Thoughts on the team, and the coach, as we wait

[JasonB]

First, I want to say that the team showed tremendous effort out there. That wasn't a choke job. It wasn't as frustrating as watching last year's team fold in the conference tourney and then the NIT. I would love to see this team get in the tourney, because if they make 3's, they can literally beat anyone. They are one of those guard-heavy NCAA teams who is capable of pulling an upset or two. Tonight, this team turned the ball over, shot poorly from 3, shot poorly from 2, was outrebounded by a considerable margin, and still found a way to stay in the game the entire way, and had a 50-50 shot to win. The difference between this game and the Moody game against Memphis was that Memphis did a fantastic job of keeping SMU out of transition. There were limited fast breaks, they closed down the transition three, and just did a great job at it. That should tell you how good this team actually is, to be outplayed by pretty much every metric and still have a shot to win. If the committee viewed Memphis as a lock going into the tourney, and if they actually watch the two games SMU played, SMU will get in. They have a fantastic record after a 3-3 start, and they have now shown that they can play well on a neutral court. If they don't get in, it will be a real shame, and to be honest I don't expect them to get in.

Everyone's eyes are then going to turn to Jank. IMHO, when I watch Jank the last few weeks, he looks to me like a man with a weight lifted off his shoulders. He has engaged students more, he has engaged the press more, he has confronted the officials more (he really got upset today). Which makes me think he has had the K State job in his bag for weeks. But that is just complete assumption on my part. Something changed, and he seems a lot more himself and aggressive the last few weeks.

I'm going to say up front that I think in several ways, Jank has gotten the shaft. He isn't friendly to the media and doesn't provide inside information like you see from the football coaching staff, and as a result there are some people who cover SMU who absolutely hold a grudge against him. So, he has to battle through that. I also think that he was in a tough situation following a legend, that caused him to put up some walls. There were a lot of internal constraints on recruiting, and that is part of the reason for the poor recruiting that was seen in prior years. I think those restrictions came off, partially by coming off of probation, and partially with the availability of NIL (and thus the reduction of the shady side of basketball recruiting that he was forbidden from competing in after LB), and he has had two very nice classes in two years, hitting on all 3 recruits last year, and Alex is obviously a player.

I also think that he deserves credit for improving his defensive implementations (this, honestly, is what 5-on-5 is all about, regardless of how much we make fun of his complaints), and that he runs an NBA-style offense, which is great for the players. I also think he deserves a lot of credit for being a player's coach - the kids love him, and that is clear. And it will help him to be able to recruit moving forward.

That said, there are several limitations. He takes players coach to an extreme - not calling timeouts, for example. I think the Jasey injury fell into his lap, and it is the primary reason that this team actually improved. Without that injury, we aren't close to the team we were at the end of the season.

The biggest indictment, though, is that in games like today, you need to run some plays in the half court to create a shot. We went the entire second half manufacturing offense - drawing fouls, powering inside. But we couldn't hit get jumper. Everyone was afraid, and when we finally shot the first jumper in 10 minutes, Bandamel missed an open shot at the top. In in tight games like that where nobody is making shots, length wins. We saw it against Temple, and we saw it today. Where is the double pick play that opened Nic in the corner against Cal? Where are the back screens that get Davis open off the ball? You have to be able to run some set plays that result in open shots when the game is tight, and the team is struggling. It is part of the reason the team couldn't stop runs this season. You have to be able to slow the game down a little, and run a play in the half court to stop the bleeding. As much as the open NBA offense is great, you have to go back to the college play call from time to time, in critical parts of the game. And honestly, it is probably the reason more timeouts aren't called when the other team is on a run - we aren't going to run a set play after a timeout, so why bother? I'll also call out that Nutall was misused. He has always been a "scorer" and not a "shooter". Putting him in a situation where he is just spotting up and taking threes isn't the strength of his game.

I'm not *hoping* that Jank is gone. I think he has improved significantly this year, in his dealing with media, in his handling of the team, in his recruiting. Across the board improvements. I'm happy with him for that. I think the improvements in the assistant coaching staff have really had a positive impact as well. I think the team, with the recruits that have come in, is on an upwards trajectory. Phelps is a player that you can really build around. Because of all of that, I would completely understand if he stays, and I wouldn't be a hater, because I do think he got the shaft to a certain extent.

That said, I don't think he will be around. He will take the K State job and/or not get an extension. And I am okay with that as well. I think SMU is willing and able to bring in a top-end coach, who won't have some of his limitations. Who will engage with the SMU community more strongly. We have an environment that is built for success, and there are plenty of coaches who will be very interested in coming here. I have no doubt that we will execute a coaching search that will bring in a top coach and take the team to the next level.

