My Thoughts on the Arkansas Game

[shadowman]

First of all, it was a shame how well Arkansas shot in the first 10 minutes of the game, that put us in a hole. Secondly, poor free throw shooting in the first half coupled with the hogs shooting lights out put us down too much.

BUT, SMU handled the press really well, was not a problem for us, in fact, Arkansas backed off of the "forty minutes of hell" because SMU was getting easy baskets. Our scores were so easy, layups and dunks, unfortunately we also missed too many chippies....

Bottom line, SMU grew up in the second half and showed they have a pretty damn good team, I am encouraged by this game and think we can grow from it.

My advice to Larry, take the chains off Nic Moore, when it was nut cutting time, he was shooting crazy stuff, he can score any where at any time, go with it. Ben Moore looked really good, Cunningham did too, thought he should have more minutes.

Crandall Head, bless his heart, he played hard, was in good position many times, but missed so many easy shots. Got to make those.

SMU grew up in this game and and I feel reallly good about this team going forward.

Most encouraging loss I have ever seen.

Go Ponies!

[PonyKris89]

Most encouraging loss I have ever seen.

Go Ponies!

Your recap is dead on.

Can't wait for Wednesday and REALLY can't wait for ThankgGiving Tourney(friday-Sat) in Corpus.

[OhioBrownFan]

The Virginia match-up is one to look forward to. Go into a hostile environment and a definite tourney team, see how the team responds there with a few more games to get acclimated with one another. Either way, outlook is certainly bright and I think everyone on here already knows how much love I got for Nic Moore. Loved his game through high school and still love it at the collegiate level.

[GiddyUp]

I love the Moore's, they are both going to be fun to watch. That hole was ridiculous to get out of. Just way too many errors and poor judgement. Hopefully it gets much better and hope Frazier is ok.

[ojaipony]

I think you and I watched a different game. We were absolutely flat for about 70% of the game (what dunks? I think we had ONE). Manuel and Kennedy are overrated. In fact, we all are so thirsty for wins we have completely over sold this team. They are good, no doubt. But about a 500 club in the AAC (15+ wins are going to be tough to get to). Hopefully, next year, we make a run for the tourney. It definitely ain't happening this year.

[Stallion]

.500 in the AAC wouldn't be that bad-that would get us to about 20-12 going into the AAC tournament wouldn't it in the best basketball league we've played in decades. I don't think you realize how programs are built. We might hope for more but that would a lot of momentum to keep building the program. Frazier needs to make his case to show he deserves to start-relax and see if he does. He won't ride the bench for long if he shows he is ready. I love following recruiting and think its essential but in Football and Basketball you are too anxious to just hand a guy a starting position. You're still talking about starting Holloway at DE on defense when he is playing OT, only played high school Football for 2 years and hasn't played for 3 years

[ojaipony]

.500 in the AAC wouldn't be that bad-that would get us to about 20-12 going into the AAC tournament wouldn't it in the best basketball league we've played in decades. I don't think you realize how programs are built. We might hope for more but that would a lot of momentum to keep building the program. Frazier needs to make his case to show he deserves to start-relax and see if he does. He won't ride the bench for long if he shows he is ready. I love following recruiting and think its essential but in Football and Basketball you are too anxious to just hand a guy a starting position. You're still talking about starting Holloway at DE on defense when he is playing OT, only played high school Football for 2 years and hasn't played for 3 years

Yes, I agree with everything you are saying. I've said the exact same thing that you've written above in your first and third sentence above many times. (and I'm saying we are a 500 club BECAUSE we are in the AAC - I think we lose more games than we win in conference play but that is a big improvement given that the AAC is a great bball conference - I've compared it to being almost the equivalent of the Big12 in football). I just think you play your talent. Period. And, at SMU, that talent has typically been abysmal for 25 years so when you get someone like Frazier (and Minor and etc etc) you play them. Make them BENCH you vs the other way around. I do a lot of executive coaching, and I understand team building/winning, etc. I just agree with what both Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer said - they said it's funny how the better players they got the better coaches they became (meaning that it's all about talent).

I don't want to get into a [deleted] match with you. I respect your views and am really glad my alma mater has someone like you (we need 100 more just like you). These are my opinions and, as I've stated numerous times, I could be very wrong.

