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Let me preface this post by saying that I was nowhere near Dallas, Texas or Moody Coliseum on Saturday.

I spent the day covering high school hoops and recruiting at the PrimeTime Shootout in New Jersey.

Yet even there the buzz surrounding the SMU basketball program was palpable.

And that was several hours before Larry Brown’s program stayed undefeated at home with a 76-55 victory over No. 7 Cincinnati, ending the Bearcats’ 15-game winning streak.

The victory marked SMU’s first win over a Top 10 team since 1987.

Seemingly everywhere I went Saturday people were talking about Brown and SMU, who trip to New Jersey Thursday to play Rutgers.

At the PrimeTime Shootout, three separate recruits, including potential future pro Tyus Battle of Gill St. Bernard’s, all mentioned that SMU was involved in their recruitment.

Brown is expected to watch Battle sometime this week when he comes to the Garden State.

And oh by the way, some of the other schools involved for Battle are Duke, Indiana, Syracuse, Villanova, Ohio State and Michigan.

Brown is also recruiting 6-9 2015 Roselle Catholic forward Chris Silva, who will attend the Rutgers game along with his teammate Isaiah Briscoe, and 6-7 2015 St. Anthony forward Markis McDuffie, who had 17 points in a loss to Trenton Catholic Academy.

“Great coach, he knows a lot of people, he has Emmanuel Mudiay coming in so he’s gonna teach him a lot,” Battle said of Brown, the only man ever to win NCAA and NBA championship as a head coach.

Will Brown and SMU get any of these players? Who knows?

But the way the players and coaches around New York and New Jersey speak reverentially about him can only help SMU’s recruiting efforts.

Tbuck12 wrote:This is so strange to say...but even with 7 open scholarships it seems like we may have more 5* and 4* recruits than know what to do with

Tbuck12 wrote:This is so strange to say...but even with 7 open scholarships it seems like we may have more 5* and 4* recruits than know what to do with