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http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spt/columnists/kblackistone/stories/012304dnspoblackistone.9c31.html

He's got some good points we can agree with but time for a change regardless...question is whether it will be after this year or after his contract expires.

1. Facilities
2. Conference
3. Dement doesn't have thugs and criminal activity problems
4. The biggest problem - who would replace him?
5. There are much bigger problems that we have discussed on this board the last couple of years...Admin support & fan support

Either the players go or the coach needs to go. The players have stopped trying. If they won't play hard, won't listen to their coach, what options remain?

What do you guys think of Sean Sutton from OSU?10 yrs under his dad..

http://www.okstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=1464&SPID=145&DB_OEM_ID=200&ATCLID=6635

Maybe his Dad wants to have Sean Sutton inherit the OSU team.

They came and played at SMU when Sean played for his dad, and I remember heckling him from the stands, just because he was the coach's kid. However, I keep reading that he's viewed as one of the really sharp assistant coaches out there, and the perception is that he'll make a fine head coach one day. I'm not advocating the removal of Dement, but if SMU does go in another direction, this wouldn't be a bad guy to consider.

The DMN article relates to what I have said on this board for months now. It is obvious that Dement is not the only problem. SMU athletics as a whole needs reform. It also is obvious that SMU is not willing to take the necessary steps to compete in Division 1-A. A drop to a lower level would be perfect for SMU whether its Division 1-AA or Division 2. We could then focus less on athletics and more on academics. We certainly would not play Division 1-A teams but no one goes to the games anyways. It would be neat to see a win on Saturdays. I forgot what that feels like.

I would think that Sutton would receive some pretty good advice from his Dad that SMU is a coaching graveyard and wait for a better offer. He doesn't have to worry about employment and his chance will come in a visible school like OSU.

Did you all actually read the column? Here's what Blackistone said was needed to fix the program:

"SMU's basketball facilities haven't changed since then, either. Meanwhile, schools big and small have built or are building attractive office and practice buildings for their programs to woo top recruits. TCU is building one. Even Rice has a new practice court.

As travel costs in the WAC have eaten SMU's athletic budget, there is less money for things as critical as recruiting. On top of that, the athletic department has gotten away from tipping the nonconference schedule to the home court, like it did when Dement's teams got off to 10-0 and 11-1 starts. Maybe it would behoove the front office to do so if only someone other than the opposition's following would show up en masse.

What established or up-and-coming coach or hot assistant would want to risk his next move to such a situation?

SMU supporters don't need to do for basketball what they did for football, but they need to pony up something. If you want to be more than fodder in the college athletics game, you have to join its arms race. It's that simple."

I.e., money to rennovate Moody. More money for recruiting -- either through lower travel costs (which the administration just accomplished by the switch to ConfUSA) or more income. Where's that money going to come from? Does the administration just conjure it up out of their [deleted]? Blackistone suggests otherwise: "SMU supporters ... need to pony up something." With the exception of designing a schedule more conducive to better records, Blackistone's solutions are not really in the administration's hands -- they're in ours.

Nothing will change as long as Turner and Copeland stayed tied at the hip... they're like inseperable schoolboys.

I would love to see the planned renovation of Moody start tomorrow, but that is not our problem. LOOSING is our problem. Building a new stadium certainly din't help our football team. The aggies new arena hasn't done didly for their wins and losses. This school needs to make a commitment to spend the necessary money to get coaches in here that can turn it around. We gambled on a assistant coach in football and now we have a nice little loosing streak going. We need someone who has been there and done that and want's to do it here.