SMU RPI's Since 2000

[Stallion]

for all of you that are so excited about the direction of the program with a Senior/Junior dominated team I'll let these RBI numbers speak for themselves:

2000: 47
2001: 98
2002: 114
2003:123
2004:170
2005: 147

I guess you can take solace that a 4-5 year decline has leveled off and headed up again but I bet 98% of you expected much more from this group -at least 2 years ago. I guess its an improvement but certainly nothing to brag about even based on our recent history under that "moron Dement." As for next year and the absence of a single formidable inside big man-I know what just about every program in the country would do with its last remaining scholarship-will SMU? How about Chris Low sitting out the year over there at that Dallas area JC is he an option? Is he quality

[Hoop Fan]

What do you attribute the RPI trend to? This team has seniors, but so did the previous teams. One of the seniors on the 2003 team is starting in the NBA at the moment. So who or what are you ascribing blame to, its clearly not Dements fault in your view?

As for Chris Low, I havent heard anything lately but I want to say grades were an issue for him. Grades aside, that is the type of player SMU needs to find right now.

[OldPony]

Doesn't it seem obvious to you that if you have the same players from one year to the next that they should be better? While you can bag on the talent of these players, at least BHop was a top rated recruit and Simpson was about a Top 100-125. They are now 3 and 4 year players respectively and they are matched up with teammates who are other 3 and 4 year players and who at least are mature. Part of the reason that JUCO's are attractive is their age and the fact that they get to play as frosh and sophs. That part of the equation has been neutralized. We have no excuse for the way this team has played. We can say New coach but we really have no excuse.

[rich_alum]

exactly. This same exact team showed flashes of potential last year beating Purdue at Purdue. (biggest road win I can remember in some time) They also beat two quality tourney teams in Nevada and T Tech. Obviously the talent was there to compete. This team should have been much better this season. With Simpson and Castro becoming seniors and BHop "maturing" his junior year I was expecting much bigger things. The injuries have been greatly exaggerated on this board.

[Hoop Fan]

Players should improve, we agree. But whose fault is it right now if certain ones haven't? Seems to me like several people are implying Tubbs is a disappointment. Was he supposed to magically make Justin Isham a good outside shooter this year? Please. And you have ignored the key to being a good team is not just having a collection of good individual players with experience. To be a winning team/championship contender, you have to have all the pieces and roles covered. Who rebounds on this team, more importantly who gets the big rebound when you need it? Who shuts down opposing post players like Nick Fazekas or Omar Thomas when you need it? Who are the pure shooters who knock down the 3 when you need it? It seems only BHop is capable of making a 3. Those are the problems with this TEAM and the the main reason we are a 12-11 team. Remember, the people that understand basketball (WAC coaches), had SMU picked 6th in the league this year. Why was that?

And what are you talking about RA, how have the injuries been exaggerated? BHop, Simpson and Roberts have all missed multiple games in the WAC, and played injured in several others. The injuries have probably been bigger than advertised really.

[rich_alum]

The big rebound? shut down opposing players? These sounds like excuses to me. I wouldn't argue with the fact that we don't have a great pure shooter, but we have been more competitive than this in years past without a shooter and less talent. Not every top WAC team is filled out top to bottom at every position.

How do you explain several quality wins last season?

Maybe they picked us 6th b/c they knew Tubbs couldn't coach?

[Waz]

Let us see now: We have OP's argument that because our kids are 3 and 4 years older, they should be better. What happens if you put 12 kids in a room to teach them French and the French teacher can't teach? Do they magically come out speaking French 3 or 4 years later? Not that I know of. Same with Dement. Just because he worked hard and knows the game doesn't mean he can teach. Get it? Teaching and coaching are the same thing. See Tubbs, See Improvement, See Understanding of Concept of Game. It isn't about running up and down with the biggest strongest best shooters, doesn't hurt, but it is about getting those that you have to play at their best. See Tubbs, See Improvement, See Understanding of Concept of the Game.

Now, then again, we have Rich Alum chipping in that the injuries are greatly overstated on this board. So, in Tubbs infinite wisdom to justify the injury report, he holds people out of games. Yup, that must be what happened, which would definitely lend creedence to the fact that Tubbs indeed is not as good a coach as Dement.