[shadowman]

I think you and I watched a different game. We were absolutely flat for about 70% of the game (what dunks? I think we had ONE). Manuel and Kennedy are overrated. In fact, we all are so thirsty for wins we have completely over sold this team. They are good, no doubt. But about a 500 club in the AAC (15+ wins are going to be tough to get to). Hopefully, next year, we make a run for the tourney. It definitely ain't happening this year.

The SMU points came easy, in the paint, was not that hard to get there, we showed we had the talent to pound the paint, we missed more easy ones than we should have and shot a dreadful free throw percentage in the first half.

I did watch this game, SMU scored at will, got to the basket at will, and when we finally shook off the nerves mid way through the second half, we showed we had a great team with great athletes.

KIEY POINT, "40 minutes of hell", we flicked off that full court press like it was nothing. These kids learned tonight and this won't happen again, I don't see them losing another game for a long time to come.

[hoopmanx]

ojai never posts on the hoops board and now overruns the place w/his opinion/theory on kids he's seen play maybe 2 or 3 times. Undoubtedly a great guy, but slow your roll. Can't take anything from last nights game as it pertains to the year. Why would I listen to anyone prognosticate on the year w/any reliability, when I know they don't know the opposing teams rosters, or haven't watched most of them? I don't accept we lose to Temple b/c they are Temple, just like I didn't expect us to roll TCU. This is game to game stuff this year. If you had told me no Frazier going into

Furthermore, even if Frazier was showing out, Brown starts upperclassmen. See the 2004 Olympics where he benched Lebron/Melo in favor of older guys. Its what he does and has always done. So, you are either w.Larry Brown and his long standing methods or not. Furthermore, how is anyone on this team overrated? Who has rated any of them? IF anything, Frazier is coming in below expectations while others are exceeding them.

SMU has just as good a chance at making major waves during conference as it has flailing, that's why its a fun year. The key is getting one big win OOC and taking no bad losses.

[CalallenStang]

The Virginia match-up is one to look forward to. Go into a hostile environment and a definite tourney team, see how the team responds there with a few more games to get acclimated with one another. Either way, outlook is certainly bright and I think everyone on here already knows how much love I got for Nic Moore. Loved his game through high school and still love it at the collegiate level.

Agree on the Virginia game, though I don't think it will be that hostile of an environment - we will face a much more hostile environment if we face Texas A&M in the next game. There just aren't many Virginia fans in Corpus Christi

[CalallenStang]

My thoughts on the Arkansas game: We are an 18-win (+/- a few) NIT team. As I have said since the Frazier commitment

[Harry0569]

Because of all the new pieces, I don't think that you really can put too much stock in any one game before conference play. LB is still tinkering with rotations and minutes. While I'm mad that the game got away from us in the first 10 minutes of the game, I was happy to see us mount a comeback.

"The Mustangs outscored Arkansas 41-16 in the paint, led by Moore, but Arkansas had 20 points off 18 SMU turnovers.

Arkansas led 46-30 at halftime, thanks in large part to an 8-of-14 shooting effort on 3-pointers.

The Razorbacks, who hit just 30 percent of their 3-pointers last season, were just 2 of 13 from behind the arc in a win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday -- a game after opening the season 8 of 16."

Because my feed was TERRIBLE, I couldn't really watch the rotations on their 3 balls. Could someone clarify was it poor rotations (i.e. leaving open shooters) or were they just getting lucky as hell.

----

Time to look forward to curb stomping Texas State.

[Harry0569]

The Virginia match-up is one to look forward to. Go into a hostile environment and a definite tourney team, see how the team responds there with a few more games to get acclimated with one another. Either way, outlook is certainly bright and I think everyone on here already knows how much love I got for Nic Moore. Loved his game through high school and still love it at the collegiate level.

Agree on the Virginia game, though I don't think it will be that hostile of an environment - we will face a much more hostile environment if we face Texas A&M in the next game. There just aren't many Virginia fans in Corpus Christi

UVA people are EVERYWHERE. It's terrifying

[SMU 86]

If this team were in CUSA last year they would have been rated 2nd behind Memphis and would win well over 20 games imo.

[lwjr]

My thoughts: Yea there were lots of mistakes and Arkansas was probably was not much better than SMU, I had to listen on the radio. Larry Brown and his staff are busting their butts and they are building something special. It is fun to see the energy he brings and how others are feeding off of it.
Bottom line, SMU is 2-1. Learn and move on.