Game observations

[Eye In the Sky]

-The first mass substitution came at 16:09 of the 1st half. I'll never understand why Doh does this. 4 brand new players on the floor screws up any kind of rhythm they might have had to start the game.

-Papa Dia continues to be the invisible player. I thought we were a better team with Luttman on the floor because at least he knows his role...seet screens for Williams and McCoy. When Luttman is out, no one sets any screens.

-Poor Rob Nyakundi has no role and continues to be Doh's whipping boy. If Doh doesn't trust him, don't play him. Enjoy the game necxt to Mike Walker, who logged a DNP-CD.

-Faye, McCoy and Williams are a gifted offensive players but they have to do it all by themselves. Whoever has the ball with the shot clock running down gets to take the shot.

-Missed free throws by our "captains"

-Game atmosphere was pathetic. That's what I've come to expect out of SMU basketball these days. I guess it was too crazy to think that the "buzz" the football team has created would spill over to basketball. Thanks, Steve, for firing the entire marketing dept.

-Kiss cam

I'm really trying to give this team a chance but didn't see anything to convince me that they are one bit improved. It doesn't matter if we lost to a Big East team or a DIII school. Our guys didn't make enough plays to win the game. At least Doh & Co. get a free pass until football season is over...and that shouldn't be for a while yet.

[solomouse]

no improvement...doh stomps his foot,screams and is constantly diverting the teams attention,if they have any,from the game to his shouting...sit down doh...dia needs to play some street ball,get pushed around,push back,and learn to move toward the basket,not away from it...but i know nothing about the techniques,plays,etc...i am just a dumb fan...a paying fan...

[jimhagle]

Why is Ryan Harp getting any time?

[indianmustang]

same old story in game 1

[ClickClack]

Why is Ryan Harp getting any time?

Its ridiculous. Its like playing 4 on 5. He is ZERO threat on the offensive end...fron the SHOOTING GUARD position. You can have a hustle guy out there but he should be a banger (Otis, Luttman). If we have harp and otis/luttman on the floor at the same time, its essentially playing 3 on 5 on the offensive end. If we are going to start 3 guards and 2 forwards...start mccoy, williams and haynes. Bring in clinkscales to give mccoy and williams breaks. And Bring in Nyakundi to give Faye a break or if he gets into foul trouble. Luttman can be a solid role player when Dia needs to come out due to foul trouble/needs rest. I just dont understand the mass substitution and rotating of players. How is anyone supposed to find a rythem? Haynes is same height as harp and much more athletic..he is a threat to score and can match up with multiple positions on the defensive end. anyone is better than starting Harp. What was his stat line? 2 pts, 0 assists, 4 turnovers. impressive.

[smupony]

Why is Ryan Harp getting any time?

Its ridiculous. Its like playing 4 on 5. He is ZERO threat on the offensive end...fron the SHOOTING GUARD position. You can have a hustle guy out there but he should be a banger (Otis, Luttman). If we have harp and otis/luttman on the floor at the same time, its essentially playing 3 on 5 on the offensive end. If we are going to start 3 guards and 2 forwards...start mccoy, williams and haynes. Bring in clinkscales to give mccoy and williams breaks. And Bring in Nyakundi to give Faye a break or if he gets into foul trouble. Luttman can be a solid role player when Dia needs to come out due to foul trouble/needs rest. I just dont understand the mass substitution and rotating of players. How is anyone supposed to find a rythem? Haynes is same height as harp and much more athletic..he is a threat to score and can match up with multiple positions on the defensive end. anyone is better than starting Harp. What was his stat line? 2 pts, 0 assists, 4 turnovers. impressive.

At least he made his free throws...

[friarwolf]

Same tired old song.............Doh is just a control freak. USF comes out in the second half and starts dropping shots within the flow of their game and we just keep coming down the court running our front court 3 man weave until we have to rush a shot and thus we never had a run. You could see how this game was going to end at about the 13 minute mark of the second half........

Williams especially and McCoy can get in the paint. Why Doh won't let them relentlessly attack and either shoot or kick it out for an open 3 is beyond me. I am obviously simplifying but we have some race horses that Doh will simply not give them their head to run. Williams should be greenlighted as he could easily be a 20+ point a night guy....... Harp?????? He must have some really damaging photos of Doh because he simply should be down on the end of the bench with the walkons. We will never get to .500 ball with him stealing minutes from more talented players. I have no doubt he is probably the perfect practice guy who busts his butt but he simply doesn't have the game skills.........Luttman is our first true rebounder in I don't know how long - give him more minutes. Otis - he may not be an offensive threat but I love his physicality. This is easily Doh's most physically gifted team but he has them playing like robots which may be good on a production line but not on a basketball court.........

I fear it is going to be another long year..................

[bagice]

I thought there was plenty to be happy about from the game...USF was a big, physical and much improved team from last year..this is not the same team we played to start 2008....and I thought SMU did really good to stay with them all the way.

Nyakundi had an injury that limited his minutes, but when he was in there I liked how he was driving...Haynes as well, was looking athletic.

Faye looked like he could be unstoppable at points and Williams was really good.

Overall, the whole team looked bigger stronger and more athletic...missed free throws, a cold shooting night by McCoy, and a red hot USF team in the second half really hurt, but overall I liked what I saw...

Luttman looked really good at the post on defense and rebounding, he is going to get a lot of minutes this year.