I'm on board either way, though. Phelps, Smith, Todorovich, and Alex are going to be really good players. I think Young has potential in the right system, and add Band, Davis, Nutall, and/or some transfers to that mix and I think SMU will have a very good team next season. I hope we make the tourney, but even if we don't, and whether or not Jank stays, I think the most important thing is that the program is back, and for the first time in forever has shown that it can be built without a hall of fame coach as the primary calling card.

[Big Hoss]

Great summary of where we stand JasonB.

FWIW, I was talking to a buddy tonight who is a Kansas State alum & played football there in the early 90’s for Bill Snyder. He says their rumor mill is leaning toward Brad Underwood, the head coach at Illinois and former K State player, being their next head coach.

[Charleston Pony]

Great summary of where we stand JasonB.

FWIW, I was talking to a buddy tonight who is a Kansas State alum & played football there in the early 90’s for Bill Snyder. He says their rumor mill is leaning toward Brad Underwood, the head coach at Illinois and former K State player, being their next head coach.

K-State might make a run at Underwood but he looks pretty comfortable at Illinois and they won't give him up easily. McCasland at UNT is going to be a hot commodity. Jank is at an age where you don't know how much longer he will want to keep coaching

[PonyTime]

If the key to getting Davis and Band to play another year is Jank coming back, I hope they sign Jank.

[mustangxc]

It would be hard to justify not keeping the coach of the second place team in the conference.

[ponyswim]

Great summary Jason. I do think it is a little strange that Jank's teams have often set up good play to get open shots for I Mike and others, and there was not a lot of that yesterday. I think what he said in the press conference about his guys being very good at the end of games and he trusted them to execute, makes sense. I greatly appreciate the improvement in Jank in most ways this year. I agree that his coaching staff is much better than it has been - Cooper and King both add a lot. They are not yellers - they talk to players.
I am sure that at least some other potential coaches will not be as excited about SMU not keeping a coach who was second in the conference. That is not a great encouragement to potential coaches.
If they let Jank go, I sure hope they have someone in mind who is clearly an upgrade.

[mustangxc]

That is the major issue right now. Who could we go out and get that would be an upgrade right now? Pitino is no longer an option.

[DC-Pony]

JB, thanks for starting this thread and sharing your thoughts. Thoughtful, measured, and on point, as always.

I'll add a few of mine...
This year's team:
- The team definitely improved as the year progressed. This relates to points I'll make about Coach Jank and about building the program below. But, the offense improved with better ball movement, and the rotations improved as the year progressed.
- This team fought. Totally agree that they were satisfying to watch and gave us a create season of relevance, some exciting wins, some very high level of play at times, and fewer frustrating lows. They seemed to really care about winning, and that wasn't truly evident about the last two years. Sure, everyone says they want to win. But, winning teams appear to try to do all within their control to win, never let up, and don't demonstrate negative body language on the court. And, this team did pretty well on that this year.
- Nutall needs a shooting coach. He's got the ability to be a very good shooter. But, he's got a swooping motion to his shot where from the starting triple-point set he's got the ball to the right of his right hip, then as he goes up for the shot it swings to the left of his body, and then he releases to the right of his body. It results in him missing to the right on virtually all of his misses. Even on his first made shot yesterday, he missed so badly to the right it banked in. It is totally fixable if he focused on making his total shot motion more in-line with the basket.

Coach Jank:
- Totally agree that his starting line-up and rotations were much improved as the year went on.
- I also totally agree that the Jasey injury appeared to force this, and not sure Coach would have arrived at it without that injury.
- I do quibble with how he used the freshman this year. Agree, three cheers to the fact the staff appeared to hit on all three recruits. But, there were stretches of the season when Todorovic and Smith were bench-ridden, and then they'd get a bunch of playing time and would deliver, and then would get a bunch of DNPs. I did not see that correlated with opposing line-ups or our team's injuries, for the most part. It got to the point where I worried that Todorovic might start to think about transferring. That was totally my worry and nothing I read about. But, I think we could have been a little more consistent with those two as a means of building them for the late season run AND for setting the program up for next year. The wild card is I have no insight into what goes on in practice. And, if players are not getting playing time because their practice habits are lacking, I totally support that. But, no clue if that was at play.
- I too noticed Jank taking issues with refs a bit more. But, I would grade him as "improved, and still has an opportunity for improvement" in this area. This is a nuanced point...I think it's important to walk the line of representing yourself, your team and your school with class, treating the refs with dignity, AND sticking up for your team and for how the game is supposed to be officiated. The SMU program's current stature is such that if there is going to be bias from the ref, it will likely be against them. We're not Duke, Coach Jank is not Coach K, etc. Additionally, our offense benefits from the freedom of movement the rules call for. We've got a quick line-up that handles the ball well, and scores a lot from the outside. We are not built for a grinding, physical, and low-post game. The officiating across the college game is headed in the wrong direction, whereby officials are increasingly swallowing their whistles and the game is getting uglier and uglier, akin to the 1990s in the NBA. Coach Jank wasn't going to personally turn that tide, and change the feckless NCAA that should be controlling that. But, he can influence a game in several ways on this dimension. He can make a point to get on the officials when they are establishing a baseline for a game that permits consistent hand-checking, like went on in each Memphis game. If you point it out and stay on the refs, eventually you will get those calls. At least some of them. I believe Coach could have done a LOT more of that, but he got better at it, especially yesterday. The other thing you could do - which I didn't see us do - is force the issue with the refs. For instance, if the refs aren't going to call a clean game, go with that and bring in your beefy bench players and start pushing guys around to force the refs to gain control of the game and start calling all the fouls.
- I also agree the timing of TOs that Coach Jank takes leaves something to be desired. This, though, can never be viewed as empirically good or bad. There is a not of subjectivity of knowing your team and what makes them tick, having a feel for the game and the opposing team, etc. But, it felt like in our losses he too often let them "play through" stretches when the tide was clearly turning against us and the team wasn't adjusting to what the other team was doing. Coaches that I believe do this well sense when adjustments are needed and sense the tide could turn, BEFORE it becomes a big issue, and they call a TO to address it. This 1) limits massive swings in momentum and 2) helps the psychology of the players where it isn't so self-evident that a coach is calling a time out because his team is falling apart.

