DMN: How could June Jones leave behind this mess at SMU?

[SoCal_Pony]

Yes he was, but that should have been part of the due diligence as well. I think he was the most natural choice to replace JJ at Hawaii.

Didn't JJ even give him a strong endorsement, so to say he is your Texas recruiting plan is already flawed.

[Rebel10]

I think Hundley and Reinbold were they only ones that had Texas connections since McMackin did not follow..

[Charleston Pony]

I seem to recall that Bo Levi and Chris Banjo were Texas kids headed to Hawaii before JJ took this job. There was at least some Texas connection on JJ's Hawaii staff

[PonyKris89]

Some of you that complain about Cowlishaw not coming out sooner and slamming June, please give him a break.
He is not an SMU beat writer, although I believe he covered SMU basketball during our excellent 80's run. He is the only guy I can listen to on Espn dallas radio.

And I have always found him to be well informed and very sympathetic and supportive of SMU athletics when he talks SMU on radio, which he does often.

Thank you Tim for laying it at JJ's feet.

[PonySnob]

Some of you that complain about Cowlishaw not coming out sooner and slamming June, please give him a break.
He is not an SMU beat writer, although I believe he covered SMU basketball during our excellent 80's run. He is the only guy I can listen to on Espn dallas radio.

And I have always found him to be well informed and very sympathetic and supportive of SMU athletics when he talks SMU on radio, which he does often.

Thank you Tim for laying it at JJ's feet.

Tim should have written the article after one of the first two debacles this season.

[PonyKris89]

Sure, but I bet he had better things to do.

[EastStang]

JJ had some Texas connections as well. But clearly, he did not want to be bothered going to living rooms in Kady, Odessa, Dimebox and the like. He had some good Texas recruiters early on and the spent his time on transfers and hoped that the rest of his crew figured it out. That said, Bennett did not do a great job recruiting Texas either despite his perfect resume to do so. If we are going to recruit Texas and we should, we need someone with credibility at the top in recruiting in Texas. But now we're behind the P5 eightball and who knows what that will do to us. I heard the words during the broadcasts, we have a chance to be one of the better mid-majors. Given that we're the same size as Baylor, TCU, the U, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, USC, Northwestern and Notre Dame, those words ring very hollow to me.

[floridianstang]

JJ had some Texas connections as well. But clearly, he did not want to be bothered going to living rooms in Kady, Odessa, Dimebox and the like. He had some good Texas recruiters early on and the spent his time on transfers and hoped that the rest of his crew figured it out. That said, Bennett did not do a great job recruiting Texas either despite his perfect resume to do so. If we are going to recruit Texas and we should, we need someone with credibility at the top in recruiting in Texas. But now we're behind the P5 eightball and who knows what that will do to us. I heard the words during the broadcasts, we have a chance to be one of the better mid-majors. Given that we're the same size as Baylor, TCU, the U, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, USC, Northwestern and Notre Dame, those words ring very hollow to me.

Don't let what they say get to you. We were a crappy basketball team 2 years ago and look where we are now, staring at a sweet 16 run.

[Rebel10]

I seem to recall that Bo Levi and Chris Banjo were Texas kids headed to Hawaii before JJ took this job. There was at least some Texas connection on JJ's Hawaii staff

Reinebold covered the Houston area and those 2 are from the Houston area.

[Puckhead48E]

JJ had some Texas connections as well. But clearly, he did not want to be bothered going to living rooms in Kady, Odessa, Dimebox and the like. He had some good Texas recruiters early on and the spent his time on transfers and hoped that the rest of his crew figured it out. That said, Bennett did not do a great job recruiting Texas either despite his perfect resume to do so. If we are going to recruit Texas and we should, we need someone with credibility at the top in recruiting in Texas. But now we're behind the P5 eightball and who knows what that will do to us. I heard the words during the broadcasts, we have a chance to be one of the better mid-majors. Given that we're the same size as Baylor, TCU, the U, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, USC, Northwestern and Notre Dame, those words ring very hollow to me.

Don't let what they say get to you. We were a crappy basketball team 2 years ago and look where we are now, staring at a sweet 16 run.