What a sad and pathetic lot. Instead of looking at the improvement and looking at it as a sign of progress with more possibly to come, some of you are still caught up in the 'who's fault is it' syndrome and I would rather be right that Dement shoudn't have gotten the ax, than, Tubbs is doing pretty damned well. Get over it. Dement had his chance and as of last year around this time, not too many people felt that he had gotten over the hump. Look at the difference in the attitude in the players between last year and this. Who is responsible for that?

[Hoop Fan]

Doesn't it seem obvious to you that if you have the same players from one year to the next that they should be better? While you can bag on the talent of these players, at least BHop was a top rated recruit and Simpson was about a Top 100-125. They are now 3 and 4 year players respectively and they are matched up with teammates who are other 3 and 4 year players and who at least are mature. Part of the reason that JUCO's are attractive is their age and the fact that they get to play as frosh and sophs. That part of the equation has been neutralized. We have no excuse for the way this team has played. We can say New coach but we really have no excuse.

Look at the teams ahead of us on the loss column in the WAC standings. All of them have as much or more veteran experience as SMU. Nevada has 2 seniors and a junior in its starting lineup plus a very talented soph in Fazekas. Utep is ridiculously experienced with 3 seniors and 3 juniors in its top 6. La Tech has 3 seniors in its top 6 who have been together forever, 2 juniors, plus the best player in the conference in my opinion in soph Paul Milsap. Rice is another veteran team with 3 seniors and a junior in its starting lineup. SMU does not have an advantage in experience in this league. In fact, we might be at a disadvantage because we have had to play two freshman, Killen and Roberts plus a sophomore Pearson a lot of minutes. It comes down to what you do well as a team and what you don't. This notion that we were entitled to compete for the title this year because we have a few seniors is flawed.

[OldPony]

No one is "entitled" to play for a championship. All I am saying is that we all expected that this group would be better with experience. Hoop- Your argument seems to imply that the WAC is better this year than in past years. I don't see that as true.
Our team is not better that I can tell. I don't get to see games so maybe those who do can see it. It doen't show up in W's or any quality wins. I am not bagging on Tubbs. My point really is that Dement wasn't the devil. I supported Dement until the last year and I will support Tubbs. It ain't X's and O's and we have proven that it ain't youth.
At some point, we have to look at the real problem. Tha is that we can't compete for the outstanding athletes. If you put aside your love for SMU, and think like a 17-18 year old with a lot of basketball options, my guess is that few of you would choose SMU as a place to play ball. Only those few who want to stay in Dallas so Mom and Dad can see every game. If we even had decent support from the students it would be different. Why would a stud want to play in front of no one in mediocre (at best) facilities. We can talk educational value but there are many places with good education offerings whose students and alums support the program. I hope we don't have another "fire the coach" rally in a couple of years becuase it is not the coach and hasn't been since Shumate.

[Hoop Fan]

OP, I don't disagree with anything said there. But the beginning of this debate was the notion that this team was underachieving, ie disappointing us all. I realize Dement faced all those obstacles you mention and thats why I think he deserves a second chance. That aside, I think Tubbs is doing well with what he has to work with overall this year, including injuries. And I think he gives us the best chance to overcome or partially overcome the obstacles you mention. The personality/profile of the head coach is a major issue in a program. The good players who have gone to Temple over the years did not do so because of the great fan support I dont think. I dont think Gonzaga had good fan support when Monson got that thing going. Heck, I even watched a special the other night about how much trouble Coack K had in his first few years at Duke. A coach can make a program with his stature. I don't think many coaches out X and O the competition and have said that over and over in response to Dements critics. We'll see if Jimmy Tubbs has the moxy to turn this program into his own. I think he does but only time will tell.

