielded a lot of dead on looks and he just couldn't hit in the second half. Example, did anyone notice we ran a set play coming out of the half to get Nayakundi a wide open look from the corner. Ran perfectly. Great look opposite of the SMU bench and just missed the shot.

* 4 seconds left in the half and Mik Walker decides to inbounds the ball to the safety release in the BACKCOURT? He wasn't running out of time to inbounds, he simply didn't allow the play to unfold before inbounding.

* Final score not really reflective of the actual game. We owned Tulsa for the majority of the contest and were down by 3 with under a minute. The 10 point loss comes from Doherty's foul until the last second possible approach that we have all gotten used to.

* We still cannot close out games. Part leadership, part chemsitry/inexperience, part coaching. Everytime we get a significant lead in the second half (rare, I know) Doh trys to let the air out of the ball on offense. Our motion offense, which already lacks in motion, becomes stagnant and we are forced into bad shots. Then, the other team is back in the game and our guys tighten up bc they just blew a lead. Then our inexperience gets exploited by teams with elite players/game finishers like Vaden/Delaney (UAB), Jackson (UTEP), Uzoh (Tulsa). By slowing the offense down, allowing the other team right back in the game, we then have a tight game down the stretch that will be a battle every possession against better more experienced teams that have legit go-to guys (something we don't have as of yet) that dominate these types of situations. By repeating this same scenario over and over again, I have to hold Doherty accountable.

* In recent games I have seen our team play quite well for extended periods of time against the best CUSA has to offer. Say what you will about the quality of the conference but Tulsa and UAB are 20+ win teams and UTEP is looking at an 18+ win season too. We took these times down to the wire and really let them off the hook in some cases. With the entire rotation, sans Bamba, expected to return next year I am very confident we will post our best CUSA record ever. I also expect that we will be .500 or better next season.

by **George S. Patton** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:38 pm

I completely forgot about the game and was watching Mama Mia with the family. It appears I had a better time.

by **MustangIcon** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:56 pm

George S. Patton wrote:I completely forgot about the game and was watching Mama Mia with the family. It appears I had a better time.

I have to disagree with you. I am upset we didn't win and think that we certainly could have won. However, I am again impressed with how we played during a significant portion of this game. If we can put that together for a full 40 minutes (which I think we will do increasingly more) I don't see why we can't be a team in the upper half of C-USA next season.

by **papawasamustang** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:58 pm

MustangIcon wrote:
George S. Patton wrote:I completely forgot about the game and was watching Mama Mia with the family. It appears I had a better time.

I have to disagree with you. I am upset we didn't win and think that we certainly could have won. However, I am again impressed with how we played during a significant portion of this game. If we can put that together for a full 40 minutes (which I think we will do increasingly more) I don't see why we can't be a team in the upper half of C-USA next season.

Good analysis of the game. I agree that we should have won the game. The 10 pt win for Tulsa is very misleading.
Also, I keep using Tulane as a measuring stick & I still can't believe they have 7 confernce wins to our 2. We are much more talented & that's why I continue to direct my criticism to the HC. If you've got the talent to be up 10-16 pts against teams in your conference for 25-30 minutes per game than that same talent is good enough to extend that play for 40 minutes. Also, when I watch this team play & I am still amazed we haven't won 1 game on the road the entire season. This youth excuse doesn't fly with me either.

by **George S. Patton** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:18 pm

MustangIcon wrote:
George S. Patton wrote:I completely forgot about the game and was watching Mama Mia with the family. It appears I had a better time.

I have to disagree with you. I am upset we didn't win and think that we certainly could have won. However, I am again impressed with how we played during a significant portion of this game. If we can put that together for a full 40 minutes (which I think we will do increasingly more) I don't see why we can't be a team in the upper half of C-USA next season.

Could have won at Marshall -- didn't
Could have won at UAB -- didn't
Could have won at UTEP -- didn't
Could have won against Tulsa (maybe in both) -- didn't
Should have defeated UTSA -- didn't
Should have defeated UAPB -- didn't

As for the youth discussion, that argument reached its zenith in mid-January. They are no longer freshmen.

If we are all claiming that the talent is better, then the results should denote that.

At 8-19, you are what you are -- a team that is lacking in playmakers, leadership and the ability to finish in crunch time.

Whose job is it to find a way to overcome those deficiencies?

by **MustangIcon** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:46 pm

Do you think if we play UAPB and UTSA tomorrow that the results would be the same as the first time? Do you think that we would have played Tulsa, UAB, UTEP so close had they been in the first 10 games of the schedule? I say no way to both those questions.

I agree that you have to look at the HC as part of the problem when your team seemingly is capable of beating any opponent (save for Memphis) in conference but never seems to get it done. But look at the improvement- we are now able to go down to the wire with any team on our schedule. Could another coach have fared better this season? Maybe so. But Doherty brought these guys in and is improving with them. Seeing the way we have played towards the end of this season makes me think that after a full offseason together this team could be good next year.

SMU vs Tulsa game thread

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