Houston

[PonyPride]

A truly disgraceful effort by the players and especially the head coach. The women's team would have been more competitive - much more competitive. Doubled up in rebounding. There is a lot more of this humiliation and embarrassment coming down the pike - starting with super size helping tomorrow.

The women lost at Houston (60-44)

[tristatecoog]

geezerdonk has very cold and tiresome takes.

I heard the stat that UH has taken down opponents' top scorer by 5.5 points on average. While they contained Zhuric, it was more than solid defense. Isn't he still recovering? Williamson was in a mismatch with a super hot Jarace Walker who may be catching fire.

Lanier came late and cobbled together a lot of guys who'll work hard. The Hawaii tournament and USF was real progress but there's still a lot of roster work going on.

I wouldn't count on a game at UCF telling a lot. The Knights are the second highest rated team in the AAC and this is on the road. Play hard but chalk up these two road games as a humbling measuring stick. I suspect SMU holds UH to under a ten point margin at home and will be a middle of the road AAC team in year one of Lanier's tenure. Not a surprise with a new coach. Last night's announcers were very familiar with Rob Lanier and expect good things in the future.

[Charleston Pony]

geezerdonk has very cold and tiresome takes.

I heard the stat that UH has taken down opponents' top scorer by 5.5 points on average. While they contained Zhuric, it was more than solid defense. Isn't he still recovering? Williamson was in a mismatch with a super hot Jarace Walker who may be catching fire.

Lanier came late and cobbled together a lot of guys who'll work hard. The Hawaii tournament and USF was real progress but there's still a lot of roster work going on.

I wouldn't count on a game at UCF telling a lot. The Knights are the second highest rated team in the AAC and this is on the road. Play hard but chalk up these two road games as a humbling measuring stick. I suspect SMU holds UH to under a ten point margin at home and will be a middle of the road AAC team in year one of Lanier's tenure. Not a surprise with a new coach. Last night's announcers were very familiar with Rob Lanier and expect good things in the future.

That's pretty optimistic to think this team can play Houston to less than 10 points. I will believe it when I see it. The UCF will tell us a lot about whether this team believes it can actually compete against AAC teams like UCF, Memphis and the like who have more talented players than ours. It's always a character test to see whether your team plays [deleted] the road against teams they are unlikely to beat.

Oh...and the ESPN announcers had a "dog" game to call and were looking for something nice to say about SMU. Time will tell whether Lanier can improve on what Jank accomplished here at SMU.

[mtrout]

Well Lanier is certainly not Sonny Dykes-ing the mad scientist.

[JasonB]

Here is my take:

- First of all, Houston is really starting to gel. And yes, I get that they are a top ranked team, but remember they lost 4 starters. They are only now really putting everything together. They have the size and athleticism of an NBA team across the board, and their frosh is amazing. I think they might be Saaser = Anthony and Walker = LJ good.
- Houston also came to play, and SMU couldn't handle the physicality and size. The fact that we are a long team and Houston dominated us that much length wise is pretty impressive.
- Williamson is probably our best defensive player, and got absolutely abused by Walker. It shows you how "on" Houston was.

I expected us to get blown out in that game. As I said in a different thread, the big test is going to be how we recover from it. Do we fight against UCF, Tulane, and Cincy, take two of three, and show that we are going to be in the mix for spots 2-4 in the conference. Or are we going to completely regress to pre-Hawaii, get blown out, and struggle to finish .500 in conference.

This is a big test for Lanier, because .500 in a down league is not going to sit well with anyone.

[ponyboy]

Feels like we’ve regressed in our estimate of where this team should be. I’d be happy .500 in this league as long as we are improving as the year goes along. Pinning a success ultimatum now doesn’t seem wise.

Having said all that, I do think we rebound from this loss.

[Topper]

I have never claimed to be a basketball expert although I have watched SMU basketball faithfully since the 1960s. What I can't help but wonder is this: Wouldn't we be better off with Kendric and Bandoumel on our roster this year and if so, how did we let them get away? Do they just not fit in with Lanier's system? I don't see a talent upgrade without them.

[WildHorse]

I have heard from several people that one or both would have stayed if Jankovich had stayed. Both were close with him. That's not saying Jank should have been kept, but if he had, they might have stayed, too. Instead, we're looking at the return of the Doherty offense.

[Charleston Pony]

I have heard from several people that one or both would have stayed if Jankovich had stayed. Both were close with him. That's not saying Jank should have been kept, but if he had, they might have stayed, too. Instead, we're looking at the return of the Doherty offense.

I agree that Jank's leaving was the main reason those guys moved on but once the decision was made to move on from Jank, this program became a total tear down/rebuild so unfortunately this year is a write off. Pressure will be on Lanier to show tremendous improvement next year. We have a mid-level mid major roster that isn't going to be competitive in the AAC...not this year or next for that matter as UNT, FAU, Charlotte & UAB appear to have better programs than SMU right now

[Ikus]

The last two games make you wonder how bad Tulsa is. After getting wrecked by Houston and UCF, how many remaining AAC games are winnable?

[Charleston Pony]

The last two games make you wonder how bad Tulsa is. After getting wrecked by Houston and UCF, how many remaining AAC games are winnable?

Games at Moody against lower level AAC teams will be our best hope for more Ws this season

[tristatecoog]

https://masseyratings.com/500054/7358

50+% chance of winning:
Both ECU games
Both USF games
At Tulsa
Home against Temple, Tulane, Cincinnati, Wichita State
So 9 conference games. Let’s see how it plays out.

[Charleston Pony]

https://masseyratings.com/500054/7358

50+% chance of winning:
Both ECU games
Both USF games
At Tulsa
Home against Temple, Tulane, Cincinnati, Wichita State
So 9 conference games. Let’s see how it plays out.

I don't see this team beating Tulane or Cincinnati even at Moody but with 4 of our next 6 games in Moody against these "beatable" teams our guys better win half of them if they want to avoid battling for the cellar of the AAC.