[OldPony]

Hoop- I AM disappointed. Maybe I am naive but this team is about the best we can hope for under our current circumstances. One and a half top 100 players and a lot of experience in the rest. If this group isn't good enough to win, we are in trouble for a long time. We may look at Simpson, Castro and Isham and say that they aren't top athletes but they look good enough to keep all of the less experienced players we have on the bench and have been for 3 years. Unless you think Tubbs is just playing them because they are seniors, it doesn't look good for next year. The following year, we lose Bhop who, although somewhat of a disappointment from his HS expectations, is still the best player we have.
For Tubbs to really turn this around, he must generate fan support from somewhere so kids will want to play here. He has gone to the students and so did Dement. They have sent the athletes out to ask for support and to get to know the "normal" students. Still no response. We now have students who come to SMU because they don't care about sports. That is the hang over from the DP and our policies since. It may be that we have killed SMU sports. I wish there was a magic bullet but I don't see a turn around.
BTW--I don't remember Duke pre Coach K or Temple pre Chaney but I'll bet their crowds have always been about as good as our best years. Philly certainly likes basketball. Football is king in D.

[Hoop Fan]

Like I've said before, I don't think the problem with this squad is a much individual talent as it is missing pieces. I'm not saying Tubbs is going to bring in a bunch of Top 50 recruits to SMU. I do think he will get a couple blue chippers SMU would not otherwise have gotten in his tenure, but more than anything I think he will put together a team that is better and tougher defensively and on the boards. Also, need one or two pure shooters. I realize that I now sound like a broken record , but those are the weaknesses of this team and have been for 3 years and I'll keep saying it until I am blue in the face. There is hope, Dement got close during the Sasser years. We always seem to be one player or role away. I dont see any reason Tubbs can't put together something a little better than the Sasser teams. It might take a little time but we have to stop taking out years of frustrations on people who are not responsible for the past.

[Stallion]

the "magic bullet" that would have sent SMU to the NCAA Tourney under Dement and could vastly improve Tubbs ability to shore up a seemingly weak frontcourt next year would be to allow SMU to do what TCU, Tulsa, UTEP, Fresno, Hawaii et al have all done to us numerous times in the past. ie administrative commitment to allow our coaches to go out a sign a top flight JUCO to fill in the gap. Instead, SMU is only able to go after a small sliver of JUCOs who generally are not the creme of the JUCO talent. None of those programs above are BCS caliber programs and yet they find a way to get the help they need to win championships or NCAA bids. SMU under Tubbs could find those players in my opinion. Nobody is questioning that SMU will have quality in the backcourt or at small forward next year but that last scholarship needs to go to a quality big man if we have any hope of turning this thing around quickly.

[SoCal_Pony]

OP,

I too am disappointed with this group. And I agree with your assessment that this team is about the best we can hope for under our current circumstances. By SMU standards, Castro and Simpson have had an extraordinary 4-year run. Between them are nearly 1,400 rebounds. They will be missed next year. That was an excellent post.

And HoopFan, I too hope that Jimmy can make us better. But to get where we need to be, he’s got to get us a WHOLE lot better. Don’t know if John Wooden could accomplish that under our current model. We shall see.

On the bright side, playing Tulane, Houston and Memphis next year won’t hurt.

[Charleston Pony]

Nobody with half a brain is going to argue SMU wouldn't be better off if we were more "transfer" friendly and coach Tubbs could go out and recruit the same JUCO players most other schools can...but despite that disadvantage, this year's team could have accomplished a lot more if they had been healthy. Granted, there will always be some injuries to deal with but Tubbs has had to coach this team without at least one starter for most of the season, When everyone has suited up and played, a couple of guys were battling injuries that kept them from performing anywhere near their ability. Let's not forget we lost Rack before the season even started. That really hurt our depth in the low post and with Simpson being hurt most of this year, Rack might have really made a difference.

I'm going to disagree with comments that SMU can't recruit any higher caliber athlete than we have. If coach Tubbs can get one quality guy from Dallas every year, SMU hoops fortunes will improve dramatically. Bringing in Dez Willingham next year is a start. It won't happen overnite, but I see good things happening in the next 2-3 years. l agree we won't be competing for elite players who are inclined to play for the highest bidder, because I don't see us returning to our "pre-death penalty ways", but I do think coach Tubbs will put together a group that will be very competitive in the new CUSA.