Thoughts from Houston Game

[MustangIcon]

Went to the game last night and wanted to share some of my thoughts.

1. Derrick Williams was electric. One of the most dominant performances I have seen by an SMU player in my years following the program. He got to the bucket at will and really seized his opportunity to be the primary ballhandler for an entire game with McCoy out.

2. This goes hand in hand with Williams' performance. Doherty really loosened the reigns in this one. While the players have had more freedom, played more loosely, and shown increased results over the past few weeks, it has never been more evident than last night. Doherty gave the guys freedom to go out and play ball. This bodes well for the team going forward.

3. UH was LIGHTS OUT from the outside. If you actually watched this game, you would know that UH did not have many uncontested looks. The defense was actually surprisingly good in my opinion and UH just wasn't missing. This is a team that has the #3 and 4 scorers in the league and leads the conference in ppg. They were hot and we couldn't do anything to stop them, but the effort and for the most part the execution was there.

4. 15 turnovers from SMU last night. Right at our average but actually a pretty good showing bc UH leads the conference in steals per game. It was our Senagal 3 that really turned it over a bunch. Over half the teams turnovers, including 3 from Dia in only 8 minutes of play. For Williams to only have 4 TOs considering the amount he played and that he is our only ballhandler was really a good game in that regard.

5. Justin Haynes. Great game for the kid. Played really very well and the only thing I can fault him for is missing both free throw attempts.

6. We had some lapses in our transition defense. Yes UH runs and pushes the ball hard but that is no excuse. Transition defense is imperative to winning games, especially against an uptempo team like UH.

7. Doherty went nuts on a noncall late in the game. Williams gets pushed out of boundes as he is streaking down the sideline. No call, out of bounds ball to UH. Doherty loses it, gets T'ed up. I really thought he may get himself tossed.

8. Mike Walker must improve his ball handling. He has a PG's body and his role is to be the first ballhandler off the bench, but as it stands now, Williams and McCoy are the only two on the team you can trust to handle the rock.

9. Faye is too talented to only hoist jumpers. I like his outside shot as a complement to the rest of his game. Not as being his game exclusively.

10. Dia needs to step up next year and be a pressence downlow. If he isn't (unless we find someone else who is) our potential will really be limited next year.

[Charleston Pony]

while we contested a lot of Houston's shots, I saw too many shots where their guy had a 2 step cushion. I will admit that at least the effort was there.

Williams did look pretty good at the point, but took on too much of the scoring burden - in part because they weren't stopping him, but I also want to see a PG getting others involved in the scoring.

Williams finishes the regular season with the best assist:turnover ratio on the team at 1.3:1 (100 vs 75). McCoy, Walker and Harp all had more assists than turnovers but basically our guards are 1:1 I'd sure like to have a PG with a 3:1 ratio

[Charleston Pony]

Oh...and I agree we need a banger at the 4 spot next year. I had hopes when he signed that Dia might become that guy, but he has looked pretty soft in the games I've seen. Faye and Nyakundi like to play away from the basket, although Faye had a stretch this year where he was doing a nice job on the boards.

[bagice]

Nice recap...for those that didn't see the game, Houston launching those long ones that somehow went in was amazing and SMU's defense was really good, especially the half court defense.

[George S. Patton]

Ok, so the cougars shooting 59 percent was pretty good defense. I stand corrected.

[bagice]

Ok, so the cougars shooting 59 percent was pretty good defense. I stand corrected.

I sense sarcasm!

Well, I counted at least 4 possessions where the shot clock was winding down and the PG for Houston had to launch a three, most of the time behind the NBA arc, and there was a hand in his face, and it went in.....

Was good defense, but they fell. And coleman was doing his 12 foot tear drop shots under heavy defense, they didn't fall in the first half, but every one did in the second half.

You can play good defense and still give up a 59% if a team is hot/lucky.

