PonyFans.com

coach, he really seems to get the most out of his players & finds a way to be in every game -

even with all the injuries, he seems to be making the team better & better & truly finds a way to be competitive or win the games -

never cared for basketball & usually after football, my interest in smu died till the next fall, (baseball would change all of that; however) but i believe smu really got a gem in coach tubbs & what he will build over the next 5 yrs -

the guy seems to be a class act -

face it, with the talent this guy's got or lack of plus all the injuries, he finds a way to make things happen!

keep it up - coach tubbs!

I agree that if there is anyone who can get it done at SMU, it's going to be Coach Tubbs. It will take him a few years to put his team kind of team together, but I really do think he's the guy who will restore interest in SMU basketball. I'd love to see Tubbs coach about 15 years here and win about 300 games before he's done. The key s going to be getting one of the top kids from DISD to stay hoe every year.

Uh, Oh! Sorry Charlie, but you had a spelling error. I am going to report you to PK! BTW I also think the world of Tubbs and hope he as a very LONG stay as coach of the Ponies. He bleeeeeeds Red & Blue with the rest of us and is fun to watch as he coaches a game! I have no doubt that he will get us into the tournament sometime during his head coaching carreer!

Cute, Ponymon. Of course we may need some clarification on that "hoe" reference.

I saw the words "top kids from DISD" and "hoe" and thought for a minute SMU was using Colorado's recruiting methods

We are 3-3 in conference with a team made up of good returning juniors and seniors..........let's not get too excited here.

That is like RA getting giddy over a break-even year in his business........like that would ever happen.

rich_alum wrote:We are 3-3 in conference with a team made up of good returning juniors and seniors..........let's not get too excited here.

Who said that the returning juniors and seniors are "good". If they had demonstrated that they were "good" over the last 2-3 years, Dement would probably still be our head coach!

The problem is that this group of players showed signs of being good which is why 3-3 is a bit disappointing. They beat a good Nevada team last year, Texas Tech, and Purdue and Rice on the road, and then pretty much quit. Maybe other teams figured out how to defend them or our weaknesses, but however you slice it this was supposed to be a pretty solid team on paper.

EastStang wrote:The problem is that this group of players showed signs of being good which is why 3-3 is a bit disappointing. They beat a good Nevada team last year, Texas Tech, and Purdue and Rice on the road, and then pretty much quit. Maybe other teams figured out how to defend them or our weaknesses, but however you slice it this was supposed to be a pretty solid team on paper.

We not only didnt beat Rice on the road, thats the game we lost by 40 that basically got Dement fired. And Purdue turned out to be a bad team last year. As for looking good on paper, maybe, but let me ask you some questions about this group: Do they jump shoot well as group? Do they rebound well? Are they defensive minded? The answer to all three is a resounding "no". How can that be a team that is solid? Relative to who? SMU was picked to finish 6th in the conference preseason, so the leagues coaches understood this teams weaknessess despite its experience. This team is what it is. Tubbs is doing very well with this group, effort has been there and we no longer have been getting killed from 3 point line every night. We try to rebound, the strength and size is just not there.

If we can get fball fans somewhat excited, that is good but this season has been ups and downs so far. My biggest disappointment was getting blown out and embarrased by TCU which just shouldn't happen.

I wouldn't say that we got blown out or embarrased by TCU. We were playing in Ft Worth and TCU ain't bad. They did win at C-USA co-favorite Memphis over the weekend.

The best part about this club is that they are playing real basketball. Some structure, positive attitude, execution of fundamentals, group effort... visible improvement over last year on a night in night out basis. Perfect? No, but what is? I don't get the feeling watching this group that they are anywhere near done improving this year. The talent that currently lives in Moody is what it is. Next years recruiting and the years after are what will let us move up or down the C-USA ladder. At the very, least this group is not the train wreck waiting to happen that they were last year. Is there anyone on this board that felt they knew the 'real' team last year? It was always, nice win but.... I do believe we are starting to play with some consistency. That hasn't been the case for some time and if we can stay healthy should continue to improve. Dare we have some positive perspective?

Sounds like Tubbs deserves some credit for helping these guys get their act together!

Ponymon wrote:

rich_alum wrote:We are 3-3 in conference with a team made up of good returning juniors and seniors..........let's not get too excited here.

Who said that the returning juniors and seniors are "good". If they had demonstrated that they were "good" over the last 2-3 years, Dement would probably still be our head coach!

I think Dement is not our coach b/c he had 8 or 9 years to improve the program and he failed to do so. I think Castro, Simpson, and Hopkins is a solid returning class. Are they NCAA's finest? probably not. Are they good enough to be a top tier team in the WAC Conf.......I think the answer is yes.

rich_alum wrote:[ Are they good enough to be a top tier team in the WAC Conf.......I think the answer is yes.

So why did the experts pick SMU to finish 6th in the WAC? Not sure you are being objective about this team's weaknesses. Also, its too early to say this team won't be in the upper tier of the WAC. To me that means top 3 or 4. We are only 6 games into the race, and SMU has played 4 road games. Some of the other teams have had 4 home games. That is not insignificant at this point. But if you saw the Nevada game, you saw why this team has to play near perfect to beat the good teams. When you get killed on the boards and have a hard time defending a high scoring post man, you better shoot lights out, and SMU doesnt do that very often. I'm honestly hard pressed to tell you what this team does very well as group. I'm not trying to be a smart [deleted], but maybe you can tell me what SMUs key team strengths are/is? Perimeter Defense? Interior Defense? Rebounding? Shooting? Fast Breaking?