state of SMU basketball

[LA_Mustang]

Perhaps we are getting close to returning to competitive division I football, but basketball really is a different beast. Football is all about the gameday environment, which we seriously lack (yes, the Boulevard is great, but once the game starts there are twenty high school venues that are louder on a Friday night than Ford is on a Saturday). Basketball is ALL about facilities and preparing young men for professional basketball. SMU is moving in that direction with the addition of a new practice facility, the Moody renovations, and hiring a nationally recognizable coach. Coach Doherty’s resume and salesmanship have given him a big jumpstart for greater success than his predecessors.

But if you look at the current roster, it ain’t pretty. After you get past our projected starting five, or starting four:
1 – Dez
2 – Roberts
3 – Pearson
4 –
5 – Fall
it gets very thin. Barring a surprise transfer, we have no choice but to look ahead to 2007-08. Coach Doherty has to sell our facilities, the opportunity to play immediately, and the chance to play in front of family and friends to local talent.......per capita, no metro area in the country produces the amount of talent and the quality of talent that DFW currently does.

I’ll admit that I don’t know what style of basketball Coach Doherty likes to play. Obviously, he recruited tremendously athletic guys who could get up and down the court at UNC. But this ain’t UNC, and it wont be near as easy to get similar players to SMU. The fact that Malone (long and athletic) has confirmed his commitment to SMU and that Sloan (not near as mobile) is looking elsewhere indicates that Coach Doherty is heading in that direction with us.

Although I’m still upset and disappointed by the way the Coach Tubbs situation was handled, we have to move on. We are currently in pretty good shape with football on an upswing, the new practice facility, and the Moody renovations. The opportunity is here, hopefully this is our time.

[jtstang]

Although I’m still upset and disappointed by the way the Coach Tubbs situation was handled, we have to move on.

As soon as the truth comes out, and I exercise my right to rant a lttle while about the injustice of it all, I'll be ready to move on with you. But not before.

[SoCal_Pony]

Good post LA.

I can tell you I am more excited right now about BB than I ever have been about our FB program post-DP.

If we do this right, we can compete with anyone in the nation in BB. That will never be the case in FB. FB has 3 insurmountable problems; small student body/alumni base, non-BCS membership and school's emphasis on academics. We can overcome all these in BB.

My only advice to MD is that he must keep the momentum going. And given the lack of depth you so aptly describe, unless he brings in some real difference makers, he needs to explore the JC route to build depth and provide instant size underneath.

The "Let's wait a few years while Coach X turns this ship around" has been an often repeated but never successful model at SMU. Truth is while waiting for the ship to turn around, continual losing kills recruiting.

MD needs to look no further than PB to prove this point.

[LA_Mustang]

jt, I understand your frustration. I really do.

SoCal, you're right, Coach Doherty must build on this momentum. That is why the bleak outlook for next season concerns me.

[Pony_Fan]

It's really bad timing - this year is going to be a long season - the momentum is going to be thwarted but he had to know what he was getting into and $600k didnt hurt... It might excite the casual fan but then they'll lose interest quickly when the L's pile up. I am sure if it was up to him he would fill the gaps like our conference foes can.

FB can only go to the Tidy Bowl and the Houston Bowl..etc with the BS BCS Cartel. It's a totally f'd up system.

Cuban's blog about AAU and such was pretty good - I think it was his last post recently. Here is the exerpt:

AAU is like a meat market at the top levels. A brothel with pimps might be a better description, but it comes down to who can get who paid by who at a far bigger premium than how to develop boys into men and into basketball players.

What is worse, is that the only reason the AAU brothel exists is because High School summer rules are ridiculous. In trying to not give any one team a competitive advantage, and who knows whatever else they are trying to accomplish, they turned lose the pimps on their most talented kids.

And then there is the NCAA. Has there ever been a more hypocritical, half [deleted] backward organization when it comes to “trying to protect the student athlete ”?. America is the home of the American Dream where with hard work and initiative you can be anything you want, unless you want to be an athlete. For athletes in NCAA schools, its more like communist Russia where they assign a 4 year plan and so many work rules you expect Lenin to show up on the court with a whistle and a compliance officer.

[The Falcon]

SC POny, JT, LA Mustang, & PonyFan - I was hoping like you that we
could find a few gems in recruiting that might fall into our hands at the last minute, but unless MD pulls a miracle - I don't see any bright stones.

It is even more frustrating when I heard MD say he is not going for any
last minute JC kids. Because - The rumor is that maybe 3 or 4 basketball players out here going to summer school which supports the rumor that Tubbs did not bird-dog these kids to see that they were attending (same with B-Hop when he was inelgible.) Before you jump on that JT - let me say that no one was a bigger Tubbs booster and supporter than I was - and like you I want to know what he did to get fired - but I must say I am not happy about our players not making their grades in the Spring Semester because it is rumored they just didn't go to class. For certain,
I have seen Bamba Fall going to class, and I urged him to work hard because we need him badly.

Let's hope these guys make their grades and are eligible from the beginning of November. By the way LA - you did leave the Rack and
Killen out of your depth chart. I know neither is a superstar, but both of them made very good progress last year. While they are not great, they
are good and getting better. Also - it is possible that Ofeghbu (sp?) has
the tools if he can focus and get a little meaner. I also thought that Brian
Epps showed some promise at the end of the year.

