USA Today Weekly picks SMU 9th in C-USA

[carolsmu]

in their college bball preview. Issue is not online.

SMU
"Strengths: After resurrecting his coaching career at Florida Atlantic, Matt Doherty wasn't jumping to any job. SMU, with its location in Dallas and Texas' growing reputation as a basketball hotbed, proved to be too good to pass up. Doherty has seven scholarships to give during the 2006-07 recruiting season, and he's already involved in some interesting recruits. In the meantime, he must turn to four seniors, four juniors and Fall, a 7-1 sophomore with raw talent and a knack for blocking shots.
Weaknesses: The Mustangs lost their best scorer, G Byron Hopkins, and even though this team has players who can defend, rebounds and block shots, it needs offensive help. For all of Fall's ability, his offensive skills are limited, putting more pressure on the perimeter players."

Projected order of finish
Memphis
UAB
Houston
UTEP
Tulsa
Rice
Central Florida
Tulane
SMU
Marshall
East Carolina
Southern Miss

[J.T.supporta]

I see us being way better than 9th in conference.

[Pony_Fan]

Looks about right to me...give or take 7th-9th...

[Bergermeister]

It's a little off... 5th

[LA_Mustang]

supporta, can you tell me exactly why you see us being way better than 9th in the conference?

[SMU_is_bowling]

I think Big Doh's addition helps the team improve to 8th, right off, then you give them some time to learn the system, and adjust to the coach's style, 7th, but higher than that in the first year . . .tough to do. going from 13-16 to above .500 is expected. how high above .500 is anyones guess... 17-13? plus some conf. tourney play??

[bagice]

I will go with a 6th place finish, not so much faith in our team as much as how crappy C-USA is. We are better than USM, East Carolina, Marshall as this ranking does reflect. We are also better than UCF and Tulane and I think Tulsa as well, though that could be a tossup. We are better than most of Rice but they have the best player in CUSA and a good prospect for the NBA so that puts them abit ahead of us.

On paper at least we have a veteran team that should get some wins against these lesser foes. I think we are being picked lower because of B-Hop being gone and it is just a knee-jerk reaction. When you study the games and stats from last year you see just how little B-Hop did in many games and he seemed almost non existent in a lot of big games. Not saying we won't miss him, but not that much.

I know there has been a lot of gloom and doom here but obviously we will have a better record than last year, we have more games against creampuffs, more games in general, and most of our conference mates did not improve. Plus I think we will play better than last year, even without Hopkins, not good enough to make any noise but hopefully good enough to start some momentum.

[J.T.supporta]

[quote="LA_Mustang"]supporta, can you tell me exactly why you see us being way better than 9th in the conference?[/quote]

This team Will have a sold starting line I believe. If Bamba can stay healthy the entire season, then this team will be much better than what most expect out of them, 9th in CUSA.

I think that if the team can gel together during practices and learn to play hard nose D, we will be at worst, 6th or 7th in CUSA.

I think Dez and Devon will be great team leaders and lead us in scoring, Bamba will lead the team Defensively with blocks and boards. I think the bench is our question mark. WE have great reserves and after losing our best scorer last year, more than 2 people will need to step up from the bench to play.

I see us winning more games than expected and shaking up the CUSA tourney with suprising wins.

I see us going 5th in CUSA if Bamba is healthy all year and with Coach Do, our guys will be movitvated to not slacking on the court and playing balls to the wall for 40 min.

[MustangStealth]

I hope to be proven wrong, but I think 9th is probably about right. We will have very little bench depth, and we lost our best player from a losing team last year. I expect the coach will get everyone playing to their potential, but a short bench means we will be worn down during conference play.

[Stallion]

the issue is offense-who is going to score?

[MustangIcon]

I am thinking 6th in conference is an absolute best case scenario that is very unlikely to happen, amking 8th or 9th a likely finishing point. They have us pegged pretty well for the upcoming season based on the fact that we lost the only scorer we have had. I guess if D-Rob or Pearson steps up to become a 20 ppg player this season we would have fixed that lack of scoring problem. I just don't see something that drastic happening.

[MustangStealth]

Keep in mind that last year we went 5-11 in conference games (including the tournament). Our wins were 2 close ones over Rice, a close one at home over USM, a close one on the road over ECU, and a big one at home over UCF. Our team is not more talented than last year, plus we have Houston and Memphis twice if I recall correctly. An improved conference record is a longshot to me.

Also, regarding BHop doing so little in some games, while he didn't get stats all the time, everyone we played put their best defender on him (or sometimes their 2 best), leaving our other players with more favorable matchups. He always affected the game.

That being said, I think we will be ok defensively, but we don't have any real consistent scoring threats.

[SMU Football Blog]

I am just hoping for year much like Doherty's last year. Predicted near the bottom and finishing in the middle of the pack.

[MustangIcon]

Agreed Stealth. I think we will improve to .500 this season based on Doherty's coaching in spite of the fact that I do think the team is less talented.

I think we win 6 conference games (not including CUSA tourney). Thats 2 more than last year before CUSA tourney but we do play 2 more games. However, those 2 games are against Houston and Memphis which to me are almost certain losses.

[gostangs]

except without the almost