Game thoughts

[MustangIcon]

Unfortunately, I witnessed this one in person. Keeping my post here limited bc I am so upset by the performance last night.

1. We are a vastly superior team than Rice in terms of athleticism and height. It sure didn't show or make a difference last night.

2. I'm not sure we could shoot worse as a team if we tried. We simply could not knock down open jumpers. Nayakundi is really the only player on our team you could call a true outside shooter. Faye's stroke looks good (albeit off last night) but he's not a true "shooter". We could use a couple guys that can knock it down from the outside on nights like last night.

3. Loved to see us come out in a 1-2-1-1 full court press, then was completely underwhelmed by our execution of it.

4. Defense: We made it far too easy for Rice to get the ball into the paint tonight. Quite a few of Rice's 3's and long jumpers were contested well by our man-to-man defenders. They just had shooters that knocked them down. I can't gripe there. However, we don't do a good job of moving our feet to keep our man away from the basket. Ryan Harp is still, by far, the best on ball defender despite not being the best athlete.

5. Rice's jumbotron and the way they utilize it is so, so, so much better than ours. It is absurd. Something you would actually watch and a high quality.

Overall, wow. Just poor.

[George S. Patton]

So nothing has changed from Thanksgiving. From the little watching I have done, save TCU and the second half last night and what I read, it's like the movie Groundhog Day.

[MustangIcon]

Thing is there are some players on this team.

McCoy and Williams were on another level compared to Rice's guards. Williams really got to the basket at will anytime he wanted to. McCoy was just very out of sync but when he decided to take it to the hole, he did and they couldn't stop him.

Faye just couldn't hit anything last night, but anyone who has seen a couple of games can tell you he is the real deal.

Papa Dia actually played pretty well last night. To me, he was the most aggresive of all of our bigs and really provided a Frank Otis like energy.

Otis had a couple of nice finishes around the basket last night after very intelligent cuts. The one thing I wonder in the couple games I have seen him play is how he doesn't pull down more boards. He seems to have great hoops instincts and it isn't that he is that much shorter than his opponents.

[friarwolf]

McCoy just looks like he has lost all confidence with his shot. I hope he gets it back, soon.........

[LA_Mustang]

2. I'm not sure we could shoot worse as a team if we tried. We simply could not knock down open jumpers. Nayakundi is really the only player on our team you could call a true outside shooter. Faye's stroke looks good (albeit off last night) but he's not a true "shooter". We could use a couple guys that can knock it down from the outside on nights like last night.

For several years I've complained about our lack of a true scorer/shooter on this team. Unless you're a ridiculously good defensive team you can't win at any level without at least one true scorer. It amazes me that Doherty brought in a class of 7 kids (2007) and not one of them is a legit college level scorer - absolutely unacceptable

[MustangIcon]

I'm just talking about shooters, not even talking about scorer. Nayakundi is the only guy on the team that is a pure shooter. Harp was supposed to be. Rack discussed in another post that when Harp got to campus he shot exceptionally well but the staff changed his form and has since lost all confidence/ability to shoot. That is very disappointing.

Of course a true scorer would be GREAT for us to have. But as you may have noticed, we don't have many polished, college-ready scorers clammoring to be a Mustang these days.

[FriscoPMG]

I'm just talking about shooters, not even talking about scorer. Nayakundi is the only guy on the team that is a pure shooter. Harp was supposed to be. Rack discussed in another post that when Harp got to campus he shot exceptionally well but the staff changed his form and has since lost all confidence/ability to shoot. That is very disappointing.

Of course a true scorer would be GREAT for us to have. But as you may have noticed, we don't have many polished, college-ready scorers clammoring to be a Mustang these days.

Completely agree that it's not just a lack of scorers, but a lack of shooters, which is really sad. How many times do we watch opponents come into Moody and knock down wide open shots? Even the "bad" teams we play knock down their open shots -- that's supposed to be a pretty common sight for any college basketball team, but it's not for SMU.

And I also attribute this to coaching. There are zero set plays that free up our shooter(s), so rarely does Rob or Walker or anyone else get a wide open look to knock down.

[abezontar]

Is anything not wrong with this program?

[CA Mustang]

I was at the game as well and agree with MI's comments. You could tell SMU had much better athletes, but lacked the ability to execute consistently. It may sound like piling on, but you have to wonder about the coaching this team receives.