Seriously...someone just dropped off this ID10T form for you to sign.
How many players are on a basketball team? How many on a football team?
How many of those play regularly for each? What is the impact of 2-3 big time players in basketball...football?
What is the size of the average basketball playbook? Football playbook?
It is going to take significant time and capitol to rise above successful mid-major level if done anywhere close to the right way. Look at pretty much every program that recently made the leap to annual top 10 finishes....and you see some type of scandal within 5-10 years of that (usually after the coach leaves...Oregon is the current one that comes to mind). Having said that, we can't get to that level we wish to attain without first getting to top 25, and that can be done in 5-7 years. So let's support but also have a bit of common sense in this endeavor, or else we will have to deal with more issues. I'm sure there is nothing that UT and A&M and the NCAA would like more than to decide in 10 years that they are going to start enforcing rules again by kicking us back to the dark ages if we do this wrong. They would love that.

[Junior]

like this

[skurtn]

I keep hearing about how JJ let go of good recruiters. The thoughts that go through my head:

1. I wonder if these "good" recruiters y'all talk about left because JJ pushed them out, or they had opportunities to advance their careers elsewhere.
2. Mason said that he has recruited 3/4 of our players; link. Nothing against Mason, because I like him. But, if y'all complain about the level of our talent, then what...

For example:
1. Reinebold became DC for Canadian Pro Team; Montreal Alouettes
2. Klemm was a top recruiter that was lured to a larger team in the PAC-12; UCLA.

[floridianstang]

JJ had some Texas connections as well. But clearly, he did not want to be bothered going to living rooms in Kady, Odessa, Dimebox and the like. He had some good Texas recruiters early on and the spent his time on transfers and hoped that the rest of his crew figured it out. That said, Bennett did not do a great job recruiting Texas either despite his perfect resume to do so. If we are going to recruit Texas and we should, we need someone with credibility at the top in recruiting in Texas. But now we're behind the P5 eightball and who knows what that will do to us. I heard the words during the broadcasts, we have a chance to be one of the better mid-majors. Given that we're the same size as Baylor, TCU, the U, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, USC, Northwestern and Notre Dame, those words ring very hollow to me.

Don't let what they say get to you. We were a crappy basketball team 2 years ago and look where we are now, staring at a sweet 16 run.

Seriously...someone just dropped off this ID10T form for you to sign.
How many players are on a basketball team? How many on a football team?
How many of those play regularly for each? What is the impact of 2-3 big time players in basketball...football?
What is the size of the average basketball playbook? Football playbook?
It is going to take significant time and capitol to rise above successful mid-major level if done anywhere close to the right way. Look at pretty much every program that recently made the leap to annual top 10 finishes....and you see some type of scandal within 5-10 years of that (usually after the coach leaves...Oregon is the current one that comes to mind). Having said that, we can't get to that level we wish to attain without first getting to top 25, and that can be done in 5-7 years. So let's support but also have a bit of common sense in this endeavor, or else we will have to deal with more issues. I'm sure there is nothing that UT and A&M and the NCAA would like more than to decide in 10 years that they are going to start enforcing rules again by kicking us back to the dark ages if we do this wrong. They would love that.

Slow your horses there buddy. I was referring to the fact that the announcers thought nothing about our hoops program and how turning around changed the conversation. I don't care if ESPN says we can be one of the "better midmajors" I want to prove them wrong in 10 years when we reach the "promised land" or P5 as others refer to

[Rebel10]

[*]Mason said that he has recruited 3/4 of our players; link. Nothing against Mason, because I like him. But, if y'all complain about the level of our talent, then what...[/list]

Mason did say he recruited 3/4 of the players so yes he would be accountable for a large part of this mess. Mexmustang did say that Mason was the recruiting coordinator and apparently according to that statement he was right..

[CA Mustang]

It might have helped if the press (Cowlishaw) had actually paid attention to what was going on at SMU and hammered Jones' and his staff for their lousy recruiting when it was obvious that he had checked out a couple of year's ago. We didn't just get into this mess overnight and the press is just as accountable in my mind as the SMU administration (Orsini) is that saddled the school with a lousy follow-up contract that apparently did not have any penalties for nonperformance.

Sorry, but it isn't the DMN's job to monitor SMU's coaches. If any are falling down on the job, that's SMU's issue. Granted there was a change at AD during that time, but Turner and others were there. If Jones slipped it was up to them to address it, not the DMN.

Given that we're the same size as Baylor, TCU, the U, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, USC, Northwestern and Notre Dame, those words ring very hollow to me.

Except for TCU and Wake, all of those schools are larger than SMU. Not to mention the fact they all receive P5 conference level revenue. At this point, SMU football is closer to Rice and Tulsa.