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I admit to not being much of a Basketball fan, but follow the wins/losses and some stats. My question is: Is Coach Do's recruiting class a lot better than those of Tubbs or Dement's? If so, how much better and should I prepare to see us be a CUSA title contender in the near future? Thanks for your opinions.

I don't even think Tubbs or Dement's classes are in the same LEAGUE as coach Doherty's

Ponymon wrote:I don't even think Tubbs or Dement's classes are in the same LEAGUE as coach Doherty's

Can't wait to hear what "angryfan" has to say about that.

Ponymon wrote:I don't even think Tubbs or Dement's classes are in the same LEAGUE as coach Doherty's

That's really saying a lot with Dement's Sasser, Davis, Elsey class. But it's clearly true on paper.

My observations from this recruiting class:

- For starters, it is difficult to make a direct comparison of this class to others because of this class's size.

- A bunch of players in this class had a lot of offers/interest from very good schools. Someone with Rivals access might be able to post actual offers we beat out for these kids. I admitedly didn't start following SMU recruiting closely until probably the Simpson, Castro, Isham class, but to me this class blows away any class we have had since before that one.

- The national recruiting scope shown in this class is much broader than it was in the Dement/Tubbs era's but we did not land any DISD bluechippers as we have in the past. I am not too concerned with this because as our program starts to improve, mining DISD talent should only get easier for us. The success we showed on a national scope is very encouraging.

- This class has tremendous size. 7ft, 6'9, 6'8, 6'8 for the front court players and 6'6, 6'4, 6'0 for the guards.

- Based on a rankings standpoint 6 of the 7 players were rated 3 stars by rivals and the one that wasn't started a good portion of the year for a prep team with 10 D-1 basketball players on it. Pretty impressive.

Who in this class is better than Sasser, Elsey, or Davis? I hope four years from now that one of these guys scores 1900+ points like Sasser and 1600+ points like Davis. You had better wait a while before you make a comment that the prior coaching staff's classes were not in this class' league. This is based on what? Rivals?? Have you seen any of these guys play? Maybe if we would have signed John Roberson, D'wayln Roberts, a highly rated national recruit, or someone of that caliber could you say that. Keep in mind that Tubbs had a commitment from Alex Malone who is probably the best player in this group. Dement recruited two NBA players while at SMU...not one of those in this class. Frankly, I don't see much difference at all in this class and other classes in the past 12-15 years.

Ponymon wrote:I don't even think Tubbs or Dement's classes are in the same LEAGUE as coach Doherty's

Tap the brakes there a little bit, Ponymon...............

goponies1 wrote:.... Have you seen any of these guys play? .... Alex Malone who is probably the best player in this group. Dement recruited two NBA players while at SMU...not one of those in this class....

Good points, but how many have you seen play?

What makes you say Malone is the best in the class? He might be (I sure haven't seen any of them play), but how he stacks up against Papa Dia, for example, I have no idea.

How can you say there are no NBA players in this class? Sasser made it, albeit briefly, after talking about it for a few years. Ross never talked about it and really made it. Hopkins talked about it for four years and hasn't made it, at least not yet (who knows). How can you say there are no NBA players in this class?

goponies1 wrote:Who in this class is better than Sasser, Elsey, or Davis? I hope four years from now that one of these guys scores 1900+ points like Sasser and 1600+ points like Davis. You had better wait a while before you make a comment that the prior coaching staff's classes were not in this class' league. This is based on what? Rivals??

I hear you. But like I said, on paper. Personally, I will take six three star players all day long over the Sasser, Davis, Elsey group. Really what we're talking about is Jeryl and Willie (since Elsey skipped out) -- two players I loved but whose style of streetball play wasn't conducive to the type of team basketball required to get you to the next level. On paper, I'll take this class. And I'll take this coach over Dement.

goponies1 wrote:Who in this class is better than Sasser, Elsey, or Davis? I hope four years from now that one of these guys scores 1900+ points like Sasser and 1600+ points like Davis. You had better wait a while before you make a comment that the prior coaching staff's classes were not in this class' league. This is based on what? Rivals?? Have you seen any of these guys play? Maybe if we would have signed John Roberson, D'wayln Roberts, a highly rated national recruit, or someone of that caliber could you say that. Keep in mind that Tubbs had a commitment from Alex Malone who is probably the best player in this group. Dement recruited two NBA players while at SMU...not one of those in this class. Frankly, I don't see much difference at all in this class and other classes in the past 12-15 years.

I have a couple comments with the points you made here.

- Being that these guys have yet to suit up I don't think its apples to apples to compare them to what players eventually went on to do in their SMU career. 4 years from now you can certainly do that but at this time the only fair comparison is how highly coveted players from past classes were coming out of highschool as opposed to this one.

- I agree with you in that I seriously doubt anyone from this class leaves SMU as the schools all-time leading scorer like Sasser did. Thats a remarkable accomplishment and one that does not happen all that frequently, obviously. Question for the stat/trivia guys? Didn't Sasser nearly have 2,000 points? I thought I remembered him coming just a point or 2 shy of that mark.

- I disagree that this class is like any class in the last 12-15 years at SMU. This class, granted before they have suited up for the Mustangs, would have to be considerd much better than the '01 class and anything since. That also coincides with a real dropoff in SMU basketball going from at least an NCAA/NIT hopefull to an absolute also ran. I think most would have to consider this our best class in the past 7 years.

ponyboy wrote:I hear you. But like I said, on paper. Personally, I will take six three star players all day long over the Sasser, Davis, Elsey group.

Gotta disagree here. 7 players is not your typical class and it really skews the comparison. Give Doherty Sasser/Davis (forget sellout Elsey) and we would come through on that NCAA promise those teams had.

The approximate rankings in Texas for DeMent's best class was No. 2 Jerryl Sasser, in the No. 6-8 range Willie Davis, No. 10-15 Chad Elsey, No. 18-21 range Michael Niemi and was it Forinash in the 18-20 range. Now arguably there is more talent in Texas now but I'd say ratings wise Dement's class was at least comparable and probably superior. Both Sasser and Davis could light it up-and led their teams to the State Championship Game. Weren't both tournament POY in 5A and 4A? They were ready to step in immediately-I'd be surprised if a lot of the 2007 Class is really polished enough to help much next year except out of necessity. Rivals 3 stars in BB are a dime a dozen and is not a sure sign of future success. Too bad SMU didn't give Dement a chance with full administration support-as the last 3 years have shown he was not near as bad as the unenlightened think. He is the only coach in SMU post DP History including a combined 32 years to put a natiionally competitive program on the field or court.

Only Time will tell!!! I believe with the number of recruits we have coming in, there is a possiblity that we'll find those who will be able to contribute early. Dia, Sharp, and Malone may be more developed than the others...just from what I have read. Character of these boys may be better also. Elsey didn't hang around long enough. Davis had to be near the basket and for a guy not in the 6'8" range, made it difficult in many situations. Sasser was potentially a good talent but never reached the potential that was expected. All I know is...I will be renewing my season tickets and will be there to watch the team grow and develope. I am excited to say the least!!!

How do we compare Texas ranking to the rankings of non-Texas players?

So we should have kept both Dement and Cavan, because their records weren't their fault? I hate to see the state of our programs if we had followed that advise. Dement had plenty of time to get the program going and didn't get it done. 1 NIT in 9 years or something like that.

We'll know early on whether these guys will be ready to contribute since they will be getting plenty of playing time next year.

after stallions report, not so sure if i should renew my tickets. everything sux at smu right? doom gloom, doom gloom blah blah model blah etc