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have had our heads handed to us by a school with stronger academic standards, worse facilities, and narry a JC player in sight, maybe some of those tired old excuses will be minimized and we can focus on getting a coach that can develope whatever meager talent our nasty administration will allow us to get. If the talent doesn't develope during the year and each year, you don't and never will have a good team. This isn't physics, where you may need a degree from Rice to understand the problem. Our guys do not play to their ability through a season and haven't for the last 6 years. When Dement took over he was fresh and the players didn't know what to expect, therefore they responded and they improved. That first group of players left, we brought in some more talented players and those players eventually got fed up with Dement, stopped developing and tuned things out and it has happened ever since. That is why we don't finish seasons improving, but rather declining in our performance. This years implosion occured earlier, but it is no different than any of the last several years, just louder and more ugly because of our earlier success.

My prediction is that if Dement is here next year, Bhop will not be. What is wrong with him? I don't know, but he is clearly not the player that we recruited. It may be totally his fault as to the problems he is having, (physical, mental whatever)but there aren't many 20 year olds that are mature enough to accept the blame and the coach is the next person in line, right or wrong. Other coaches watch this type of stuff closely and the drums are most likely beating in the coaching circles. Bhop would be a fine chance to take for some other school. He has to sit out a year, he can get healthy (if he can and if that is the problem), he can learn the system and push in practice and if he can play to his HS ability, some program will be very happy. And us, we will sit here with Dement, no point guard, no backup point guard, blackballed in DFW recruiting, and listening to Stallion talk about uneven playing fields while we wait for next year.

Life is uneven so get over it and lets find someone that teaches, commands and earns the respect of the players and puts a product on the floor that win or lose you don't have to make excuses for. There aren't 25% of the people on this board that would have the negative opinions that we do if the team looked like they had a clue of how to play basketball most of the time. Talent does win games, but coaching developes the talent.

Nobody ever schemed to devise an Athletic Model to beat Rice on January 20, 2004-rather it is a plan that should be a gameplan for long term success. SMU and Dement has dominated Rice in BB and suffice to say Rice hasn't been to a Bowl Game in 44 years or the NCAA Tourney in 34 years. So much for the Rice Model-which has been spectacularly unsuccessful. The essential issue is not what happened last Nite but what has happened in the last 30 combined FB and BB seasons. Keep your eye on the ball.

Don't forget thats the first time Willis Wilson has beaten Dement in the last 9 games. Its probably time for SMU to make a change and Dement to get a fresh start, but make no mistake Rice was loaded for bear last night to break the streak SMU had over them. 80-40 was insane, but getting ambushed wasn't much of a surprise really. I would have predicted a 20 pt loss before the game. It didn't take much foresight to see that one coming: Rice is good. Rice got pummelled at Tulsa last Saturday. SMU had won 8 straight in the serious, a humiliating streak for Rice. Add it up, they were pissed and we have lost confidence because of two heartbreaking losses to Fresno and Hawaii.

You shouldn't say Rice's model doesn't work. We deserved a bowl bid more two years ago than Tulsa did this year, and our football is as competitive as it can be in this day and age. Perhaps if we had a younger coach, our recruiting would pick up.

In basketball, our program has been about the same as yours over the last 10 years, up and down. This could be the best team we've ever had though, and you saw us at our best last night (and we saw you at your worst).

And in baseball we're the defending national champs.

Bottom line is both schools need to keep stepping it up and make the conference a better conference.

I'm not sure if you are intentionally obtuse or if you really just don't get it. It is not about Rice last night, it is about the fact that we lost a basketball game by 40 points to a team that exemplifies many of the 'uneven playing field' examples that you attribute to what is wrong with our program. Therefore, it is more than just an uneven playing field. Do you have any clue how hard it is to have your score doubled in college basketball? and get beat by 40, yes 4 0 points? 15 Points in the second half, must have been one heck of a half time gathering. A real learning experience I would guess. I am certain that the team will grow and improve from here on out.

There is no doubt that you are correct in your assessment that we do not have some of the same lee way in recruiting as our opponents and that puts us at a disadvantage. Dement has also improved the program. Thank you. I don't feel that he has brought it up to the level that our talent is capable of playing. We are only talking about 2,3,maybe 4 wins per year, but that is what a good coach can bring to the job and that is what gets us to the NIT or perhaps to the Dance on more than a once every 30 year time frame when all of the stars align.


If you feel that coaching matters at all, you have to see that it is not just about all things being equal in recruiting. It is about taking what you have and making it better.