UAB coach Mike Davis comments - cusa-fans.com

[mr. pony]

A Sinking Season?
Stunning Collapse Versus UAB Leaves SMU Reeling, 0-3 in C-USA
By Rick Atkinson for cusa-fans.com
http://www.cusa-fans.com/

DALLAS – It was a lead that looked invincible - sort of like that big boat that sailed from England in 1912: SMU, 50-26, with 15 minutes left to play. And like the RMS Titanic, this sucker went down in fantastic fashion.

UAB coach Mike Davis looked a bit stunned after his team’s fantastic 63-62 win at Moody Coliseum on Saturday night. “It’s the biggest comeback I’ve ever had,” Davis said. “I’ve never been 24 down and come back like that. Never.”

Cameron Moore’s lay-up with one minute remaining completed the Blazers’ 37-12 run and implausible comeback. SMU got nothing on two final possessions.

How on earth did SMU (6-10, 0-3) build such a lead in the first place? “We didn’t show up,” Davis said. “They played a hell of a game. Those guys played well. Matt had them playing hard. You’ve got to take your hat off to him.”

“We tried,” Davis said. “But their zone [defense] hurt us. It was the first time the zone hurt us all year. The second half, we just started pushing the ball in transition.”

Davis said he was most impressed with SMU guard Derek Williams as well as forward Robert Nyakundi and the Mustangs’ bench - especially in the first half, when SMU outshot UAB, 61 to 31 percent.

Williams led SMU with 23 points. Papa Dia, the only other Mustang in double-digits, added 11. Frank Otis and Williams had five rebounds each to lead SMU.




SMU coach Matt Doherty was so distraught by the evening’s events that he charged over to Davis and his deliriously happy team after the game and demanded they knock off the celebration.

“It’s one thing when you’re at home and celebrating,” Doherty said. “That’s different. But when you’re on the road, I don’t think you rub it in people’s faces. And that’s the way we took it. I felt like it was my job at that point to let them know.”

“I thought [the celebration] was excessive,” he said. “I understand, you’re going to celebrate. You’re going to get excited. But we already shook hands. And I thought it was excessive. That’s my opinion. [Davis] has a different opinion. That’s OK. That’s America.”

“I have a lot of respect for Mike,” Doherty said. “I like Mike. But I love my brother too and we get in fights.”

Williams didn’t seem as bugged by UAB’s euphoria. “You can say that’s not classy of them,” he said, “but at the same time, put ourselves in that situation and we’d probably be doing the same thing.”

Elijah Speaks

“This is way better than winning by 30,” said 6-6 guard Elijah Millsap, the Blazers’ leading scorer with 20 points. “To come into their house and be down 24 and just fight as hard as we fought - the bench, the coaches, everybody, the supporting cast we had - it was unbelievable.” Millsap also had a game-high 11 boards.

Millsap said he’d never been in a game like this - and wouldn’t mind doing it again. “It was fun,” he said.

Guard George Drake added 14 points and seven rebounds for UAB.

Millsap said Davis had strong words for the Blazers at halftime. “He really got into our tail about not being tough enough. [SMU] was really physical. We’re a team that doesn’t like getting out-toughed. … We came out and really put together what he wanted us to do: play tough, fight back.”

“We were really surprised [by SMU’s toughness,]” he added. “Coach had already told us that SMU was a team that usually gives us fits every year. We weren’t ready for it in the first half. We needed the wake-up call and we got it in the second half.”

“This is a game we will never forget.”

“Cam made a good play,” Millsap said of the game-winning shot. “[Aaron Johnson] passed it to him ahead of time, before he was supposed to get it, but Cam made a play. And it was a big-time play for us.”


SMU's Frank Otis, right, gets up high in the first half.

‘A Tough One’

“Well, that hurt,” was Doherty’s first post-game comment to the gathered media. Then, after a deep breath, he added, “Man, that was a tough one.”

Doherty pointed to UAB’s 21 points off turnovers and 10 second-chance points. “That’s 31 points you just can’t give a team. And we were 9-of-14 from the foul line.”