[bagice]

There are many things you can criticize SMU for, the turnovers and scoring draughts being at the top of the list, but I don't get calling this a "horrible" defensive team. I think it has been one of our best in years.

We are number 4 in C-USA in both field goal percentage defense and rebounding margin, and our overall scoring defense numbers would be way up there if we didn't give up so many easy baskets off of our numerous TOs. When we can play half court defense, this team is pretty good.

We have held multiple teams this year to one of their lowest scoring games of the season.

[Hoop Fan]

are you telling me we played well on both ends of the floor and still got whipped like that? I think I would prefer to think we didn't play well. At least there's upside in thinking that. I don't know. where from here? somebody described Faye as a one dimensional jumpshooter. Same with Nyakundi. McCoy and Williams are small obviously. So are we hoping for what would seem to be a miracle turnaround from Papa just for the chance of a minor inside presence and a mediocre season next year? Ugh. Its not that these guys can't improve. They can. The problem that really strikes me is this is an ill conceived lineup and team. No dependable inside scoring, no bangers/glass eaters, no slashers. Now, we won't even have a shot blocking presence either. Might miss bamba more than we should and think we will.

[bagice]

Well, the game was much closer than the final score, we stayed right around 4-6 points down until the last 10 minutes or so, when Houston got incredibly hot. We were playing Houston in Houston, btw, not sure if anyone realized that, a team that just finished playing Memphis tough at home, a team we have not even been able to stay in the gym with the last four years. I think we played pretty well at both ends of the court, and yes, still lost.

Houston was the home team, is very upperclassman heavy, and we are very young team still coming together but, I think, improving...

[MustangIcon]

are you telling me we played well on both ends of the floor and still got whipped like that? I think I would prefer to think we didn't play well. At least there's upside in thinking that. I don't know. where from here? somebody described Faye as a one dimensional jumpshooter. Same with Nyakundi. McCoy and Williams are small obviously. So are we hoping for what would seem to be a miracle turnaround from Papa just for the chance of a minor inside presence and a mediocre season next year? Ugh. Its not that these guys can't improve. They can. The problem that really strikes me is this is an ill conceived lineup and team. No dependable inside scoring, no bangers/glass eaters, no slashers. Now, we won't even have a shot blocking presence either. Might miss bamba more than we should and think we will.

you raise some interesting points, some of which i would like to reply to.

* our guards played very well on the offensive side of the ball but our bigs actually quite poorly. williams and haynes combined for 16 of 23 from the floor. walker and harp combined for 3 of 3 from the floor. 19 of 26 is quite a good offensive game from our guards. however, as well as our backcourt shot, our front court went 8 for 24. that is unacceptable for bigs, even if nayakundi and faye put up a lot of perimeter shots. bamba 1 for 5, faye 3 for 11- that wont get it done against a better team on the road. also 10 TOs combined from faye, bamba, otis and dia. compare that to only 5 for the rest of the team against houston, who creates the most turnovers in our conference. so no it wasn't perfect on offense and yes there was plenty of room for improvement there, by the front court especially.

*the defense really was much, much better than looking at a boxscore would indicate. our perimeter defense was actually better than it was against tulsa on saturday, yet we gave up 15 more points and UH shot nearly 60 percent from 3 and the field (compared to 40% and 35% for Tulsa).

* i don't at all think faye is a one dimensional jumpshooter. however i do think he falls in love with his jumper too much. he has ability to take the ball to the rack and should be able to be productive in the post. what i don't like seeing is him neglecting those abilities and limiting his game to too much jumpshooting. nayakundi really is a nice outside shooter but will also be able to take advantage of smaller opponents by taking them in the post.

* we need a post pressence next season. maybe that is dia. maybe that is faye now that bamba is gone. maybe that is a juco guy we are bringing in. i dont think it will be otis bc he just isn't polished enough on offense. but bottom line is, we need a guy we can drop the ball into the post too. dia was that guy his frosh year. 10 and 7 is a nice line for a freshman. we need someone next season to step up and provide that 10 and 7 from the post. we obviously also need to continue to clean the glass. no idea whether TK is a contributor next year or not and what i have seen from malone shows me that if he is, it wont be ib a tough post pressence sort of way.

