SMU vs TCU Game Thread

[Pony_Fan]

Yes, that is confusing about Walker. I will say Doh's rotations are weird. I didnt pay too much attention but it didn't seem like Dia got as many minutes in the 2nd. I am happy to see Harp not get as many minutes but Haynes didnt do much as Allen Stone pointed out - 2 pts I think, zero Rb's. If McCoy was even 1/2 his former self, we win the game by 10 pts.

[Hoop Fan]

I really like McCoy. I don't know what his problem is but it is concerning to say the least. At best its a bad slump. Lots of freshmen, athletes and non athletes, don't love smu from day 1, but it does have a way of getting into your blood. Hope McCoy turns it around and soon, mostly for himself.

[papawasamustang]

Yes, that is confusing about Walker. I will say Doh's rotations are weird. I didnt pay too much attention but it didn't seem like Dia got as many minutes in the 2nd. I am happy to see Harp not get as many minutes but Haynes didnt do much as Allen Stone pointed out - 2 pts I think, zero Rb's. If McCoy was even 1/2 his former self, we win the game by 10 pts.

Haynes was a big key @ the beginning of the game sticking to Moss & taking him out of the game early. Don't understand why Doh backed out of the pressing D he opened the game with.
We got easy buckets off the steals & then it works so well he backs off of it.

I know u follow the team so you understand we have a big hole @ the SF position.
Neither Haynes or Harp has taken advantage of the opportunity. 'The only
other option is to go small with 3 guards , Dia & Faye. But then u have to go 40 minutes of hell
& it doesn't appear to be Doh's style.

Also, something I picked up on the last 2 games. I think this team has some conditioning issues. No way Dia should have been on the bench as much as he was. Should have pounded it to him all night long.

[papawasamustang]

I really like McCoy. I don't know what his problem is but it is concerning to say the least. At best its a bad slump. Lots of freshmen, athletes and non athletes, don't love smu from day 1, but it does have a way of getting into your blood. Hope McCoy turns it around, mostly for himself.

Everyone that's played before has had a bad game. McCoy just picked a bad one to stink it up.
Also, I think something was going on with his legs. Looked like the thigh area I saw the trainers working on.
I said last week that McCoy doesn't look like the same player. Hope he proves me wrong.

[Hoop Fan]

i'm one of mccoys biggest fans last year, but its more than an isolated one bad game. We've played 5 home games he has been far behind the standard he set for himself last year. Boy, that stings to type. We had 5 home games to open the season, 3 were decent opportunities to get a nice win and we whiffed completely.

[FriscoPMG]

BTW, best home game I've seen Papa play @ SMU & I've seen most of them. Gotta explain to me why he only played 24 minutes in a 40 minute game. Monster game was there for the taking.

I didn't hear any postgame comments, but I really hope Doh has a good explanation for Dia's lack of playing time, especially in the 2nd half. I agree that this was one of the best games Dia has played and with McCoy being a non-factor, his play was a huge factor in the 1st half. It should've been a full dose of Dia, Faye and Williams in the 2nd half, but once again Doh's game plan didn't call for the player with the hot hand being on the floor during crunch time...

[Balatro Diabolus Ex]

The TCU players looked like a non-division 1 team. Horrible horrible loss. It's SO redundant - missed tons of free throws, have the worst half-court offense in D-1, a coach who makes TERRIBLE in game decisions (ie. switching to zone and letting their shooter hit 2 threes when man was working). I've said give Doh some more time, but its not working. When you see talent on the court that will not fast break and look scared to take a shot - a change is necessary!

It was sort of like watching the Keystone Kops play basketball. TCU made a huge mistake by changing their starting lineup. They looked totally out of sync on offense, silly turnovers, missed layups, and airballs. They didnt hit a shot for the first 8 minutes of the game, but despite that they still came from behind as soon as Ruzgas came in.

When I saw SMU in a zone defense my jaw almost hit the ground.

[Wuba]

BTW, best home game I've seen Papa play @ SMU & I've seen most of them. Gotta explain to me why he only played 24 minutes in a 40 minute game. Monster game was there for the taking.

