SMU vs Tulane Game Thread

[Pony_Fan]

The dumb mental errors are getting real old.

23 turnovers

[JasonB]

Without the turnovers, this game is a blowout.

As I have said before, we match up fine athletically. Kids will grow up a bit at the end of the season, we go on a run by executing free throws at the end of halves and not turning the ball over. Next season we are good.

[Pony_Fan]

Williams was a great pickup. He's probably MVP right now. McCoy is great, just needs to get his groove.

The spacing seems to be a problem in every game. Guys without the ball don't cut to the basket hardly ever.

[WE ARE BACK]

Nobody moves while we are on offense... Everyone just stands around and watches the person with the ball.

[bagice]

I liked the fact that Doherty stuck with the starting five most of the games, 27 minutes was the fewest any of the starters logged.

Haynes looked good, provided great defense and a little bit of scoring. SMU is really good in their zone with Faye, Dia, and Fall all in, guys with long arms that cover a lot of ground. Pretty good defense and rebounding tonight, shots were still not falling in spots, but enough to win.

Team just needs to play through this shooting funk and they will start to fall. A starting lineup of McCoy Williams, Faye, Dia, and Fall is a great lineup and could present problems to a lot of teams if they can start to gel as a unit. I like it. Play that lineup and that smothering zone. Let Nyunkundi, Haynes, and Otis come off the bench and leave everyone else in their warmups, maybe work in Malone a bit, but Harp's one minute tonight is the most he should be playing.

[Stallion]

This is what I've been saying-and when they start and play 30+ minutes each we are getting better results. That's a big lineup and when they have played together the opponent has not shot well. I think none of them are well rounded players but Bamba gives you the blocking, Dia the size and Faye is supposed to give you the offense and quickness. Its interesting SMU set a CUSA record with 10 blocks(Fall 5 and Faye 3) . I always like it when another team is worried about the big shot blocker-then if the guy gets past him the other bigs are there too. There is no reason for SMU to be messing around with any other lineup. Play them the rest of the way, let them learn together and let's see what we have. The other kids look pretty much like role players right now anyway.

[LA_Mustang]

There is no reason for SMU to be messing around with any other lineup. Play them the rest of the way, let them learn together and let's see what we have. The other kids look pretty much like role players right now anyway.

I agree but the disturbing thing is that it appears only one of the seven 07 recruits will be a major contributor to the future of this team....and that one is VERY inconsistent. Basically we signed 5, sometimes 6 role players in one class...and the 7th is no longer on the team. We got Rhodes ship back, but that is still a huge hole to dig out of

[PonyDoh]

There is no reason for SMU to be messing around with any other lineup. Play them the rest of the way, let them learn together and let's see what we have. The other kids look pretty much like role players right now anyway.

I agree but the disturbing thing is that it appears only one of the seven 07 recruits will be a major contributor to the future of this team....and that one is VERY inconsistent. Basically we signed 5, sometimes 6 role players in one class...and the 7th is no longer on the team. We got Rhodes ship back, but that is still a huge hole to dig out of

I agree w/this, but let's not forget Nyakundi, as he was part of that class but redshirted. Also, Malone should be serviceable, but he's obviously found Doh's doghouse. Either way, it's certainly not an impact class. To be honest, SMU needs to find a real dominator in the 09 class, at latest '10. McCoy is very good, but we need two more players on his level, at least

[DallasDiehard]

I always like it when another team is worried about the big shot blocker...

I agree with you. When he was a freshman, I thought Bamba Fall would annihilate Koncak's career record for blocks. But then, in his sophomore and junior years, he played more positional defense and went for the block less, as if he was worried about foul trouble. Maybe he was - can't say. But when he's aggressively going for the blocked shots, he can really mess up an opposing team's defense .... like he did against Tulane, among others.

Nice going, guys - it wasn't pretty but a win is a win.

BEAT MARSHALL

[Pony_Fan]

There is no reason for SMU to be messing around with any other lineup. Play them the rest of the way, let them learn together and let's see what we have. The other kids look pretty much like role players right now anyway.

I agree but the disturbing thing is that it appears only one of the seven 07 recruits will be a major contributor to the future of this team....and that one is VERY inconsistent. Basically we signed 5, sometimes 6 role players in one class...and the 7th is no longer on the team. We got Rhodes ship back, but that is still a huge hole to dig out of

I forget - how did we end up with such a hole to begin with? What is the ideal situation - hold onto a few ships that year and wait? More JC's?

[Hoop Fan]

random thoughts in no particular order:

- decent to good crowd for smu
- sloppy, boring game
- tulane is not good, but they will smack us down in new orleans in the rematch unfortunately
- the rice game took the sails out of whatever improvement we were building on against tamucc, cu and utep.
- paul mccoy is still a stud
- faye has athleticism and potential, but he is the present not the future with only one year of eligibility remaining. will it amount to anything really?
- haynes was bright spot tonight, he has upside. Where has he been the past 10 games? will he reappear even after last night or get buried on the bench again?
- lineups and substitutions still frustrating to watch
- when will we play a meaningful game at moody? seems like a long way off.
- the 4 on 4 alum game was painful. couldnt find 10 guys to do it? cancel it.
- does the pa dude have to constantly do the math for us and tell us smu is winning by x amount at each timeout?

[LA_Mustang]

What is the ideal situation - hold onto a few ships that year and wait? More JC's?

IMO, if the impact HS guys weren't there I would have went after JUCO's and maybe held on to one or two. Doherty knew we weren't going to be good last year. If he would have brought in 2 JUCO's in that class we would have had three ships to give this year and he could have sold playing with McCoy to the recruits. As several others have mentioned, we need two more McCoy level players to compete with Memphis, Tulsa, UAB and now that is at least two years down the road. We've only got one recruit coming in next year and he's already been labeled as a project.

[bagice]

I am with ya on that Alumni "game" debacle. In the past, it had been entertaining, 5 on 5, with coaches and a ref and some others ready to sub in. But 4 on 4 just goofing around, give me kids jumping rope instead.

Either put more effort into planning it, or just skip it all together.

[Charleston Pony]

random thoughts in no particular order:

- decent to good crowd for smu
- sloppy, boring game
- tulane is not good, but they will smack us down in new orleans in the rematch unfortunately
- the rice game took the sails out of whatever improvement we were building on against tamucc, cu and utep.
- paul mccoy is still a stud
- faye has athleticism and potential, but he is the present not the future with only one year of eligibility remaining. will it amount to anything really?
- haynes was bright spot tonight, he has upside. Where has he been the past 10 games? will he reappear even after last night or get buried on the bench again?
- lineups and substitutions still frustrating to watch
- when will we play a meaningful game at moody? seems like a long way off.
- the 4 on 4 alum game was painful. couldnt find 10 guys to do it? cancel it.
- does the pa dude have to constantly do the math for us and tell us smu is winning by x amount at each timeout?

I wish there was a "return game" with Tulane, but they are the one divisional opponent we won't see twice this year. Doherty asked for Memphis as a "permanent" opponent (that we play home & home every year). Memphis is the measuring stick for everyone else in CUSA and Doherty wanted to see them as often as possible. Everyone agrees McCoy is probably our best player right now. Let's hope we can compete with Memphis before he finishes his career at SMU

[StangBry]

another point if anyone saw the exhibition at halftime: good thing donatus isn't still playing