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Columnist Gerry Fraley looks at the career of SMU point guard Bryan Hopkins. Has he lived up to his billing? Read the column in Thursday's Dallas Morning News.

Apparently someone has been reading Ponyfans.com for new material.

That is funny timing eh? This thread has been going all week...when is the last time this guy wrote about SMU anything??

Interesting point here......

>>>Good teams have good point guard play. UTEP, a likely NCAA Tournament team again, has a superb point guard in Filiberto Rivera, who has 105 assists and only 34 turnovers.

Good teams like UTEP also have very good players around their good PG: SG Omar Thomas - 03-04 second team All-WAC and first-team JC All-American in 2002 (lead the nation in scoring two straight years in JC), C Will Kimble - transfer that led Pepperdine to the NCAA tournament in 02. Shoots a very high FG% and is a monster on the boards, G/F Miguel Ayala - JC transfer averaging 8 pts a game, F Jason Williams - JC transfer averaging 15 pts and 6 boards a game and G Giovanni St Amant - 4 star recruit and former So Cal HS POY.

Well it is on the front page of the sports section with a HUGE picture of B-Hop. Can't say they are ignoring us. They also note that we have a game tonight against UTEP at Moody and list the time for the game.

They also make it sound like a mistake for a blue chip recruit to spurn the Dukes of the world to play for lowly SMU.

abezontar wrote:They also make it sound like a mistake for a blue chip recruit to spurn the Dukes of the world to play for lowly SMU.

Unfortunately sometimes reality is perception.

WOW! At first I wanted to be mad at Fraley....but everything he wrote is pretty much dead-on. All we can hope is that Hop uses this as motivation. He literally holds the key to our future because we need him to play at a high level to win over the next two years, and I'm sure he is the first and most influential person top area recruits are talking to when they come on campus.

LA_Mustang wrote:He literally holds the key to our future because we need him to play at a high level to win over the next two years, and I'm sure he is the first and most influential person top area recruits are talking to when they come on campus.

That's a good point- and the article makes it seem like he's keeping a positive attitude about SMU.

The article was true enough, but I thought the wrapper they put it in was extremely negative. The Moody Blues headline wasn't enough, they have to add a tag line about Hopkins having a "sinking feeling at SMU". Then the large picture with his face buried down in his shirt, basically hanging his head. You can't possibly present something more negative than that. Critical articles like that about individuals are not done about college athletes very often either. It doesnt really matter what was said in the article, but Fraley references Deron Williams success and also cites Hopkins shooting percentage. He fails to mention its about the same as Deron Williams. I suppose LaMarcus Aldridge is having a disappointing season at Texas for someone who was supposed to be a possible NBA lottery pick. I'm sure we'll get that bust write up soon complete with pictures. Yeah, hes hurt, but just like Hops injuries, that disappointing right? I don't sit around here and complain about SMUs lack of media coverage, I'm glad to get what they give us for the most part, but I'd rather have no article than one like that which was probably lifted from discussions on this fan forum anyway.

I guess that any publicity is good publicity. Fraley tries to blame Dement for letting Hop have free rein. Then he says that Hopkins has taken a zillion 3's THIS year. Bryan will stay at SMU becuase he will have no choice this year. Let's hope that he will have next year.
I still think our number 1 enemy is lack of support. If we can't get people to the games and get excited, we will be lucky to continue to get one star every 3-4 years to play with some mediocre players. Maybe one of the projects will turn out some year when we have a star so we'll have a good team. The Great Bamba or Rack next year? Well, at least we'll have height.

And they say that jt's negative attitude has no effect.

ponyboy wrote:And they say that jt's negative attitude has no effect.

What the hell are you talking about, sunshine? Are you reading things that aren't there again?

HF, I really hadn’t thought about the way the story was presented. With the headline and pic, it does appear pretty negative. But honestly, what Fraley article isn’t negative? He hates on everyone - Hicks, A-Rod, Cuban, Jerry Jones.....
Like jt pointed out, at least Hop is quoted that he doesn’t regret coming to SMU and still believes they will win.

LA_Mustang wrote:HF, I really hadn’t thought about the way the story was presented. With the headline and pic, it does appear pretty negative. But honestly, what Fraley article isn’t negative? He hates on everyone - Hicks, A-Rod, Cuban, Jerry Jones.....
Like jt pointed out, at least Hop is quoted that he doesn’t regret coming to SMU and still believes they will win.

Thats part of my point LA, usually Fraley saves his hatin for the owners and overpaid pros. Its not really a bad or untrue article, but if I'm Hop or Jimmy Tubbs, I don't like the portrayal of the player or the program. The picture was over the top to me. Put a standard picture in the there of Hop in action dribbling or something and a neutral headline and then at least you don't get the bust implication before or without reading the article.

If he wasn't hurt, this article probably would have motivated Hop to have a huge game tonight. Hop being hurt probably just lets Fraley say I told you so tomorrow.

Hopkins has a year and a half left on the Hilltop. He'll get back to his game. Hope he can bring some of the others with him so he can stop worrying about carrying the team and play the point.