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No one is underestimating the talent on this team, however, many of you over estimate Dement's coaching abilities. If you hire for effort, great. If you hire for the full package, we come up 3/4 short. Bball has it on the head and he is correct that Dement berates and derides the players and that when things don't go well he loses it completely. He is a basketball psycho and if you aren't a basketball psycho, you aren't trying. What do you suppose happened in the Rice locker room at 1/2 time? We sucked, the kids knew we sucked. What positive effect do you think that little conference and early AM practice had? 15 point in a half and a pp performance today. That type of "motivation" lasts about October, November, and December for the first two years of your tenure on the team. After that the "are you kidding button" and "here we go again button" gets pushed and it is survival time for the rest of the season. Every man for himself. Look at the records for Pete's sake. Every year except for the first two! For those of you that think that Dement had a great record at Cornell and UNC G and that he performed miracles, get a grip. He took someone elses talent at Cornell and backed into the Ivy championship when another team lost a game they most likely should have won on the last day of the season while Cornell lost it's last game. After that second year (ironic how it was after the second year), tube city! At UNC G, he brought up a D II program to success in a very weak conference and promptly got beat in the league tournament that would have brought an NCAA bid. Not a coincidence.

OP, you say that you would trade talent with 3 or 4 teams in the league. Our team is good, they don't play as a team and as a result they don't accomplish what they are capable of achieving. This has way more to do with Coaching than talent, JUCO's not withstanding Stallion. Gee, if JUCO's were the panacea that you proclaim, there wouldn't be a freshman in the NCAA or at least a program that had them that was successful. Please, call it like it is. Dement can't take the talent he brings in and motivate it enough to achieve. Period.

No YOU are seriously overrating the talent on this team and simply offering uninformed opinions about the opposition. Louiana Tech has much more highly regarded athletes than SMU. Paul Millsap-Parade All-American- 28th rated player in nation by Hoopscoop, 58th by the Insiders and ESPN, 55th by Prep-All Stars; Louisiana Player of the Year-averaged 25.2 ppg; JueMichael Young-signed with LSU out of HS; 44th rated player in Nation by Hoopscoop; 46th rated by Rivals; Corey Dean-Louisiana Player of the Year-3 time All-5A; averaged 27.5 ppg; Allick-signed with Providence rated Top 40 in the nation by Hoopscoop. The team with the best talent AS USUAL won.

<small>[ 01-24-2004, 08:27 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

Stallion,
where do we rank in the WAC in talent level?
TP

I agree with you WAZ. Coaching had A LOT to do with today's results.

LA Tech coach Keith Richard was screaming at his team during every timeout to take the ball inside. SMU seemed happy to just launch 3-point attempts instead of using their superior size advantage down low.

Stallinon, if La Tech has some much talent, then why were we 8 point favorites? You should have made a ton money on today's game. Also, does Rice have 40 points worth of talent above and beyond our talent? Actually, in regards to tonight's game and talent level; you have to factor in that Kris Lowe did not suit up and Simpson had oral surgery on Wed. and was questionable to play. He played but didn't start. The man to man defense that Dement went to in the second half got us back within 4, and we just couldn't get a couple of breaks to turn the tide - maybe Lowe could have provide the extra push to get us over the hump.