Rice definitely shot better, but SMU didn't seem to recognize which shooters they needed to defend. (Either they lacked a scouting report or they didn't follow it.) On offense, the silly turnovers killed whatever chance they had of winning the game. Haven't the coaches told Fall when he catches the ball in the post to turn and shoot rather than dribbling (and loosing) the ball? If I can see all that from the stands, what are opposing coaches seeing?

Is anything not wrong with this program?

The practice facility is great!

[The PonyGrad]

I do not think it is shooters or shooting. The team is streaky. We went in the CUSA's best 3 pt % shooters and then could not hit a thing. We hit some of those at the start of the game and the rest of the offense opens up.

Didn't happen.

Maybe next time.

[FriscoPMG]

I do not think it is shooters or shooting. The team is streaky. We went in the CUSA's best 3 pt % shooters and then could not hit a thing. We hit some of those at the start of the game and the rest of the offense opens up.

Didn't happen.

Maybe next time.

If that stat about going into the game leading the conference in 3 pt % is true, then it took a lump last night. We rank 6th in the conference in that stat and only Southern Miss has made fewer 3's.

Our 34% 3 pt shooting isn't necessarily bad, but again, we're 2nd to last in the conference in ATTEMPTS. Like I've said in previous posts, I attribute this to a very poor offensive scheme. Just count the number of open looks for the opponents and compare to the amount of open looks that SMU is getting, and that's your big discrepancy...

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/c-usa/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/cumulative-stats.pdf[/quote]

[papawasamustang]

I didn't get to watch the game live last night so I just finished watching it tonight.

First, that was one of the worst performances I have ever seen from an SMU basketball team or any college team. Really. I don't think there is a team in the country that we could have beat tonight. Really.

Second, I have never seen a team shoot that poorly & just keep jackin it up over & over again making very little attempt @ pounding the ball inside. Looked like there was no adjustment @ all from Doh during the game. Even the announcers(Doh's buddies) keep talking about going inside, taking it to the hole, over & over again.

The team played with no emotion or energy. They did not look prepared.
Just going through the motions. The team, both players & coaches appear to have a very low basketball IQ re: actual game type situations.

I think Doh may have lost his team & when that happens its over. Hope that's not the case.

What can be done to change things around? Doh needs to let the players have fun, relax & back off. Have all types of contests during practice.
Forget a set lineup & let them scrimmage it out one day & let the winning team start the game. Our coach did this one time & it worked great.
Do these kids look like they are having fun? They look tense to me.

For road games, don't have shoot arounds, change the routine totally.
Go to a movie or something. Whatever u are doing now, change it & don't do it anymore.

In closing, get rid of the red road uniforms & go back to blue.

[MustangIcon]

I didn't get to watch the game live last night so I just finished watching it tonight.

First, that was one of the worst performances I have ever seen from an SMU basketball team or any college team. Really. I don't think there is a team in the country that we could have beat tonight. Really.

Second, I have never seen a team shoot that poorly & just keep jackin it up over & over again making very little attempt @ pounding the ball inside. Looked like there was no adjustment @ all from Doh during the game. Even the announcers(Doh's buddies) keep talking about going inside, taking it to the hole, over & over again.

The team played with no emotion or energy. They did not look prepared.
Just going through the motions. The team, both players & coaches appear to have a very low basketball IQ re: actual game type situations.

I think Doh may have lost his team & when that happens its over. Hope that's not the case.

What can be done to change things around? Doh needs to let the players have fun, relax & back off. Have all types of contests during practice.
Forget a set lineup & let them scrimmage it out one day & let the winning team start the game. Our coach did this one time & it worked great.
Do these kids look like they are having fun? They look tense to me.

For road games, don't have shoot arounds, change the routine totally.
Go to a movie or something. Whatever u are doing now, change it & don't do it anymore.

In closing, get rid of the red road uniforms & go back to blue.

I don't think he has lost the team actually. Reason being is that they were coming off a pretty good strecth. Dominated A&M CC. Beat Colorado. Played a tough game against a very good UTEP which they must have come away from thinking they can hang with just about anybody in CUSA. Can't imagine that after that they would just give up on their coach. If anything, I would have expected a lot of energy coming out against Rice as the players would have to think it was a great chance to pickup the first conference win and on the road no less.

I would be interested to hear more about what the commentators had to say. Its rare SMU is televised nationally and being that I was at the game I didn't get to hear any of their thoughts. Any more detail to share? Thanks!