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I would love to give our defense some credit for their poor shooting, but they hurt themselves as well. Our defense was good in the first half and then certainly we took our foot off the pedal in the 2nd.

Given the amount of "on paper talent" you would expect them to be better. Not sure if it chemistry or coaching (probably both) but the AAC needs them to be good so that the conference remains a strong basketball conference.

Both Memphis and UConn have been doing better job a recruiting, per the rankings. Obviously the only thing that matter is what happens on the court.

took a OU team down to the wire earlier in the year. couple of young players that will develop. they will be back. never an easy game at the FedEx forum either

It's really going to suck watching the conference tourney this year. But that being said it's wide open. Every single team with the exceptions of Tulane and USF have proven capable of beating anyone else on a given night. ECU gave us a pretty good game last year in Hartford.

While I'm expecting a UCONN-CINCY final it is by no means probable. It will be a really interesting weekend.

I know I'd want Memphis on my side of the draw.

Like I said in another post that Memphis has the least amount of talent I have seen there in many years. They are so bad that they are hard to watch.

It was interesting and fun watching the pregame warm ups. SMU players were working on their shots (3, ft, mid-range). Memphis had a dunk contest on the other end. Different approaches and focus with way different results.

Crong wrote:It was interesting and fun watching the pregame warm ups. SMU players were working on their shots (3, ft, mid-range). Memphis had a dunk contest on the other end. Different approaches and focus with way different results.

They could have warmed up just like SMU and they still would not have won the game. They just do not have the talent. Outside of Goodwin they really don't have any good players. And SMU did do some dunks in warmups and Memphis also shot some jumpers. Warmups were not the issue.

Rebel10 wrote:

Crong wrote:It was interesting and fun watching the pregame warm ups. SMU players were working on their shots (3, ft, mid-range). Memphis had a dunk contest on the other end. Different approaches and focus with way different results.

They could have warmed up just like SMU and they still would not have won the game. They just do not have the talent. Outside of Goodwin they really don't have any good players. And SMU did do some dunks in warmups and Memphis also shot some jumpers. Warmups were not the issue.

The point is the way the teams prepare is indicative of the programs' management, and there was a difference between the 2 teams

Point is Pastner did not recruit very well. This is the same program management that beat us when they had good players. The problem is the talent level. Like one poster said he is having seconf thought at having Pastner as asst coach of SMU because his recruiting at Memphis has dropped significantly.

No, Pastner has done a helluva job recruiting - it's keeping the talent there and developing it where he has failed miserably.

His very first season in Memphis - and the very first season as a coach - he had the best recruiting class in the country and proceeded to do jack squat with them. Then, as a blogger correctly pointed out:

"The real story of the Memphis program is all the dogs that aren't barking this season. Pastner had one of the best recruiting classes in the country in 2013 and they should be juniors who are the heart of the team. He brought in five Top 100 guys and here's what happened to them:

- Austin Nichols (transferred to Virginia)
- Kuran Iverson (transferred to Rhode Island)
- Nick King (transferred to Alabama)
- Dominic Woodson (transferred to Tennessee)
- RaShawn Powell (transferred to LaSalle)"

He also pointed out the cases of Will Barton, Adonis Thomas and Tariq Black who should have been major NBA talents but managed to slip through the cracks due to Pastner's 'coaching.'

http://patternofbasketball.blogspot.com ... igers.html

The ONE thing Pastner has done well is recruit. I would recommend him to SMU in a heartbeat for his ability to bring in talent, and he would do well to learn under a coach who actually knows how to coach.