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in hot water, but, Why can't our Bball team get their [deleted] together and keep it that way.

For years, and I mean years, we have had some talent and we/it/team/SMU goes nowhere.

I have seen our team just flat KILL and then get a few points ahead and shut down " we're good, We're cool" Then we're SCREWED.

I ask you.... Where does that come from.

I am not talking about this team or this year. How about two and five years ago... What gives?

2 words

coach and recruiting

I would suggest that #2 would take care of #1. Now- one of you please tell me how we get better recruits. It must be Dement's fault and probably has nothing to do with higher academic standards or lack of any basketball tradition, or the lack of support and attendance at games or lack of good facilities or the fact that few in Dallas care about any Conferences we play in or teams we play except the old SWC teams. Dement should recruit better!!!!

OP. You hit it right on the head this time.

Well said Pony Fan. There is another big issue in that is SMU'S commitment to athletics. Almost every Division 1-A school in Texas has nicer basketball facilities than us. With the exception of Rice, they allow their coaches to recruit from a wider range of players, i.e., JUCOs, partial qualifiers, transfers, etc. SMU is bad for a reason. We are not bad by accident. Dement would have been fired three seasons ago at any other school in Texas other than Rice. Why? Division 1-A means commitment to excellence and not average. SMU is letting the students and alumni down every time they put the men's team on the court. Until SMU makes a real commitment to athletics, Johnny will not be at another game. The end.

Originally posted by OldPony:
I would suggest that #2 would take care of #1. Now- one of you please tell me how we get better recruits. It must be Dement's fault and probably has nothing to do with higher academic standards or lack of any basketball tradition, or the lack of support and attendance at games or lack of good facilities or the fact that few in Dallas care about any Conferences we play in or teams we play except the old SWC teams. Dement should recruit better!!!!

if we keep on this same path we are going to be last in the CUSA too..blame it on whoever you please...doesn't matter...administration is the 1st place to start but Dement needs to be gone ..there is no life in the program.....

All I'm saying is that we will fire the next coach too unless things change. I have agreed that Dement must now go but I still think he is a good coach. The reason that he has to go is because this group isn't going full out all the time although they have played harder the last couple of games. The lack of energy may be because Dement has finally worn down under the pressure to compete without the commitment from the admin to support that level of program. It has nothing to do with the zone or slow down play or Dement's "lack of knowledge" about the game. New life in the program will probably help for a short time. The long term problems are still there though. When Dement gets his new job, he'll be back in town kicking our butts. He won't take another job which ties his hands but there will be a decent job after SMU for him. He will also be back in town getting a few athletes we want. Better get J Tubbs while we have a chance becuase if he AND Dement are recruitng against SMU's new coach, we've got even more problems.

I am not sure why you think Dement is such a great coach. Give him Hawaii's current team or UTEP and I am not sure how well he'd do. He might know the game but that doesn't mean he can coach it. I do completely agree he and the next coach have their hands tied by SMU administration and Athletic dept.

<small>[ 02-09-2004, 12:01 PM: Message edited by: Pony_Fan ]</small>

I look at this team which is small but has some speed (except maybe Castro) and I see no upcourt pressure, and no up-tempo playing. Hopkins wants to take off down court at full tilt and either go hoop or dish off to somebody to dunk. Yet that is not what we do. Set plays are fine if the other team makes their shots, but when they miss, we ought to be running. Simpson, Hopkins, and Isham all would do well in this style. Lowe could adjust, or Pearson could try. Castro would not do as well, but the Center only needs to make the outlet pass, not run it up the court. What I don't know is if he fears that in such an offensive scheme we would be even worse, or that we couldn't run with the Fresno's of the world. In the next game against Rice, he ought to increase the pressure, up the tempo and see what happens, nothing could be worse than the 40 point loss we suffered last time.

He must fear running for whatever reason - back in the SassaFrass days, we would run and gun and steal all day long. What I do see is the lack of ability to run a decent fast break. I have seen many 3 or 4 on 1's and it is not pretty...there is no spreading out or correct cuts. You would think Simpson, Isham, Lowe, and Hopkins could run a break fairly well but I haven't seen it all year.

The center just rebounds? I want no part of your fast break theory. First- Castro gets about 6 rebounds per game so that will create just tons of running, huh? Second- Good running teams have their center running the floor too. We are slow and have little depth. Just because you have 2 athletic guards doesn't mean you can run. Almost every team has 2 athletic guards. I base the opinion that Dement is a good coach on his history prior to coming to SMU. It's funny that the first time he has coached with a recruiting disadvantage vs his competition, that he has a mediocre record. I wonder what he forgot.

Good centers don't normally lead a break, they trail and even though Eric may be "MPH Challenged", he has enough juice to do that and get us into a secondary break. Haven't seen too many, if any, secondary breaks in the last 9 years have you?

A reminder of Dement's stellar coaching history:
67-67 @ Cornell, 65-56@ UNC-G, and 137-127 at SMU. How many coaches do you know with a 259-240 record after 18 years that are considered successful?

The win/loss record speaks loudly to me. 500 or just above.... Nice man, great academic record but after nine years... I think someone above wrote. " What would changing hurt" Time for a different approach.

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