I didn't hear any postgame comments, but I really hope Doh has a good explanation for Dia's lack of playing time, especially in the 2nd half. I agree that this was one of the best games Dia has played and with McCoy being a non-factor, his play was a huge factor in the 1st half. It should've been a full dose of Dia, Faye and Williams in the 2nd half, but once again Doh's game plan didn't call for the player with the hot hand being on the floor during crunch time...

I was there and I saw Dia wave to the bench that he was winded and needed to come out ~2.5 minutes into the 2nd half right after he had scored twice in a row. Every time he came back in my buddy and I noted the time and predicted how long he would stay in, he usually left even earlier than the low time we predicted. Either he was sick tonight or he is just in terrible shape. I do not mean to defend Doh, but I do not blame him for Dia's low minutes when Dia was asking out of the game. Anyone know how his mile time was this year?!

[Charleston Pony]

Did anyone listen to the post-game comments? How was the crowd tonight? Many TCU fans?

It's early but SMU had a 50% chance of winning according to RPIforecast.com

http://www.rpiforecast.com/teams/Southe ... odist.html

only 2384 announced for your cross town rival. that's how far the program has fallen

[PonyDoh]

Yes, that is confusing about Walker. I will say Doh's rotations are weird. I didnt pay too much attention but it didn't seem like Dia got as many minutes in the 2nd. I am happy to see Harp not get as many minutes but Haynes didnt do much as Allen Stone pointed out - 2 pts I think, zero Rb's. If McCoy was even 1/2 his former self, we win the game by 10 pts.

Haynes was a big key @ the beginning of the game sticking to Moss & taking him out of the game early. Don't understand why Doh backed out of the pressing D he opened the game with.
We got easy buckets off the steals & then it works so well he backs off of it.

I know u follow the team so you understand we have a big hole @ the SF position.
Neither Haynes or Harp has taken advantage of the opportunity. 'The only
other option is to go small with 3 guards , Dia & Faye. But then u have to go 40 minutes of hell
& it doesn't appear to be Doh's style.

Also, something I picked up on the last 2 games. I think this team has some conditioning issues. No way Dia should have been on the bench as much as he was. Should have pounded it to him all night long.

Great post

[Corp]

The Frogs have now won 13 of the last 18 basketball

games in this series with the Ponies. Both teams are

quite obviously in need of some major improvement.

[therack]

So this is my take on this game after sleeping it off:

Good:
- In first half we played very well... I really like agressive defense that was mixed with some half court trapping zone... Guys were very active and played really hard! TCU was lucky to be within 5 points at the half...
- Great games by Mo, Papa and Will. These three guys played their hearts out and scored most of the points. If we could just get a few shots to fall from McCoy...
- Even though the crowd was not that big in numbers, but i still think it was pretty good atmosphere.

Bad:
- We started second half 6-20 and Doh doesn't call timeout till media timeout at 16 min??? I just don't get that... Also, decision to play zone against the team that shoots very well from the 3s is an absolute BS... I could remember at least a few times that as soon as we went zone, they dropped a wide open 3... It's very frustrating to watch!
- Substitution patterns. Some of the decisions made no sense whatsoever.... Papa scores 8 points in the first half and barely sees playing time in the second half?!?! why? Doh tends to make these stupid decisions to take out his main weapon to adjust to other team's tactics, i.e. playing small... That's not a good coaching!
- McCoy had ZERO points... I do understand that players are destined to have a bad game here and there but he's out captain and arguably the best player... during a close game like the one last night, we needed something from McCoy!

Ugly:
- SMU game presentation is flat out awful!!! And then people are complaining why no one comes to the games... well, you have to put a decent product out there to attract people... the PA announcer is the worst I've ever heard in my life...! Hnestly, I just don't see the attendance going up anytime soon unless the game presentation improves... that and we need a few more W's

[therack]

I also forgot to add the FT shooting: JWill, our senior and captain has two FT to take one point lead with 37 sec. to go and he misses both. TCU's freshman (i forgot his name) gets fouled and nails both!!! Now, don't get me wrong: FT shooting is not as easy as it seems to most of you, especially at the critical point in the game. However, those two misses were HUGE!!! That could've been the difference in the game....

[papawasamustang]

Hey 25,
Great take on the game.
Agree100% with everything u said.

Hard to believe this squad hasn't made a 3
in the last 2 games & the FT %. Is horrible.

What a mess.

[Pony_Fan]

Thanks Rack, it's great hearing from your perspective as a player.