Tigers Tamed - Again / cusa-fans.com

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Tigers Tamed – Again
SMU Rallies At Home, Beats Memphis For Second Year In A Row
By Rick Atkinson for cusa-fans.com
http://cusa-fans.com/


SMU gets pumped in its blacklight tunnel before beating Memphis

DALLAS – Perhaps many doubted SMU could do this - beat perennial league power Memphis a second-straight time in Dallas - but not former SMU assistant coach Milton Barnes, who now scouts for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“I knew that Memphis is a young team,” he said. “They’re talented but they’ve got a lot to learn about playing on the major college level. Most of those guys are freshmen and sophomores.”

“Anytime you can beat Memphis, I think it’s a big win for SMU - actually any team in Conference USA, because they’ve dominated the conference for the last five, six, seven years.”

Said SMU coach Matt Doherty, “I think that these guys expect to win and they want to go out as winners. There’s no guarantee we’ll do that. But I think tonight, certainly, we’re headed in the right direction.”

The Mustangs (10-6, 1-1) overcame deficits of 14 points in the first half and 11 points in the second for the 64-58 win.

Senior forward Papa Dia led SMU with 22 points and 10 boards. “We’re just more mature than [Memphis], because they have a bunch of freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “Coach talked about it. … He said these guys are young.”

It looked like anything but a Mustangs win early as Memphis raced to a 7-0 start en route to 13-3 and 28-14 leads. SMU cut it to 32-30 by halftime, only to see the Tigers make an 8-0 run to open the second half.

“I think the biggest thing is [SMU’s] defense picked up,” Barnes said of the Mustangs’ resilience. “And they made a lot of hustle plays that helped get the offense going. When you’re not shooting the ball well, which they weren’t early in the game, they figured out a way to get the ball and get easy buckets off their defense.”

This was Dia’s sixth double-double of the season and 19th of his career. He and guard Jeremiah Samarrippas had three steals each. It was Dia’s layup with four minutes left that tied the game for the first time, 48-48. His jumper and free throw put SMU up for good, 51-48.

Robert Nyakundi and Collin Mangrum each added 15 points and both hit three 3s for the Mustangs. Samarrippas made two big 3s in the first half.

But it was the senior transfer Mangrum, coming off the bench, who provided perhaps the biggest sparks for SMU. Over a one-minute period midway through the first half, Mangrum hit a three, made a steal and another three to cut Memphis’ lead to 19-12.

Then, with 2:20 left in the half, Mangrum was fouled on a lay-up, for a three point play - again cutting the margin to seven. His 3 with two minutes left in the game bulged SMU’s lead to six for the first time.

Mangrum, from Howe, Texas, humbly deflected praise after the game. “We really just want to get [the ball] to these two guys,” he said, pointing to Dia and Nyakundi. “We’re fortunate, really. We didn’t play our best game tonight.”

SMU fraternities were out in force, lending vocal support and leading chants of “S-M-U.” Dia noticed. “Hearing them cheering all the time,” he said, “I don’t want to disappoint them. It helps you play harder. It helps you get energized.”

Said Doherty, “It’s so important to have the student body. They make a difference. They make a huge difference.”

Memphis couldn’t hit a broad side of Graceland from the free-throw line, shooting a miserable 23 percent (3-13), including freshman guard Joe Jackson’s three straight misses late.

Jackson led the Tigers with 15 points

Memphis (12-4, 1-1) committed 18 turnovers, resulting in 28 SMU points. Both teams shot 47 percent from the field. The Tigers out-rebounded SMU, 35-23.

Second-year Memphis coach Josh Pastner told Tiger fans on post-game radio to “bear with us” and called out freshman forward Tarik Black by name for having five turnovers and three others for having three.

“You’ve got to give SMU credit,” Pastner said later to cusa-fans.com. “They deserved to win. We had some opportunities to put them away and we missed some short shots, free throws, [had] turnovers, but you’ve got to give them credit.”

“They’re a tremendous three-point shooting team. That was our number one key on the report: take the three out of the game. … We had some missed assignments again and that’s just part of it. When you do that you have an opportunity to take a loss.”

Obviously under pressure to continue former Tiger coach John Calipari’s “magic” (without the NCAA probation, of course) Pastner was in no mood to discuss whether Memphis fans still view losing to SMU as an unspeakable disaster.

Pastner simply glared and said, “Losing stinks.”

SMU’s new home pre-game ritual, grooving briefly to hip tunes in a black-lit tunnel before entering the court, seems to be a hit.

“It just gets us pumped up, ready to go,” Nyakundi said.

“It’s also fun,” added Dia, “because college basketball is fun. We want to go out there and have fun and at the same time, go out there and win games.”

Doherty calls it “Club Mustang.”

“It feels like ‘Studio 54’ back in New York in the mid-80s,” he laughed.

The beat goes on Saturday, when the Houston Cougars arrive.

Next two for SMU:
*Saturday, Jan. 15, Houston, 2 p.m.
*Wednesday, Jan. 19, @ UAB, 7 p.m.


Matt Doherty


Josh Pastner


Papa Dia versus Memphis