ESPN's Forde Minutes CUSA Review

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Pat Forde claims the conference's "Bottom 8" as the bust of the year in CUSA:

Bust of the Year- The Bottom Eight. It's understandable for this to be the Memphis Show in the league, but UAB, UTEP and Houston should not be miles better than the octet of sorriness beneath them. The lower two-thirds of the league ranks between 194th and 289th in the RPI, which just about puts that group on par with the Atlantic Sun. Nice work.

It upsets me when people claim our talent level is so poor and that Dement ran the program into the ground and all other sort of excuses that are made for Tubbs when our competition is so awful. Add in non conference games VS Cetenary, Harvard, Savanah, Pan Am and the rest of the also rans we play and it becomes more and more obvious to me that Tubbs's coaching abilities must shoulder more of the blame for our terrible performance. Its not like we are playing ACC powerhouse teams here folks.

[Hoop Fan]

so Tubbs, Eustacy, Wojcik, Willis Wilson, the Marshall coach, just can't X and O or motivate huh? You take a sweeping comment about competitiveness by Forde and turn that into Tubbs can't coach? Talk about an agenda. Funny how Eustacy seemed to be able to coach okay in the Big 12. Now, he is just one of the 8 guys who cant motivate all that talent they have in the bottom 8 of CUSA. Oh, he's new and S. Miss didnt have a great program when he got there. Icon says its irrelevant, just coincidence I guess.

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I am pointing out that our competition could not be any sorrier if we started scheduling teams that aren't D1A programs. Oops, I forgot, we already do that. With our schedule of terrible opponents, as well as having some solid players including one very good player- we should be better than we are.

We are the 10th seed in a 12 team conference that is comprised of some of the sorriest basketball programs in the country and all you can do is point to other schools that also suck??? "Well so and so's team sucks too and they have a good coach" is not an excuse I care to hear and neither does anyone else. We should hold ourself to a higher standard and there is no reason this CURRENT team should be this [deleted] poor.

[Hoop Fan]

its real nice and all to say you have high standards and blame and pout and cry when things aren't going well. Be as critical as you want of this program, but to lay it at the feet of a second year coach who inherited something that was obviously broken is nothing short of absurd.

[Pony_Fan]

Icon,

You have watched enough of this team - seriously where did you expect to be at this point? 4th or 5th? - they can't score 50 pts most of the time. Solid players? we can't shoot, are not fundamentally sound, can't fast break, layup, or catch passes most of the time.

Yes, this is completely ridiculous (I agree) - to be 10th in a 12 league crappy conference and have that non-conf schedule to boot. I am not happy about that either.

[Stallion]

Tubbs definitely deserves at least 4+ years to turn the program around without question-at least as long as he is not involved in creating a "slush fund" whereupon again I maintainSMU should fire him by end of the Nite.

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I don't expect much at this point at all Pony. I think our pathetic performance this year speaks for itself. My point is while I don't expect this group of players to even be NIT worthy, they were good enough to finish better than 10th in a very weak conference. And from our current recruiting class and the loss of Hop, I don't see the talent getting better.

[Pony_Fan]

I don't expect much at this point at all Pony. I think our pathetic performance this year speaks for itself. My point is while I don't expect this group of players to even be NIT worthy, they were good enough to finish better than 10th in a very weak conference. That falls on coaching I would have to say.

I think I was more upset last year b/c the potential was greater than it is now and I don't think they reached where they could have been with the overall record.

This year I watched enough games to know they suck and continued to suck so my expectations were getting lower as the season progressed.

[MustangIcon]

You are right, there wasnt much to make someone's expectations go up as the season progressed.

[Pony_Fan]

Unforunately we are stuck in suckiness for a while - I wish I was a A&M or Baylor bball fan about now...

[abezontar]

If you are wishing to root for another team, why not choose Duke, UNC, UConn, Kansas or any other number of teams that have a legitimate chance of success in the tourney.

[Pony_Fan]

If you are wishing to root for another team, why not choose Duke, UNC, UConn, Kansas or any other number of teams that have a legitimate chance of success in the tourney.

I am just talking in terms of upside and turning your program around. My sister went to Duke so I root for them always (went to many games)

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I really cannot figure out how Baylor has turned such a terrible situation so quickly. Does Drew alone make that big of an impact? What they gain by being in the Big 12 I figure they would lose by being in Waco compared to SMU in Dallas. It really baffles me. More power to them though. They should be an exciting team in a couple of years.

[Pony Up]

I really cannot figure out how Baylor has turned such a terrible situation so quickly. Does Drew alone make that big of an impact? ....

No. He's a nice guy, and he comes across well on TV, but down here you'd think he's the next John Wooden, and I just don't see it. And nobody I know here has any idea how he's doing it, either.

[EastStang]

The Big 12 is a big reason Baylor does well in recruiting against SMU head to head in basketball. I have no clue if they've stopped paying players like they did under Bliss. I assume that they have. Eustacy seemed to get good players at Iowa State, but they don't seem to be going to Starkesville. I think over time, CUSA will rebuild itself into a solid basketball conference. With Memphis, UAB and Houston, you have a good start. Add in UTEP and Tulsa which have historically done well in basketball and you have the makings of a very competitive conference. Just as in the mid 70's when Sutton went to Arkansas, Allen to SMU, Lemons to UT, and Houston joined the conference, SWC basketball became something worth watching, CUSA will improve and we cannot afford to get better. By the way, last year's team just wasn't that good. I thought that the team had quit on Dement and they did, but in fact, it was more than that, the talent just wasn't at a top Division 1 level. This year's team is worse because almost every player is a project. If you can't make layups or catch passes, you're a project.