From Last to Champs in a Year

by **Stallion** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 11:40 am

UTEP clinched at least a co-Wac championship last Nite-after finishing in last place at 3-15 last year. Same coach who was an idiot last year is now a genius because of a great JUCO class including the trio of Filberto Rivera, Omar Thomas and Jason Williams. Look you can fire the Coach at SMU but SMU will still have to compete with the UTEPs, the Hawaiis, the Freson St, Nevadas and Boise Sts whose JUCOs and transfers have easily allowed them to overtake the SMU freshmen classes. Congrats Dement is gone-now what are you going to do about the other side of the equation-the uninterrupted series of championships by the schools that rely on these types of players.

by **DickerJames** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 12:39 pm

UTEP's recruiting policy has not changed. They have always been able to bring in JUCO's, so if you think coaching is all the same and JUCO's are all that matters, you are crazy.

by **Pony_Fan** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 2:29 pm

The Stallion broken record rant contines...posting the same message over and over isn't going to change anything. Copeland needs to be fired, JUCO's need to be admitted, and admission policies even less restrictive.....what else is new?

I don't care what you say, Dement needed to be gone...

by **BigEasyPony** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 2:43 pm

If anyone does not know what Stallion's position is on recuiting JUCO's please raise your hand.......................Anyone?.....Anyone?

by **Stallion** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 2:48 pm

No UTEP's recruiting policies didn't change-true. What did change? Without question and I defy anybody with any integrity to deny is that UTEP's top JUCO class last year simply stole the Championship. No SMU coach including Phil Bennett today could have gotten those kids in even today. For the sake of argument forget about Dement-heck forget SMU plays in the WAC-no rational person not employed by SMU could argue that UTEP and others like Boise St, Fresno, Nevada and Hawaii don't have a huge advantage over SMU and always will until the playing field is leveled.

by **Waz** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:39 pm

I think that I have asked this before Stallion, but who do you think would make a good coach at SMU? and/or Do you think that it doesn't make any difference at all because we cannot possibly be competitive regardless of who we hire?

by **Stallion** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 5:13 pm

I'm open-minded-think Blackman should at least be considered and I know Tubbs would the most reliable choice to do the best recruiting job. I'm not so sure if Sean's name wasn't Sutton that anybody would consider him. His father was just as good a coach before his son became an assistant. I'd interview him but quite frankly he's proven zero on his own probably even less than Tubbs who played a big role in recruiting some nice talent to SMU and won some state HS championships. And no I really don't believe it will make a great deal of long term difference if we can't generally go after the same type of players as our opponents. In BB JUCOs and transfers are much more important than in FB. Possible changes in eligibility rules make this a fluid situation I might add.

by **The PonyGrad** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 5:27 pm

Stallion wrote:In BB JUCOs and transfers are much more important than in FB.

Darn, right when I was about to say: "Well Stallion will get his chance to prove his JUCO theory if the QBs and WR JUCO bring a passing offense to SMU." Now you have gone and stated your out, in case it does not work. :wink:

by **Stallion** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:53 pm

I'd be willing to bet that all three SMU JUCOs were fully qualified out of High School-just like David Page-they are JUCOs only for the reason nobody wanted them out of High School although Eckert signed with Louisiana Laffeyette.

by **angryfan04** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:53 pm

Stallion - who said UTEP's coach was an idiot last year? This is his second year, so really the change was the new coach. UTEP's recruiting policies did not change. If you look at UTEP's teams last year and this year, you will see one thing in common - they played [deleted] defense. Dement's teams never did that on a consistent basis

by **Stallion** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:59 pm

Look they were 3-15 last year and in last place-if they had to build a program like SMU using only freshmen they wouldn't have won more than 4 games and may have been fighting it out with San Jose at the bottom. They won because of about 5 JUCOs they took last year- 3 of which are their most talent players. It would have taken UTEP AT LEAST 3 years to rebuild that program without the JUCO trio.

by **DickerJames** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 10:46 pm

TALENT is the key word in this argument. TALENTED Juco's can help a TALENTED coach produce a winning team FASTER. You so over simplify this argument. San Jose is in last place with nothing BUT Juco's, and UTEP was languishing in mediocrity with their Juco's before their current coach came on board.

If I'm not mistaken, it is my understanding that you don't actually attend SMU basketball games. If you had attended the UTEP game on Saturday and watched their pressure defense, you would understand why Gillispie will be the head coach at a BCS school in the very near future.

by **Stallion** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 9:49 am

No [deleted] Sherlock? Your damn right it takes talented JUCOs-something I reported UTEP got even before signing date last year.

by **DickerJames** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:55 am

Did you also know that some high school players are going strait to the NBA without ever attending a Junior College. Even more players that are Freshmen and Sophomores are jumping to the NBA. How can that be, because according to you a player can't be any good until he is a Junior College graduate.

Like I said, talent is the key. I am certainly not against us being able to bring in Juco's, but please quit acting like it is a cure all. Gillispie was able to turn his program around FASTER by getting TALLENTED juco's. Why couldn't his predesesor win with HIS juco's.

We gave Dement 9 years to give us a tourney team so it's not like he had a speed mandate.

by **Stallion** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 2:25 pm

thanks for lecture on how important it is to recruit the best talent-I personally never would have thought about that before!!!! You say there is a corelation between recruited talent and success? That's not what I've heard from the geniuses on this board. Yes recruiting (top) JUCO and transfer talent is a cure-all to just about every program SMU faces-that's a fact not opinion. But you have hit upon something with this "You've got to recruit the top talent thing..." I'll try to investigate further!!!! I'll check out the statistically possibility of how some teams that have JUCOs and transfers lose when almost all schools have JUCOs and transfers too.

From Last to Champs in a Year

From Last to Champs in a Year

Re:

Who is online