The negatives were obviously the big men making no contribution...Otis and Papa were no factors, and not sure why Harp got so many minutes....the guy has no offense..the two times he had the ball under the basket, he got his shot blocked once and stripped another time...his defense is ok, but not worth his offensive liability. I did not like the mass substitution when we were doing good to start..should have just took out Harp. Would have liked to have seen more of Clinkscales, that guy can shoot.

Wish we could have won, but that was a good first opponent we played and I liked how we hung in there...I can see us being pretty good this year.

[Hoop Fan]

All good comments. That was a bad loss. USF had a few serious thoroughbreds but they weren't a good team. Gotta beat that team at home, yes, even with a poor crowd for an opener. The only way you start to improve the crowds and the buzz is to start strong and win games like that at home. Now, we are staring down the barrel of an 0-2 start at home in this critical year for Doh. Must win is probably too strong, but Doh really needed that game last night in my opinion.

#1 Concern for me: one Paul McCoy. He looked like a shadow of the player he was on track to be last year. He almost looked out of shape. I have real concerns over what transpired this summer based on how he looked last night. maybe it was just one game, maybe its nothing, but red flags went up for me last night about his happiness here. Williams looked great last night, hopefully he can energize his running mate McCoy as the season goes on. I have never and will never understand the Harp fascination. He's now a junior who has played a ton of minutes here. He has good defensive technique and effort, but he still gets splashed all the time. Just not effective. On the offensive end, its painful. How does mike walker not get any minutes in a game like that? He is our one instant offense spark plug off the bench. He was exactly what we needed last night i thought when things went flat. Granted, Doh has overstocked the off guard position, but still dont see how Walker got no time.

Haynes and Nyakundi: was hoping for some breakthrough offseasons for those guys. Didn't see it last night. the collapse at the 10 min mark was discouraging and more of the same.

[SMU89]

red flags went up for me last night about his happiness here

I felt the same way -- similar to what I saw and thought when I saw J Willis after one of his last practices. Hopefully just reading too much into everything -- time will tell.

[MustangIcon]

Mass substitution. Huge scoring drought half way into 2nd half. Zone D still sucks (I think we played much better in a man). Still can't set picks. Still have a 10 man rotation. We did have a few more cuts and a little better passing than last season. Overall, I have to say it was a poorly coached game for SMU. In terms of preparation and in game execution.

I think we have really good talent. I truly believe that. We need to tighten the rotation to the following 8 players and loosen up and let them play some.

Rotation guys:
Williams and Faye- Both played great and will be studs for us, along with McCoy. Faye was forced into taking some threes to keep D honest bc no one else on the roster will put some up. I prefer when he is taking it to the hole.
McCoy- came out flat. Someone lit a fire under his [deleted] in the 2nd half and improved greatly. Can get to the hoop at will so when he just doesn't try to, I question what is going on. He and the 2 above are all locks for double digit scorers this season.
Luttman- Definite contributor. He is an aggressive rebounder. Knows how to set a pick (shocking for this team). Is much more athletic than I expected.
Nayakundi and Clinkscales- Our only 2 true outside shooters and neither got any burn! A combined maybe 15 minutes from the 2 guys? And together they went 3-4 from 3point land. How does it make sense to have 2 guards that can break down just about anyone off the dribble, causing the defense to collapse resulting in a kickout for an open 3 but have no one in the game who is willing to take the wide-open look!? Wow.
Haynes- this guy has all kindsa talent. I think he will really come along this season. Also has the body and ability to become a lockdown defender too if he works at it.
Dia- showed some nice moves in the post but we didn't really feed him. Often his fault for not establishing position. Really gets a little lost playing zone D (but so does the rest of the team) and especially bad at blocking out from the zone. Still can't set a pick to save his life. He did not play as well as he needs to for us to be good. It was a disappointment.

Non rotation guys:
Harp- you can tell he busts his [deleted] out there. He really does. If our bigs attacked the glass and played D like Harp does, we could be really good. But, he really doesn't have any offensive game at all. His 30 minutes should have gone to Haynes, Clink, and Nayakundi.
Otis- like Harp, hustles and busts his tail, only makes dumber plays and is just as inept on offense. Should be relegated to only coming in when we have serious foul trouble with our bigs.
Walker- DNP and I expect more of the same bc we already have 3 combo guards that are better, and 2 of them will play 35min per game. No room for a 4th.

[SMU 86]

Here are Doh's post game comments on video.

http://smu.scout.com/2/919516.html

He did admit that he thought about starting Haynes.

[bagice]

Good comments, although Hoopfan, I don't agree that this was a bad loss to a bad USF team...they really expanded their roster and looked pretty big and talented to me, I expected for them to be about the same as last year, but they had some beasts inside.

Also, Mustangicon, I thought the zone actually was pretty effective, especially in the first half, we disrupted them and kept them from tearing us up inside with their size. We did look good in man at the end, but its kinda hard to judge then since we were in comeback mode and they were in mantain mode.

I hope we do play more man this year, although Doh seems to love the zone, but if you were ever going to play zone, that was the team to do it against.

All other comments by everyone spot on...we have some good players, they just need to start playing together.

I too, am a bit worried about McCoy, although he disappeared a few games last year as well, hopefully he will bounce back, he made some nice moves, they just didnt fall.

[RGV Pony]

mass sub=Doh wants to be like Dean. Not gonna change.

[Hoop Fan]

Bag, I wouldn't think anything of that loss on the road, but at home in college bball you have to win that game. If we steal one against A&M, the world will look alright but i expect the Seagoville boys to play huge on Monday.