“On the bright side, if there is a bright side – and I’ve got to look at the bright side- our team played their tails off for a large portion of this game against one of the best teams in our conference and one of the better teams in the country. We’re getting better and we’ve got to keep fighting.”

How’d UAB (15-2, 3-0) do it? “We knew they were going to turn the heat up,” Doherty said, “and we got a little bit tentative and didn’t attack and didn’t cut hard, didn’t execute, didn’t meet passes, didn’t throw balls with confidence.”

Doherty said he didn’t consider calling timeout after Otis’ block and Dia’s rebound under UAB’s basket with ten seconds left. “Look at the shot we got,” Doherty said of Williams’ final lay-up try. “We’re not going to get a better shot by calling a timeout.”

Doherty said he thought Williams was fouled on the play. “Of course, I felt like I was fouled,” Williams grinned. “But I should have made the lay-up.”

For the second game in a row, sophomore guard Paul McCoy made no field goals, and this night, he attempted just one. His two turnovers down the stretch also played a pivotal role in UAB’s comeback, leading directly to five Blazer points.

The first, with SMU leading by 16 and eight minutes left, was a pass near the top the key that was picked off and dunked with a foul for a 3-point play. The episode, coming right after a Johnson 3, seemed it to ignite the Blazers’ final push.

“They wanted to take the ball out of Derek’s hands and make our secondary ball handler [McCoy] bring it up,” Doherty said. “Paul’s got to be able to handle that.”

(Mouhammad Faye, Otis and Harp also turned it over once each in the late minutes.)

McCoy played 25 minutes against UAB, (down from 40 last week against Tulsa), as Mike Walker and Ryan Harp collected 15 minutes each.

“Paul is one of the most important players in this program,” Doherty said. “We have a lot invested in him and will continue to have a lot invested in Paul. Because, in my mind, he’s the future of this program too. I’m not just playing for today. I’ve got to play for tomorrow, I’ve got to play for next year. He’s such a talent, we’ve got to work our way through this together.”

But time may be running out on this season.

Next two for SMU:
*Wed., Jan. 20, @ Rice, 7 p.m.
*Sat., Jan. 23, vs. Houston Baptist, 2 p.m.


SMU's Papa Dia

[SMU 86]

Good job mr pony.

[SoCal_Pony]

I think that pic of the stands tells it all

[Charleston Pony]

I think that pic of the stands tells it all

that "crowd" really looks excited. This was actually a game that should have caused some excitement among the few who attended

[mr. pony]

Good job mr pony.

Thanks, 86.

[Mustangsabu]

I was only there for the first half, but it was a lot of fun. The guys were playing GREAT! And against a good team too. I just hope that they can take some positives from this game.

Beat Rice!

[Pony Fan]

Beat ANYBODY!

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

I'm going to inject a little sunshine here after a really bad loss. . .in fact one of the worst SMU BB losses I have ever seen.

Right now we are in the depths of the valley. But I am confident that the BB infastructure is now in place for success with the right coach. Basically, SMU BB has been in a long slide downward since Dement's teams in the late 1990s failed to get over the hump. I think we have now reached the bottom of that slide. It increasingly looks like Doh is not the guy who is going to turn this thing around and Orsini may well go in a different direction soon. But for the first time in a while I feel like the right guy really will have a chance to build something successful here, and not just preside over a further slide into oblivion. We now have the facilities, the admissions process, and the commitment to build a winner. No one since Bliss has really had that at SMU for BB.

I guess I view it kind of like stock market psychology. . .when people really dispair and you experience market "capitulation", that is where the buying opportunities present themselves. I'm a strong buy for SMU basketball going forward.

[mr. pony]

I'm going to inject a little sunshine here after a really bad loss. . .in fact one of the worst SMU BB losses I have ever seen.

