Dement Must Win This Year

[bodo]

Don't you think?

He's got as much talent, although still young, to win 20? Build momentum for the CUSA!

[The PonyGrad]

Depends on a number of things but particularly on whether BHop plays up to that national rep. Otherwise it is not clear that we have any tremendous talent advantage.

<small>[ 10-21-2003, 11:21 AM: Message edited by: The PonyGrad ]</small>

[OldPony]

If the starters remain healthy and we get some juice from the Rack, we could win 19-20. Freshmen must give the starters a liilte break now and then. If they are good, this could be a fun season. I really believe that this is a 17--18 win team though. Win the right 18 and we could still dance. I still think the 3 unknowns for most of us is how well Bhop can play when healthy,whether Isham can be amore consistent force on O and how much has Rack improved. It will be more fun than football though by a long shot.

[Pony_Fan]

At this point, it's pretty much a mystery. Mostly depends on how this team can deal with the Q absence. I would say 16-17 wins perhaps. We have to improve our road record since we only have 12 home games and we weren't too hot away from Moody last year.

[OldPony]

Usually a more mature team does better on the road. They know what to expect and hopefully they know what it takes in the off season to get ready for a full year's battle. I'm pumped for the season to start.

[Charleston Pony]

I'd love to share everyone's optimism, but with only 3 of 10 non-conference games at Moody and having to replace Q, we will do well to match last year's 17 wins. Looking at the schedule, I could see 5-5 non-conference and 10-8 in WAC play. I hope these guys surprise me, but unless the frosh are significant contributors and our 2nd year guys are much improved (I will put Bhop, Rack & Miller in that group), I think we are still a year away from thinking "post season".

[Hoop Fan]

SMU should be dangerous when we are clicking. Need to catch a break and a wave of confidence. IF, big if, Wake Forest comes into Dallas flat off of finals, we could have a big opportunity. In the end though, I don't think we are a post season team because we lack the combination of size and athleticism in the post. Rack might be the wild card but right now its hard to expect too much. Don't get me wrong, Castro and Simpson are nice players, but just not enforcers in the middle. An enforcer doesn't have to be 7'0 either, Kevin Johnson was 6'7 but fit the bill for Tulsa.

[Johnny Rock]

Like all of Dement's teams, we will finish around .500% and not receive any post season tournament bids. Dement will coach his contract out and he will not return. Copeland will then hire another rah rah coach to continue the same trend. Until SMU changes its admission policies to allow the coaches to recruit from a wider talent pool, SMU will never be winners in Division 1 basketball or football.

[OldPony]

Q was a super player for SMU and I wish him nothing but the best. That said, he was not a one man team. The other four starters contributed significantly and are all back. Just a little improvement through maturity of those 4 replacesa lot of the talent that Q brought. Simpson is a very solid player and is somewhat intimidating underneath with his ability to block shots. Castro is kind of OK but,my guess is that Rack replaces him in the starting line up before long. Castro does mix it up well and can be more of an enforcer with Rack ready to play. I've heard nothing but how good Bhop is. He wasn't much last year, especially early but I do have faith in some on this board that say he is the real deal. This should be a better defensive team than last year and, old curmudgeon that I am, I think defense wins in sports. I look for improvement over last year's record.

[The PonyGrad]

Originally posted by Johnny Rock:
Like all of Dement's teams, we will finish around .500%

Johnny boy has a bad memory. The last four seasons were 71-48. And remember that Dement inherited nothing when he got here. How quickly they forget.

If the football team had that winning percentage we would be thrilled.

[QuietManDisciple]

Excellent point, PonyGrad, but one which, I'm afraid, will need repeating during the course of the season due to the small but vocal -- at least in online forums -- group of Dement detractors.

We all would be more than "thrilled" -- try ecstatic! -- if the football team matched the basketball team's winning percentage over the past four years. Sixty percent translates into seven wins in a 12-game season! When does anyone realistically believe we will see that on the gridiron?

Pony Fan says the 2002-03 team was "not too hot away from Moody." Granted, the Ponies let several winnable games get away from them, but I remember an historic upset at Tulsa and six road victories in the WAC -- just one short of the conference record.

It seems to me that as SMU football has gone from bad to worse in recent years, basketball expectations have risen in direct proportion to the number of pigskin losses. Some people seem to think it's Dement's duty to dull the pain of our having one of the worst programs in college football.

"Dement must win!" He will, he always does, in case you haven't noticed. A school record seven straight seasons at or above .500.

[StangEsq]

.500 is far easier for SMU to achieve in basketball than in football... unfortunately for us, we can't get Stony Brook and Prairie View on the football schedule (although Prairie View might give us a good game in football this year).

[FloridaMustang]

I agree about Dement, but that Tulsa win was hardly historic

Sooner or later, Dement is going to lose his job.

[Pony_Fan]

Originally posted by QuietManDisciple:



Pony Fan says the 2002-03 team was "not too hot away from Moody." Granted, the Ponies let several winnable games get away from them, but I remember an historic upset at Tulsa and six road victories in the WACjust one short of the conference record.

QuietMan,
We had 14 away reg season games, we won 5 of them...I guess you are counting the 1 WAC tourney win. The Tulsa game was not *historic*. We got completely blown out in a lot of them by 20+ pts. The Rice game was the best road play game in my opinion. I hope they have learned from this and they gain confidence to win on the road, that is key.

<small>[ 10-23-2003, 06:18 AM: Message edited by: Pony_Fan ]</small>

[Hoop Fan]

I'm not sure I would call the Tulsa win historic, but it was significant. Definitely something to build on after years of getting waxed up there. Also, I agree that you can't compare football and bball winning percentages because of scheduling differences. What you really have to compare is WAC records. The football team has been near or just below .500 over the past 5 years. The basketball team has been consistently over 500 in the league. But the difference is not that huge. Point is, we have played some tough non-conference opponents in football for the most part.