Honest Opinions About Coach Doh

[friarwolf]

I knew this year would be a tough one - tougher than last year - but I thought we would find a way to win 15 games with the non-conference schedule. My wish for this year was for the team - and especially the young players -was for them to be playing better basketball at the end of the season. I can't say that was the case for either the team (throw out the UTEP game with Killen going nuts) and especially not for the young players. Next year just looks awful given we lose Killen's senior leadership and without someone to take his place as a leader and as a pretty nice backcourt player......I was particulary saddened to see Walker and Malone benched for breaking team rules at the end of the season......

So, to the future. I am predicting Doh loses at least 2 players due to grades, attitude, not fitting in, etc.....I hope he has his eye on 2 jucos that can come in here and solidify the backcourt. Walker is not the answer and poor Harp just cannot be trusted to take more than 2 dribbles before you start holding your breath. The game moves too quickly for both of them......Doh needs to get Malone's head on straight and develop him into a slasher who can hold onto the ball to go with his outside shot. If he can find decent backcourt players who can handle his demanding demeanor like Killen could, he might be able to field a .500 club next year given the Senegal connection frontcourt. If the backcourt help is limited to the incoming freshmen, it will be very ugly next year..........

[Stallion]

See I don't see how next year looks awful-definitely much better than this year If Doherty can sign the JUCO Guard everybody has been talking about-I don't think you miss Killen much at all. OK he scored well in some games-he has his deficiencies too. Bamba averaged almost 14 ppg in the last 10 games, throw in the Georgia Tech transfer and see the most improvement out of Dia. That's at least tall, and athletic frontline. Fill in with improvement from young guys like Malone and Nykundi and maybe some freshman like Dubois who I do think sounds like a steal for SMU and I think SMU will clearly be improved. Not competitive for anything but improved. The key is getting guys like Malone, Nykundi and Fall(still) in the workout room and filling the huge hole at PG with a JUCO -still trying to figure out who he is. I thought I had it figured out but the kid had such bad academics that I don't think it could possibly be the kid I'm thinking of.

[QuikSStang]

and here i was, worried he was going to be lured away by a kentucky last year or another big school...

[ponyboy]

Dumb question. Haven't been paying much attention over here. What is the rumor about the JUCO pg? Do we have a name? An idea of ability level? Assurances that he's for sure coming here?

[EastStang]

I checked a few recruiting websites and this guy must be way under the radar. The only JUCO who has listed SMU as a school of interest is 7'0 power forward named Josh Crawford who is uncommitted.

[DiamondM]

While some of this is true, the damage Pye did to SMU cannot be undone as easily as some would have us believe. Trends that are established are not easily undone. WHo knows whether WE would have been the invitee instead of Baylor if we had an aggressive president back then. I am ocnfident Pye could not have cared less about us joining a BCS conference, and at the worst, would have fought against it.

I for one, will never forgive Pye for his anti-athletic mindset, God rest his soul.

Look, I don't want to argue the "whose fault is it" question because we all have our opinions.

But one common misperception that is just plain factually incorrect is that Pye was "anti-athletic." He loved atheltics and felt that they were a vital part of the college experience. He commissioned a study to determine whether SMU should stay in Division 1 with the goal of hopefully demonstrating to the anti-athletic types (profs, etc.) that Division 1 football was in the best interest of the university -- which was the ultimate conclusion of the study (to his delight, not his shagrin). In addition to trying to keep Division 1 athletics against an outcry by faculty and other elements of the SMU community who thought that we should get rid of it, Pye attended most basketball and football games and cheered vocally for the teams. If he was so GD "anti-athletic", can someone explain to me why Coach K attended his memorial service held at Duke??

We all agree that in retrospect, the stipulations put on the football program were overexuberant and ultimately detrimental to the program and the university, but at the time, many of the conditions that were introduced were felt necessary to quell the backlash against athletics coming from other powerful elements of the SMU community. At least at the time, it was felt that without some of the harsh academic and recruiting restrictions brokered by Pye, certain truly anti-athletic factions would not have swallowed the bitter pill of continuing with football (and Division I athletics in general). Were his conclusions incorrect? Was he not "aggressive" enough in defending the disgraced football program? Maybe so. But the personal animosity based on factually inaccurate information just annoys me.

[DiamondM]

I meant I don't know the name of the player that turned it around for coach K

I believe Johnny Dawkins was the big recruit that helped them get to the Final 4 in 1986.