Building the program:
- I agree it feels like we're in a better position than we've been in the last few years, despite potentially losing a ton of seniors this coming offseason.
- The amount of transfers we had this year was interesting...it showed you could re-tool the team quickly. It also showed the challenges in doing that. Even though Coach Jank and several players marveled before the start of the regular season how well the team was gelling, we still had our two worst losses early in the season (Loyola Marymount and Missouri). My guess is if we played those teams now we would easily win both those games and we've be safely off the bubble. So, if we continue with taking on an influx of transfers many years, it could really be tricky to getting off to a strong start to the season.
- Having all three freshmen play the way they did gives us a really solid core to build around going forward. I love that. Even if you're hitting on the transfer portal, to have a true team and culture, you've got to have some solid core, and we appear to have that.

Enjoy the anticipation of the Selection Show, and here's hoping we have something to celebrate this evening.

[DC-Pony]

----A postscript to the above----

I think it is a huge credit to Coach Jank about how he moved KD off the ball at times. I thought that was a brilliant, counter-intuitive adjustment during the season. Teams were clearly trying trap and double KD, knowing he was the player he is. It took courage and creativity for Coach Jank to conceive of how taking the ball out of KD's hands would work, and actually making that move. And it definitely helped.

The man knows basketball, I have no doubt about that.

[Screck]

If Jank is gone I’ll take KT Turner...I think he is ready

[Charleston Pony]

I'm in the camp of hoping Jank stays and that his seniors who still have eligibility come back for another run, but agree that if he gets another offer he can't refuse and chooses to move on, Turner deserves a shot at running his own program. Won't be long before we see him as a HC somewhere.

[Charleston Pony]

The man knows basketball, I have no doubt about that.

I don't think anyone (or at least very few) have been critical of Jank's knowledge. The issue has been his recruiting as we all know that's the name of the game in college sports. He's done well with PGs and struck gold with the Weathers twins this year but still need to demonstrate he can get more of the top players in Dallas to stay home, especially some of the bigs.

[sadderbudweiser]

The “out” is right there big as life if the powers that be want to use it:

“Gee Tim.... we really want you back but we can’t pay you like we used to....”
That’s a way better look than not renewing or simply firing. So Jank’s on the next flight to Manhattan.
I don’t see Underwood leaving Illinois. I could see McCasland as our next coach.

And frankly, as much as I love what KD brings: if he wants to follow Jank then so be it.

Jason’s points are all valid but if you give him a new contract it’s 50/50 he coasts for awhile.

[ponyswim]

No way I want KT.
Notice how our recruiting and coaching (I think) improved when he left.
I still remembering be at Tulane for our game two years ago when he was screaming in KD's face calling him a baby.
Wasn't productive to see the least. I like what King and Cooper bring to the program.
I am all for an upgrade, I would just want to see a clear upgrade.
If Jank leaves, I would expect that KD and Band are gone and likely one, maybe 2 others that we would not like to like to lose.

[Charleston Pony]

No way I want KT.
Notice how our recruiting and coaching (I think) improved when he left.
I still remembering be at Tulane for our game two years ago when he was screaming in KD's face calling him a baby.
Wasn't productive to see the least. I like what King and Cooper bring to the program.
I am all for an upgrade, I would just want to see a clear upgrade.
If Jank leaves, I would expect that KD and Band are gone and likely one, maybe 2 others that we would not like to like to lose.

I wasn't suggesting Turner as a replacement for Jank. If Jank leaves, I'd like a proven HC but I was just agreeing with the poster who said Turner has earned a shot. That shot probably needs to come at a lower level like the Southland, SWAC, SunBelt or WAC. He has a lot of ties in Texas & Oklahoma that could play well at several of those schools.