I doubt that either Spenser or Ritter are going to help much but both
are approx 6'9" and both about 250 lbs. At least they can give us some
fouls.

So - unless all players step up and play better than last year - and if
our lazy students pursue their grades, we are in for a long season unless
MD can find a that gem that appears to be unknown at this point.

[NavyCrimson]

Pony Fan - your statement re/ the NCAA. I love it!!!

"And then there is the NCAA. Has there ever been a more hypocritical, half [deleted] backward organization when it comes to “trying to protect the student athlete ”?. America is the home of the American Dream where with hard work and initiative you can be anything you want, unless you want to be an athlete. For athletes in NCAA schools, its more like communist Russia where they assign a 4 year plan and so many work rules you expect Lenin to show up on the court with a whistle and a compliance officer."

[mavsrage311]

Pony Fan - your statement re/ the NCAA. I love it!!!

"And then there is the NCAA. Has there ever been a more hypocritical, half [deleted] backward organization when it comes to “trying to protect the student athlete ”?. America is the home of the American Dream where with hard work and initiative you can be anything you want, unless you want to be an athlete. For athletes in NCAA schools, its more like communist Russia where they assign a 4 year plan and so many work rules you expect Lenin to show up on the court with a whistle and a compliance officer."

that was quoted off Mark Cuban's blog, blogmaverick.com

[Hoop Fan]

Doherty wont get a recruiting "bounce" in my opinion until they actually show physical construction progress on the facilities. SMU has been talking about upgrades for too long with nothing happening. Maybe next year, if he can get through year 1 and keep enthusiasm. Doherty will have his pain up front, whereas Tubbs inherited a veteran team for one year and then faced a roster in disarray in the younger classes with really no legitimate power forwards or centers for a D-1 team.

I think it shows something that Malone affirmed his commitment. Does that tell you Tubbs had a quality player committed early, or does it indicate that despite his name and previous jobs, at SMU, Doh will recruit from the same general pool of players as Tubbs? Doherty is in his honeymoon period, maybe his only one if we have a tough season in 06-07, and he keeps an early tubbs commit? Makes me wonder thats all and I like the Doherty hire, i think we are lucky to have him.

Finally, i would say that if you are a D-1 school and you dont have anybody besides the head coach assigned to monitoring class attendance, you have a real problem and a lack of commitment. where was the athletic department and the support staff? I sure hope doherty doesn't have to follow guys around to class. hopefully smu has a better system than that. Players need to take care of their own business, but there also needs to be more oversight than talks from the head coach about academics.

[CarMichael]

The lead post asked about Matt's preferred playing style. He learned under Roy Williams and he would prefer to push tempo if he has the horses. Even without them he will run when the defense allows it. However, he is tactically flexible and will adapt to his personnel. In the half-court he will feed the post relentlessly if he has a post scorer, or spread it out and shoot 3s if he has to. In Fall, 2000, he beat a great Kansas team with an open-center offense and backdoor cuts. If there is adequate depth and talent, he will push the Carolina (aka Kansas) secondary break, which is a set play with many options designed to get a shot in the first 10 seconds of a possession. One concern for next year is that the Carolina MTM defense, devised by Dean Smith, is so complex that some players don't master it the first season.

You have to hope that he gets a couple of good 07 recruits and fills the rest of the open spots with decent players, because as you've said, losing next year will make 08 recruiting harder. However, I'm confident Matt will do a good job for you.

[Pony Up]

Thanks, CarMichael, for the continual insight about Coach Doherty. Here's hoping he does so well at SMU that we have as many reasons to brag about him as you do.

[RGV Pony]

Sounds like Bamba needs to learn to be a scorer. Hopefully this offense will solve the mystery for us that raises its head every year: what happens to all of these big-time high school scorers once they get to the hilltop?

Hopefully Coach D has a solid scheme to teach our guys how to make lay-ups. That would be a nice problem solved as well.

[CarMichael]

If you really have only six serviceable players, it sounds like an up-tempo game is not feasible next year. Can Fall catch the ball? If so, Matt will teach the jump hook and try to feature him.

The basic half-court offense is high motion with screen-and-replace, looking for post entries, backdoor cuts, or open jumpers with rebounding position. The basic defense is MTM with (a)on-ball defender applying hard pressure (b) defenders one pass away overplaying (denying passing lane) (c) defender two passes away playing a zone in the paint to stop penetration and deter entry passes. The ball defender is supposed to drive a dribbler out wide and give him the baseline if necessary, in which case a help defender must block the baseline to draw a charge or set a trap with the primary defender. Matt's zone is the point zone, a type of 1-3-1 invented by Dean and involving some of the same principles as the MTM.

All this is basic Dean stuff.

[ALEX LIFESON]

It will be a pleasant surprise, if Bamba is able to play this season.

[DiamondM]

HoopFan talks about a lack of support staff as a cause for the academic ills of the team, but this is the same support staff that somehow managed to have the highest -- 100% -- graduation rate for a much larger football team roster during that same general time period.

I was a Tubbs supporter too, and if BHop and his troubles had been the exception, I wouldn't have thought there would be any blame to lay except at BHop's own doorstep. But when 1/4 to 1/2 of the team is having problems (Coach Doherty indicated that Bamba will probably NOT be eligible in the fall despite his summer school work), then it is not just about the kids taking responsibility for their own business, the coach has to be riding them about the importance of their academics. I get the sense that for a lot of these guys that didn't happen, and next year's team will pay the price.