* the above bullet does point to poor roster planning. if doherty does not bring in an immediate big man contributor and dia plays next season like he did this, we will waste what otherwise could be a very good year.

* UH is a 19 game winner this year. we were without our best player. we played the best game we have against them maybe since we have been in CUSA, and certainly in the past couple seasons. i don't likr losing, but this is the first time in the past 3 years i could walk out of hofienz wearing my SMU gear being proud of the team's performance. amazing for a 12 point loss i know. thats how badly we have played them in the past.

* this team is significantly better than it was at the beginning of the year. its not even close in my eyes. with everyone returning, except for bamba (a consistent 9/7/2 that will be hard to replace, but also 2.5 TOs per game), i expect that at very minimum we double our CUSA win total and at least finish .500 next season.

[Wilshire Heights Pony]

SMU always plays tough for the first 30 minutes of the game and then proceeds to fold in the final 10 minutes. Doh needs to convince these guys that they can play with anybody for 40 minutes not 30.

With McCoy back on Wednesday, any thoughts if we can win that game?

[George S. Patton]

SMU always plays tough for the first 30 minutes of the game and then proceeds to fold in the final 10 minutes. Doh needs to convince these guys that they can play with anybody for 40 minutes not 30.

With McCoy back on Wednesday, any thoughts if we can win that game?

Our athleticism -- or lack thereof -- really creates problems with the Cougars. I can't remember a game where final score was within 10 points.

[MustangIcon]

Our athleticism -- or lack thereof -- really creates problems with the Cougars. I can't remember a game where final score was within 10 points.

Absolutely true. This year though, we are more athletic than we have been in quite some time. SMU can go to man against UH for periods of the game without completely falling apart.

It is tough for any team to will 3 games in one season against an opponent. UH is clearly a better team than we are but that doesn't mean we can't steal one from them in the CUSA tourney. I'll keep my fingers crossed and will be thrilled if we pull off a win but I wouldn't put my money on SMU to win.

[bagice]

Our athleticism -- or lack thereof -- really creates problems with the Cougars. I can't remember a game where final score was within 10 points.

Absolutely true. This year though, we are more athletic than we have been in quite some time. SMU can go to man against UH for periods of the game without completely falling apart.

It is tough for any team to will 3 games in one season against an opponent. UH is clearly a better team than we are but that doesn't mean we can't steal one from them in the CUSA tourney. I'll keep my fingers crossed and will be thrilled if we pull off a win but I wouldn't put my money on SMU to win.

That is how I feel, Yes Houston is a better team than we are, but we have stayed with them twice this year. The first game at home, we had the lead with 11 minutes to go and then hit our 7 minute scoreless draught, at Houston, we hung around despite Houston being unconsious in their shooting skill/luck. We play again like we did Saturday, penetrate into the lane for easy shots or kick out open threes, I like our chances on a neutral court. Not saying we will win, but I expect us to be right there at the end and hope we can pull it out. This team needs something good to happen as a reward for really improving these last 3 or 4 weeks.

Houston's gaurds don't like to play defense, they like to go for steals, if they miss the steal, they just stay outta of the paint and hope the big men can stop them.

Williams was so great at this on Saturday, he would avoid the pressure beyond the 3 point line, split the defenders and get right to the basket.

[George S. Patton]

Bagice, they need a mentality that knows how to close out games. They don't have that. They survived So. Miss and good for them, but clanking the 2 FTs did not have a killer instinct.

Until they get that and a legit low post presence, this imbalanced, mentally weak team (again, they are not a great defensive team because they don't make the stops at the end like the need to in order to close out wins), is going to suffer.

Houston 79, SMU 62. That's about as good as it will get.