As for the question about Doherty (I don't like to call him Doh, because that was the perjorative way Duke fans, including me, referred to him when he coached at UNC -- as in Homer Simpson's "Doh!"), I was hoping for more Ws this year, but I am still drinking the koolaid. I base my continued optimism on the devleopment of individual players during his tenure.

Last year, I saw significantly more production and development out of Ike and Donatas than in their previous years at SMU. We didn't know where our scoring was going to come from last year, and Ike stepped up. Same with this year. Anyone who says that they predicted that Killen would every be our go to scoring guy in his senrio year is lying. Anyone who says that they predicted before this year that Ritter would provide important defensive minutes and ANY points is also lying. Bamba's offensive game has definitely improved, and I for one, expect that trend to continue.

And despite what people here are lamenting about Harp, Walker, and Malone, I have definitely seen improvement from the beginning of the year to the end -- something I seldom said about players in previous coaching regimes. Harp's offensive game hasn't come around (but that is true for most freshman who weren't McDonalds All-Americans), but I have seen hustle and a nose for the ball on the boards and on defense that wasn't there at the beginning of the year. I may have expected a little more out of Walker than we got this year, but with Killen doing a heck of a lot more as a floor leader and scorer, Walker's opportunities were more limited than I think we expected going in. Malone needs to be stronger with the ball in his hands, but I did see flashes of slashing and scoring skill that I hope we'll see more of next year.

Papa Dia is MAYBE the only disappointment in terms of what we saw at the beginning of the year to the end. But he still made the Conference USA All Freshman team, so I'll take that a sign that the best is yet to come.

[mr. pony]

I've always found it odd that SMU is hammered by know-it-alls for how it handled receiving a penalty that no one ever had received (or ever will again receive).

I commend those who pulled SMU through those early years after the DP. We were in unchartered waters, folks.

[J.T.supporta]

he's no Jimmy Tubbs

[friarwolf]

Killen will be sorely missed for his leadership. He has been the leader in the locker room for the past two years. I don't know who is going to step up and take on his role. The past two years, whenever Doh would go off and start mercilessly drilling the guys, it was Killen who would calm the coach down. The question is on a team full of freshmen and sophomores - Bamba is not a take charge guy - who is going to keep that locker room going???? Walker would be one choice but he got his [deleted] benched for team rules violations. That's not what the coach is looking for out of his floor leader to be...........

[jtstang]

If he was so GD "anti-athletic", can someone explain to me why Coach K attended his memorial service held at Duke??

Polish sausage on the buffet?

[Stallion]

Kenneth Pye was the Death Penalty. Anybody that thinks he believed in Big Time College Athletics has to be related to the guy. Fact he called the types of players admited to big Time athletic teams "Mongolian Idiots by and large"-I've cited that quote at least 3 times on this board and don't intend to look for it again. Fact he was a major factor in schools like UT, A&M and Arkansas giving up on the SWC when as Chairman of the SWC's Presidents Committee he insisted that the SWC agree to academic standards well above those required by the NCAA at the same time those schools were getting beaten by the non-qualifiers of the Big 8. Fact Kenneth Pye never had any intention of reducing scholarship limitations at anytime at SMU and he said so over and over. The guy was an absolute disaster for the entire university and this school was better off when he left.

[Glenn Sosbee]

Kenneth Pye was the Death Penalty. Anybody that thinks he believed in Big Time College Athletics has to be related to the guy. Fact he called the types of players admited to big Time athletic teams "Mongolian Idiots by and large"-I've cited that quote at least 3 times on this board and don't intend to look for it again. Fact he was a major factor in schools like UT, A&M and Arkansas giving up on the SWC when as Chairman of the SWC's Presidents Committee he insisted that the SWC agree to academic standards well above those required by the NCAA at the same time those schools were getting beaten by the non-qualifiers of the Big 8. Fact Kenneth Pye never had any intention of reducing scholarship limitations at anytime at SMU and he said so over and over. The guy was an absolute disaster for the entire university and this school was better off when he left.

Pye played the biggest role in the darkest era. I remember all those elitist professors so jumping on board with Pye's vision of destroying SMU athletics as it was once known. Thank you for finishing my point with such hammer-like efficiency.

[RunningStang]

Let's also not forget that Pye almost shutdown the School of Engineering and Applied Science. I'm just glad to see SEAS bouncing back in a big way with the new buildings and new majors. Let's hope that the athletic department is on the up swing too.

[smu diamond m]

If he was so GD "anti-athletic", can someone explain to me why Coach K attended his memorial service held at Duke??

Polish sausage on the buffet?

Solid B