GAME THREAD: MBB vs. Oklahoma State (NIT)

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Also when you shoot that poorly from the FT line, you usually lose.

And to lose at home against OSU makes it even worse. Terrible all around.

[Charleston Pony]

I was on the road and now kind of glad I missed this one. Disappointing finish to lose at home to one of the worst teams in the Big X!!

[Charleston Pony]

Also when you shoot that poorly from the FT line, you usually lose.

And to lose at home against OSU makes it even worse. Terrible all around.

And unless/until Samet shows he can make FTs he is vulnerable to the "Hack a Shaq" defense and is a liability if he's on the floor at crunch time in close games. Unfortunate

This SMU team fared poorly down the stretch when we did not have Boopie running the show

[Charleston Pony]

Looking at the play by play it looks like this was an exciting back and forth game. Too bad more SMU fans didn't turn out for this game. Enfield's 1st season at SMU ends up pretty much the same as Lanier's last season except that we had home court "advantage" this year. Looks like we are going to need a little more roster churn and as today demonstrated, we REALLY need to find quality replacements for Oquendo and Harris to complete next year's roster. Those 2 guys put up some numbers in their final game for SMU. I see Harris and Edwards combined for 16 assists without a single turnover! Don't expect to see those kind of numbers in a losing effort

[Dukie]

Looking at the play by play it looks like this was an exciting back and forth game. Too bad more SMU fans didn't turn out for this game. Enfield's 1st season at SMU ends up pretty much the same as Lanier's last season except that we had home court "advantage" this year. Looks like we are going to need a little more roster churn and as today demonstrated, we REALLY need to find quality replacements for Oquendo and Harris to complete next year's roster. Those 2 guys put up some numbers in their final game for SMU. I see Harris and Edwards combined for 16 assists without a single turnover! Don't expect to see those kind of numbers in a losing effort

That was a fun game in person. OSU has some quick hands. We need another PG. Samet is such a liability in multiple facets (bless his heart—he does play hard). The officials were atrocious—no consistency in how fouls were (not) called, and some terrible misses on things like OOB possession. Crowd was engaged and loud at points but the ends of the arena were empty.

[soccermom]

First year coach & a new team…I’m not mad. I think SMU has proven we belong but we need to keep our foot on the gas in all sports.

[ponyte]

Disappointing outcome. So many opportunities missed. Free throws have often killed us and tonight was no exception. We missed too many loose ball scrambles. And we didn't make shots we should have. We didn't put this team away when we had several chances.

All in all it was a better than expected season. And the coaching staff has a potentially great recruiting class and players coming back (one hopes) with experience in a major basketball conference. Nice exciting run this year and looking forward to next year.

[Hop Sing]

Disappointing loss for sure, but it was a great stepping stone season, and I have great faith in the future of Mustang basketball for the first time since LB. They played hard and played great defense for the majority of the game, they just couldn’t do the little things that would have won the game. Making crucial free throws would have really helped, and Samet needs to quit putting the ball on the floor so much and get an inside shot. The good news is he’s a freshman and will hopefully learn from this season.

[tristatecoog]

Yep quite fun in person with only 3100 in registered attendance. UNT had 2660 in their win over A-State. It would’ve been nice to have hosted UNT in another game. Missed Boopie but Oquendo really stepped up. The team played hard.

[ALEX LIFESON]

First year coach & a new team…I’m not mad. I think SMU has proven we belong but we need to keep our foot on the gas in all sports.

Okie State had a 1st year coach as well, former SMU assistant Lutz. OSU was awful, the only reason they made the NIT, was so many teams said no thanks. They had a losing record and we had them at home. No way to spin this game or the final portion of the season.

[Charleston Pony]

Looking for a silver lining for this loss, at least we don't have to watch our season end with a home court loss to that team from Denton that so many posters have no respect for. Would be really disappointing to watch UNT win the NIT just like TCU did recently after we failed to deliver a title for Larry Brown

[EastStang]

We're clearly not the same team without Miller. The last several weeks of the season, we had Miller out there only for two games. Won one and nearly won the other against Clemson (he was apparently playing hurt). You can't easily replace your #1 point guard. The other guards are not true point guards and it showed. Hopefully, next year will be an improvement, but a great year in an improved conference. If I were Yamit, I would spend the next 9 months shooting running sprints and then shooting free throws until I rarely missed.

[Charleston Pony]

We're clearly not the same team without Miller. The last several weeks of the season, we had Miller out there only for two games. Won one and nearly won the other against Clemson (he was apparently playing hurt). You can't easily replace your #1 point guard. The other guards are not true point guards and it showed. Hopefully, next year will be an improvement, but a great year in an improved conference. If I were Yamit, I would spend the next 9 months shooting running sprints and then shooting free throws until I rarely missed.

Agree it would be nice to have another PG to supplement Boopie (assuming he returns for a 2nd season at SMU) but he needs to be a scorer because we lose a lot of backcourt production with Harris and Oquendo moving on. Those guys were our best 3 point shooters and both shot over 40% from three, while Boopie and Edwards were at 34%. Enfield has a reputation of being a "shooting guru" and the way this season started, I was hoping Edwards would become a much more effective perimeter shooter but he and Boopie took half the threes that Harris did and far fewer than Cross and Oquendo because they just weren't as consistent (fatigue is also a factor when you are running the point). We just have to hope both Boopie and Edwards return and the staff can find someone to replace Harris and Oquendo as a reliable scorer.

Cross is another guy that filled the stat sheet most nights and will be tough to replace. Will the incoming frosh and Chance Puryear be able to produce anywhere near what we got from Matt? And as for Samet, I assume he came here because of the success coaches Enfield and Mobley have had developing guys for NBA careers. Clearly Samet has a lot to work on even to compete at a high level in Division I play but as they say "you can't teach size". Hopefully he comes back and continues to improve. I do worry about him taking a physical beating as teams go to the "hack-a-Shaq" approach as a strategy to prevent him from being a low post scoring threat. Let's hope the incoming bigs have offensive skills and can help prevent teams from constantly doubling Samet. It would be nice to have a true center and PF on the floor together doing the bulk of the low post work. Should be a fun off-season as we await the finalizing of next year's roster.

[SMUFan]

First year coach & a new team…I’m not mad. I think SMU has proven we belong but we need to keep our foot on the gas in all sports.

Okie State had a 1st year coach as well, former SMU assistant Lutz. OSU was awful, the only reason they made the NIT, was so many teams said no thanks. They had a losing record and we had them at home. No way to spin this game or the final portion of the season.

I respectfully disagree. We have 1 top ball handler, and he was hurt. Edwards does other things well, but he doesn't run the offense anything like Miller does.

Take Curry away from the Warriors or SGA away from the Thunder, and they become very different teams. We need at least 1 more PG.

[ALEX LIFESON]

north Texas state, beat Okie State in Stillwater last night.