GAME THREAD: men's basketball vs. Temple

[PonyPride]

Williamson double-double
15 points (7/11 shooting), 12 rebounds

[Charleston Pony]

When Williamson shoots well this team is tough to beat

[PonyPride]

Jahlil White fouls out for Temple

Ricardo Wright hits 2 FTs

SMU 77, Temple 64

34.6 seconds to go

[PonyPride]

FINAL
SMU 77, Temple 64

SMU improves to 12-5 overall, 3-1 in AAC games

Up next: 2 PM Saturday at home vs. Tulsa

[highlander]

Urkel found the fountain of youth!!!

[Charleston Pony]

SMU hits 22-25 FTs to put this game away. Another great team effort

[Hop Sing]

Didn’t get to see the game, but it’s great to see another double digit win. Have to win these games against the mid to lower teams in conference, and I hope we can win the upper ones as well!

[highlander]

In order to make the tournament, I think we need to win 12 of the next 14 games to finish 24-7, AND we need to get to the conference tournament final. Does anyone think we need to do more or less?

[shadowman]

In order to make the tournament, I think we need to win 12 of the next 14 games to finish 24-7, AND we need to get to the conference tournament final. Does anyone think we need to do more or less?

That sounds about right, but who we lose to matters. The only quality losses left would be at UNT, Memphis, and at FAU. I think it will also be important to beat Memphis at home.

Really need our lil buddies up in Denton to keep winning since we still play them twice, a couple of wins against UNT would be good resume boosters. Then split between Memphis and at FAU.

From a NET perspective, it was really great to end up with a 13 point win, we only dropped one position in the rankings, from 38 to 39. If the score woulda ended up closer, like it was most of the game, we coulda tumbled 10 spots.

Take care of business against Tulsa at home and then set up the big game against UNT up in Denton. Need the fans to travel to that one, I will definitely be there. That hopefully will be a Quad 1 game when all is said and done.

[Hop Sing]

That’s a really high bar, but if they do it then I think they get in. The game in Denton next week is going to tell us a lot. Have they learned how to win a close game? Going to be a lot of those coming up, so we shall see.

[GHammond]

Williamson starting to play like the player maybe we thought he was...good! We need him to perform. #key

[Topper]

We have a long way to go and last night's game proved that we can't take any conference games, or leads in those games, for granted. But I liked the maturity our guys showed last night and that they didn't crater and collapse in the final 10 minutes. As I said before, when we hit FTs, especially on the road, we will be competitive. I see this team being a pretty solid NIT hopeful. The NCAA is going to be a tough nut to crack but it will be a really fun season if we are still in the hunt headed into the conference tournament. We need to start whipping up enthusiasm to get our fans out to Fort Worth. After this season the conference tournament won't be a 35 minute drive from campus. The Dickey Arena should be like a home game for us.

[Charleston Pony]

We need to start whipping up enthusiasm to get our fans out to Fort Worth. After this season the conference tournament won't be a 35 minute drive from campus. The Dickey Arena should be like a home game for us.

We need to work on filling Moody 1st. A little better last night but it would be nice to see 6k for Tulsa and I certainly hope Moody will be packed against UNT & Memphis and mostly with SMU fans!

[Charleston Pony]

Williamson starting to play like the player maybe we thought he was...good! We need him to perform. #key

Williamson contributes significantly night in and night out but don't expect him to be among the leading scorers on a regular basis. Very unselfish team player who often guards the most talented big on the opposing team. He showed a nice mid range touch last night that basically helped take Temple out of their zone that had given us fits. We had 6 guys score 6 or more points and 3 in double figures. Four guys had 3 assists or more which tells me these guys have good chemistry and are really getting comfortable playing with each other.

I just hope this team makes it to the post season and continues to improve under Lanier but we are really going to miss Williamson next year.

[Charleston Pony]

That’s a really high bar, but if they do it then I think they get in. The game in Denton next week is going to tell us a lot. Have they learned how to win a close game? Going to be a lot of those coming up, so we shall see.

That game last night was a close game as Temple actually took a 57-56 lead with 7:35 to play. Our guys finished on a 21-7 run to put it away and make it look like an easy win but we were only up 4 points with 2:52 left to play. What started out as a 15-0 potential blowout turned into a "more exciting than I wanted it to be" game. Our guys made 13-14 FTs in that 2nd half causing Coach Lanier to joke in his post game interview about how "he had taken over coaching FTs after Memphis" adding that the next time we shoot poorly will be because he turned that aspect of coaching over to someone else on the staff