who can we beat?

[Pony_Fan]

Rice, ECU, South Miss?

Rice at home hopefully we can win. I only see maybe 2-3 wins in conf.

I hope Dia is ok, we really need him.

[George S. Patton]

10 wins this year, if we're lucky. We're just going to have to ride this out.

[mr. pony]

we're good at that!

[Pony81]

If we continue to lose key players to injury - Roberts, Dia et al then I can see us not winning any conference games.

Doherty should be embarrased that the team he assembled is so young and inexperienced. He should be wise enough to leven this group with some JUCO talent so that they can have a chance at winning.

Doherty must have thought these guys would have jelled by now into at least a competitive team.

For SMU to be this bad is ridiculous.

[perunapower]

If we continue to lose key players to injury - Roberts, Dia et al then I can see us not winning any conference games.

Doherty should be embarrased that the team he assembled is so young and inexperienced. He should be wise enough to leven this group with some JUCO talent so that they can have a chance at winning.

Doherty must have thought these guys would have jelled by now into at least a competitive team.

For SMU to be this bad is ridiculous.

Chill out Chicken Little. Roberts is back (and was for the last two games) and Dia will be back next week.

Oh yeah, and we are competitive, but perhaps you didn't pay attention to the last two games.

[papawasamustang]

What team are you watching?

Since the SFA defeat, we have lost to UTEP by 13, UofH by 28 & Tulane by 15.
Included in that mix is the loss 1 point loss to Tulsa.

They have also lost to USC Upstate, Southern, Alabama State & Centenary.

You can speculate all you want or you can look at the facts.

[perunapower]

What team are you watching?

Since the SFA defeat, we have lost to UTEP by 13, UofH by 28 & Tulane by 15.
Included in that mix is the loss 1 point loss to Tulsa.

They have also lost to USC Upstate, Southern, Alabama State & Centenary.

You can speculate all you want or you can look at the facts.

I said TWO games. Meaning the Tulsa game and the Tulane game, which was competitive for a good chunk of the game.

[Hoop Fan]

so now its ok just being partially competitive with Tulane? If you saw the Houston game at Moody, you know how far away we really are at the moment from competing against decent college basketball teams. Its all about your frame of reference. Yes, we have some freshmen playing. But you still have to see things like being able to guard people, keeping up with the speed of the game, and offensive execution. The things you can chalk up to freshman mistakes are losing close games, taking bad shots under pressure etc. You can't just dismiss everything and accept 30 point home losses in which we never competed. We werent playing North Carolina.

[mathman]

so now its ok just being partially competitive with Tulane? If you saw the Houston game at Moody, you know how far away we really are at the moment from competing against decent college basketball teams. Its all about your frame of reference. Yes, we have some freshmen playing. But you still have to see things like being able to guard people, keeping up with the speed of the game, and offensive execution. The things you can chalk up to freshman mistakes are losing close games, taking bad shots under pressure etc. You can't just dismiss everything and accept 30 point home losses in which we never competed. We werent playing North Carolina.

So who do you blame?

[Hoop Fan]

Not looking to assign any blame. Never spent any time blaming or hating on this board. Plenty of other people do though, they're just not very consistent or balanced in their assessments.

This is not personal in any way, but I am not thrilled with this freshman class and what I see in it objectively. Yes, Papa looks like a possible difference maker, but even there i wonder how much upside there is, he is a prep school kid who was probably old for his class to begin with. Besides Papa, this class is no different in talent or readiness to play than the fairly typical SMU recruit over the years. Derrick Roberts, Stephen Woods, Dez Willingham, Kris Lowe, Dewayne Floyd. Guys like that, they all played alot in their first years here. (I wont even mention BHop, Sasser, Ross, Davis and Damon). Do you really see a different caliber player in this current class that will automatically raise SMU up from where it has commonly been? Harp and Walker are somehow different than those guys? Are they even equally as promising? Sorry, I don't think so. And the real concern is that several freshmen are solidly behind them on the depth charts right now, so what does that mean? Look, when you decide to hype a freshman class and ride it to a 20+ loss season, with some real ugly losses, these are fair questions to ask yourself. Yes, we are young, but are we on track early on? Certainly worried from where I sit. You have to view it relative to something real, like other young players we have had here, or freshmen on other teams we are playing, but you can't just declare the season a success because the freshmen found their jockstraps, suit up and are able to run up and down the floor for 40 minutes. And yes, I want Doherty to succeed in a big way so spare me further questions on that.

[mathman]

And to think all this time I thought you were blaming Doh.

[Pony_Fan]

I am a little disappointed at this point. I agree with HF that I don't see much upside aside from Dia. We need a high impact player to make things start moving. Problem is, we are stuck with most of these guys with schollies. Honestly, I am a bit concerned about his 5yr plan.

Off the court, Doh is amazing. I can guarantee he would have gotten Juco's if he could.

I am glad to hear the commercials and pub but it's a bit disconcerting when they aren't even competitive with most teams in conference. I think they have played enough games to be better than they are....we expected to be bad, I just didn't think this bad.

[George S. Patton]

SMU 69
UCF 67

In overtime. That's who we can beat.

[PonyPride]

Without Papa Dia.
Without Mouhammad Faye.
Without Robert Nyakundi.



Speaking of Nyakundi, I watched him shoot a couple of hours before the game. I can't remember a guy in 20 years with his range. I have yet to see a guy with that kind of range. Flicking shots effortlessly from waaaay behind the line.

[PonyDoh]

LOL @ people thinking a frosh averaging 11 & 7 isn't a difference maker in the future.. We have 2 other averaging 8 pts & 7 pts per, as well. IF you don't see a solid foundation being built, I don't know what to tell you.

We need some more quality ballers, but Rhodes/TK/ & Nyakundi, coupled with Dubois, Otis & the very underrated Justin Haynes, can be solid. Still need some more help, but its not that doom & gloom.Some young talent in the system. Clarke may have some skills, but I can't get a read on him.