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Granted any and all wins we get this season (there have only been 8 thus far) are big for the team from a success/confidence standpoint, but this one even had a little meaning in the standings too. Beating Rice Saturday means it would take a pretty unlikely finish to the conference season for them to climb out of last place. We are also now tied with ECU, who we play still, at 2-6 in conference.

The CUSA Tourney awards first round byes to the top 4 seeds (Memphis, UH, UAB all being locks) with the remaining teams playing in round 1. If we were to finish ahead of Rice and ECU, it would mean we finish 10th in CUSA and would face the 7th place team in the first round. While I have seen us play some awful basketball this season, I have also seen us play well at times and a game against the 7th place CUSA team at a neutral site is one we can win. It would be huge in the confidence/experience department for our guys (especially the 4 freshman in our 7 man rotation) to win a first round tourney game heading into next season.

Long story short, this was a big win for SMU considering the impact, even if rather small, it might have on our season.

Does it really matter? come on.

the season was over when we lost at home to south carolina upstate

Sure it does. When you are an athlete you never stop competing. While this season as a whole will be considerd a bad one, there is no reason to not have goals for the remainder of the year. We graduate only 2 players from our 7 man rotation and only 3 players from the whole roster. Everything we do this year builds towards next season.

This is a young team. It ought to be building toward the Conference Tourney. Doh's young UNC team made a run in the ACC tourney after a dismal regular season. I'd love to see them make a run in the conference tournament to the semi-finals.

I'd love to see a win (or more!) in Mempho. It would make being there bearable.

It was a big win for us & every game is very important in the develop of this teams young players.

A couple of more observations.

I would sit Ritter down until his hand gets better. He is so limited to what he can do.

The best ballhandler on the team is Harp. I would run the offensive through him. I know he considers himself a shooting guard but I have been impressed with his ability to drive to the hole, using either hand & making some very nice passes. I like how he goes to the hole with a purpose. Its been nice to see how his confidence has grown throughout the year.

every win is important when a majority of your team is freshmen.

Something I hadn't noticed until just now from the game on Saturday. SMU 22-23 from the free throw line? Wow. Must be a misprint.

The idea is to win as much as possible. There are still some things out there:

1. A chance to have a winning records against CUSA opponents at home.
2. A chance to sweep Rice
3. A chance to surpass last year's CUSA win total.
4. A chance to play better as a unit and have some success.
5. A chance to win a game in the CUSA tournament.
6. A chance to get to .500.
7. A chance to have 8 consecutive crowds of 3,000 or more at Moody. We haven't seen that in some time.

These are goals that we should pursue. Probably won't win them all. I don't know about you, I want them to win. When they won Saturday, I had a little more spring in my step.

Beat Marshall!!

I would love to see us go @ least .500 with the remaining 8 games.
That would give us 6 conference wins for the year & give the youngsters some confidence going into next years season.

I am really anxious to see how we do in the 2nd half of conference play.
This team is at the point were we should start to see a competitive brand of basketball every game.

Pony_Fan wrote:Does it really matter? come on.

Maybe not to you, but it does to a lot of us and especially to the players.

The win is great, I'm saying in the overall scheme of things (the CUSA tourney), not a huge deal.

papawasamustang wrote:I would love to see us go @ least .500 with the remaining 8 games.
That would give us 6 conference wins for the year & give the youngsters some confidence going into next years season.

I am really anxious to see how we do in the 2nd half of conference play.
This team is at the point were we should start to see a competitive brand of basketball every game.

Would be a very, very nice accomplishment when you consider that games vs Memphis and UH are pretty much slam dunk losses. That means 4-2 in the remainder of our games....

So how does the basketball schedule work? Or, asked differently...

Why are we one of the "lucky" ones to play Memphis twice this season and last season?

I know how the football schedule works with the teams from the East side of CUSA, but wasn't sure how it worked in b'ball.