Right now we are in the depths of the valley. But I am confident that the BB infastructure is now in place for success with the right coach. Basically, SMU BB has been in a long slide downward since Dement's teams in the late 1990s failed to get over the hump. I think we have now reached the bottom of that slide. It increasingly looks like Doh is not the guy who is going to turn this thing around and Orsini may well go in a different direction soon. But for the first time in a while I feel like the right guy really will have a chance to build something successful here, and not just preside over a further slide into oblivion. We now have the facilities, the admissions process, and the commitment to build a winner. No one since Bliss has really had that at SMU for BB.

I guess I view it kind of like stock market psychology. . .when people really dispair and you experience market "capitulation", that is where the buying opportunities present themselves. I'm a strong buy for SMU basketball going forward.

Good point. It's sort of like getting the football stadium built, etc. It was a couple of coaches later that good things happened.

[Pony_Fan]

I hope that is correct Cotton Bowl!
There are maybe 500-1000 people at the games now, it is rock bottom. UNT and UTA probably do better.

on a side note: Mike Davis' coaches sure were yaking and coaching a lot more than Davis last night. He has 6 assistants I think I counted.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

I think cynicism about SMU BB is so high that even when the turn-around comes, its going to take a season or two for people to get back on board. Kind of like football this year. Even when it was clear that this FB team was different, there were still wide swaths of empty seats at Ford. I would anticipate the same for BB. At some point. . .and I am confident it will happen. . .the BB team is going to turn it around and have a very good season. I would anticipate that turn-around season will be on display before a largely empty Moody Col. Only when people are presented with hard evidence of the turn-around (ie. a tourney bid in the proceeding year and several returning contributors) will they begin to take notice once again and start showing up.

But the bottom line is that BB is not FB. . .there is no BCS with its foot on the throats of mid-major programs. If Pepperdine, Gonzaga, Pacific, Butler, Weber State, George Mason, etc. can have successful BB programs, then there is absolutely NO REASON (any more, that is) that SMU can't as well. Go Mustangs!

[EastStang]

Obviously, a half-full glass person will see this game as a sign of improvement. A solid game against a excellent team that we could have won. A glass half-empty person views this as another sign of that the apocalypse is upon us in that we blew a huge lead to pull a loss from the jaws of victory. Both are right, of course. The fact of the matter is that the glass is exactly half-full and half-empty. We are not as good as we should be. Is that a reason to burn it down and start over again? Perhaps, or perhaps not. I am troubled by the fact that our talent seems to play to the level of our opposition. This has been true throughout Doherty's reign here at SMU. We lose to teams who we have no business losing to, and we play well against teams who should slaughter us. Which of course is why this always comes back to coaching.

[SoCal_Pony]

SMU's Frank Otis, right, gets up high in the first half.

If you removed everything BB related from this pic and focused only on the fans, you would guess they were either a) waiting for a dental appointment, b) sitting on a bus, or c) going to the toilet....nobody would suspect attending a D-1 BB game.

There appears to be more purple in the stands than red / blue.

How many college basketball programs have 1 solitary fan sitting directly behind their home teams' bench.....well, at least she seems genuinely into the game.

[Pony_Fan]

Obviously, a half-full glass person will see this game as a sign of improvement. A solid game against a excellent team that we could have won. A glass half-empty person views this as another sign of that the apocalypse is upon us in that we blew a huge lead to pull a loss from the jaws of victory. Both are right, of course. The fact of the matter is that the glass is exactly half-full and half-empty. We are not as good as we should be. Is that a reason to burn it down and start over again? Perhaps, or perhaps not. I am troubled by the fact that our talent seems to play to the level of our opposition. This has been true throughout Doherty's reign here at SMU. We lose to teams who we have no business losing to, and we play well against teams who should slaughter us. Which of course is why this always comes back to coaching.

I think it really comes down to mediocre talent that plays up and down. Williams is the only guy on the team that is consistent. Dia is much improved though. The killer instinct is missing to close out games. College of Charleston is another example.

[Crong]

I forgot about this until it was shown on the world wide leader last night. It reminded me of the UAB game post game fun.

Start at the 1:42 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxxCWbde6sc