LB in the house for Houston game

[lollaperuna]

The question is in the early days could our legit recruiting staff had landed people to smu without the promise of playing for LB? Unknowable. Now they can sell come play on the best team in the American conference.

There is simply no way we blast into relevance as quickly as we did with any other head coach. And it wasn't as much about the recruiting as it was the coaching, the "play the right way" and the winning tradition he instilled.

Nicely said. We were the dregs of college basketball and Larry completely transformed every facet of the program. Give the assistants all the credit you want for landing recruits, but they couldn't have landed them without Larry. Except for an occasional tweet, we have gotten zero mention on any of the major sports websites this year and that is all due to not having Larry. Winning big will take care of that, but it has been a massive drop off and is another example of what Larry brought to the program.

[SoCal_Pony]

Love me some LB, but I view this differently than most.

LB didn't make SMU BB, LB simply proved what many thought about SMU all along. BB was a sleeping giant.

I remember posting to Marquette fans who were incredulous that Buzz Williams would even consider leave them for SMU. I said SMU & UT should be battling for BB supremacy in this region. Thankfully LB somewhat proved this and we should be eternally grateful to him. I now seriously doubt we will turn back to the old days.

Like Jank a lot, really want him to succeed. If not, we'll replace him with something better.

And as for statues, the next one in line should be Payne Stewart. No rush to build it, but it becomes a priority if we ever host a Major tournament here. Don't laugh, Lee Trevino thinks we can. Again, how many schools can make this claim.

[sadderbudweiser]

And as for statues, the next one in line should be Payne Stewart. No rush to build it, but it becomes a priority if we ever host a Major tournament here. Don't laugh, Lee Trevino thinks we can. Again, how many schools can make this claim.

My neighbor on Rosedale and good friend. I'll second that.

[hoopmanx]

Love me some LB, but I view this differently than most.

LB didn't make SMU BB, LB simply proved what many thought about SMU all along. BB was a sleeping giant.

I remember posting to Marquette fans who were incredulous that Buzz Williams would even consider leave them for SMU. I said SMU & UT should be battling for BB supremacy in this region. Thankfully LB somewhat proved this and we should be eternally grateful to him. I now seriously doubt we will turn back to the old days.

Like Jank a lot, really want him to succeed. If not, we'll replace him with something better.

And as for statues, the next one in line should be Payne Stewart. No rush to build it, but it becomes a priority if we ever host a Major tournament here. Don't laugh, Lee Trevino thinks we can. Again, how many schools can make this claim.

Good take and accurate. We were a sleeping giant, our schools profile speaks to hoops success. Commitment made us good, Brown just fast tracked it by a year or two. Those who say our staff wouldn't have got kids w/o Browns rep, don't know recruiting. In many ways, we had to overcome it. Most of the kids we were recruiting didn't know him, their parents did in some cases, but he wasn't relevant to 16 y/o's. He was also known for not playing rookies or young players, see the '04 Olympics where he iced Melo and Lebron.

[lollaperuna]

LOL the "sleeping giant" was in a permanent coma until Larry arrived. It's true that if the school hadn't made a commitment to facilities and the money men hadn't shelled out the cash then a coach of Larry's caliber wouldn't have taken the job, but lets not forget that we swung and whiffed on every big name coach we tried to throw our money at before Larry came on the scene.

If money and so called commitment was all it took to go from last to first then there wouldn't be a sucky team in the so called power 4.

[hoopmanx]

LOL the "sleeping giant" was in a permanent coma until Larry arrived. It's true that if the school hadn't made a commitment to facilities and the money men hadn't shelled out the cash then a coach of Larry's caliber wouldn't have taken the job, but lets not forget that we swung and whiffed on every big name coach we tried to throw our money at before Larry came on the scene.

If money and so called commitment was all it took to go from last to first then there wouldn't be a sucky team in the so called power 4.

Sleeping giant refers to SMU being a mid-sized private, w/money, urban location, proximity to recruiting and facilities. Commitment connects the dots. If you look at the hoops landscape, there are more than several models w/the exact same make up. Its was never a reach to suggest we were a sleeping giant that just needed to commit at the highest level. Sadly, there are far fewer models in football w real success, that look anything like SMU, far fewer. In hoops, we're one of many, in football it would almost be an aberration.

Orsini ran a God awful search, but was also aided and hampered by octogenarian deep pockets, the same that gave us our financial commitment. In the end, they only wanted a name brand, similar to the infusion Junesus gave us. We may have swung and missed a bunch, but that's b/c our search was prospected so poorly. IF we had targeted make sense guys, we'd have had a good up n comer in no time flat. I know of 3 that are now young coaching stars that wanted in, that we passed on b/c the muckity mucks preferred a larger name. Now, that big name, had a coaching tree that put our program together, not Brown himself.

Our program was built by a think tank that included Cal, Turgeon, Self and World Wide Wes. Do we think Brown knew who Ulric Maligi was or Snacks? Hell no. Our first 2 years, we had like 15 guys in suits, two rows deep, behind our bench at every game. If anyone thought that was going to end well, w/the oversight of an NBA guy who didnt care about academics, stealth, established back channels, then that's ignorant. Our first 18 months was a master study in being the most overt corrupt program in America. Then, we got busted for the smallest of our infractions in record time. People get pissed at the NCAA for last year and that's a joke. Be happy we didn't get far worse. Feel sorry for the kids, but don't wear blinders.

Ive never been a Jank fanboy, though he's turning me, but this was all about money and commitment. Give any of the up n comers I knew of, the same stock pile, and we're maybe one year back of where we are now, a tourney team, and no sanctions. All that said, LB was a boss and a joy to watch coach.

[Comet]

Can you name any of those up and comers? I'm much more tuned-in on the football side of young coaches.

[hoopmanx]

Chris Collins and Archie Miller are two

[lwjr]

LOL the "sleeping giant" was in a permanent coma until Larry arrived. It's true that if the school hadn't made a commitment to facilities and the money men hadn't shelled out the cash then a coach of Larry's caliber wouldn't have taken the job, but lets not forget that we swung and whiffed on every big name coach we tried to throw our money at before Larry came on the scene.

If money and so called commitment was all it took to go from last to first then there wouldn't be a sucky team in the so called power 4.

Sleeping giant refers to SMU being a mid-sized private, w/money, urban location, proximity to recruiting and facilities. Commitment connects the dots. If you look at the hoops landscape, there are more than several models w/the exact same make up. Its was never a reach to suggest we were a sleeping giant that just needed to commit at the highest level. Sadly, there are far fewer models in football w real success, that look anything like SMU, far fewer. In hoops, we're one of many, in football it would almost be an aberration.
I really enjoy your insight and comments. Thanks for sharing them

Orsini ran a God awful search, but was also aided and hampered by octogenarian deep pockets, the same that gave us our financial commitment. In the end, they only wanted a name brand, similar to the infusion Junesus gave us. We may have swung and missed a bunch, but that's b/c our search was prospected so poorly. IF we had targeted make sense guys, we'd have had a good up n comer in no time flat. I know of 3 that are now young coaching stars that wanted in, that we passed on b/c the muckity mucks preferred a larger name. Now, that big name, had a coaching tree that put our program together, not Brown himself.

Our program was built by a think tank that included Cal, Turgeon, Self and World Wide Wes. Do we think Brown knew who Ulric Maligi was or Snacks? Hell no. Our first 2 years, we had like 15 guys in suits, two rows deep, behind our bench at every game. If anyone thought that was going to end well, w/the oversight of an NBA guy who didnt care about academics, stealth, established back channels, then that's ignorant. Our first 18 months was a master study in being the most overt corrupt program in America. Then, we got busted for the smallest of our infractions in record time. People get pissed at the NCAA for last year and that's a joke. Be happy we didn't get far worse. Feel sorry for the kids, but don't wear blinders.

Ive never been a Jank fanboy, though he's turning me, but this was all about money and commitment. Give any of the up n comers I knew of, the same stock pile, and we're maybe one year back of where we are now, a tourney team, and no sanctions. All that said, LB was a boss and a joy to watch coach.

[Prideful Pony]

@hoopmanx, you may not be able to divulge but any chance you could lift the curtain a bit on what the stealth/back channels/"right" way looks like? It seems to be something that's only obliquely mentioned with most details left to our imagination.

Don't want to burn a source or get a specific on our recruitment, just generally understand how it works in college basketball. Maybe there's an article or post somewhere that explains.

[No Quarter]

The question is in the early days could our legit recruiting staff had landed people to smu without the promise of playing for LB? Unknowable. Now they can sell come play on the best team in the American conference.

There is simply no way we blast into relevance as quickly as we did with any other head coach. And it wasn't as much about the recruiting as it was the coaching, the "play the right way" and the winning tradition he instilled.

Nicely said. We were the dregs of college basketball and Larry completely transformed every facet of the program. Give the assistants all the credit you want for landing recruits, but they couldn't have landed them without Larry. Except for an occasional tweet, we have gotten zero mention on any of the major sports websites this year and that is all due to not having Larry. Winning big will take care of that, but it has been a massive drop off and is another example of what Larry brought to the program.

Mostly I agree - IMO the TV coverage is reduced and somewhat less accessible although I don't have the numbers. Part of the problem for 2016-17 is that the current bunch apparently has less potential than the last two but not having LB to talk about also makes a difference. I do hope they get a chance in the NCQAA's.

[ponyinNC]

for perspective...I remember how overjoyed I was when we hired Doherty after his stint at UNC. I thought we had arrived. LOL

[ponyboy]

I still say our basketball resurgence was a perfect storm:

1. Yes, sleeping giant. But giants can go on sleeping forever -- they don't have to wake up.

2. The new Moody.

3. LB

You needed all three for the explosion that has occurred, for Moody Magic. This has been more fun to me than even the Pony Express was when I was a teenager.

BTW, if LB was still here and with the same record and same team as now we would be ranked about 19. We lost cachet when he left. Having said that, I'm glad he moved on. We don't need another DP.

[RI Stang]

Some nice press today in articles from Rothstein and Davis. The national media is starting to notice (even without LB), but obviously we need to keep taking care of business leading in to that showdown with Cincy on 2/12.

[mustangxc]

I disagree on not being ranked because Jankovich is the coach and not Brown. The numbers suggest we are in the 25-30 range and that is where the AP poll has us. Had we taken care of business at Boise State we would already be ranked. Give it a couple of weeks and as long as we keep winning we will be in the Top 25 poll.