This win felt different

[SmooBoy]

Kind of hard to explain, but for the first time since the first Hawaii Bowl win, the last two minutes felt like we were watching something different from an SMU team: a winner making extraordinary plays. It must be what many other schools' fans regularly experience, that our fan base has been starved of for years.

Anyone else feel the same?

[East Coast Mustang]

The best feeling I've had about SMU sports in awhile was the run we went on this time last year beating three ranked teams at home in a six-week span: UConn, Memphis, and Cincy. And two of those wins (Memphis and Cincy) were absolute ass-kickings

[The Falcon]

For 28 minutes it felt like the same old wretched road game that we play
much too frequently, but you are right this was the biggest comeback win SMU
has had since LB has been here - so in that sense it was different.

I felt like Markus kept us in striking distance but the rest of the starters didn't do much on offense. Ben Moore has disappeared - he AND Yanick couldn't seem to hold on to the ball and Nic and Keith couldn't pass it.

Thank God for Markus and for Nic in the last 2 minutes. Our record looks good but the turnovers make us look very sloppy and undisciplined. Hope we get better on the road.

[Zippy79]

A big Road Win for us tonight. We absolutely had to have it and it's a good start to begin building a guaranteed spot in the tournament...But if we don't start defending the 3 point line we will have a major problem not just in conference play but in the Big Dance.
I mean these 3's we are giving up are wide open!!

[ponyboy]

Agreed, and I'm not defending our three point defense (which has been a problem all season, along with turnovers). But we did adjust and move out to the perimeter defensively in the second half. There is something to the adage "live by the three, die by the three."

[Stallion]

Our 3 point Defense is in about the Top 20% in the Nation-its not as bad as some suggest. Can it improve yes-but most team throw up a bunch of 3 pointers throwing the ball around the perimeter because they can't penetrate our defense. SMU is No. 32 in the Nation is Defensive Shooting percentage about Top 8% in the Country

[ponyinNC]

Some players need to do a better job closing out on 3 point shooters - KF and Moreira in this game specifically.

[mrydel]

When legs get tired in the 2nd half the 3 point percentage goes down.

Game reminded me of the Doherty days if you put Temple in the role of SMU. How often we would build good leads in the 2nd half to see them dwindle and then disappear. Nice to be on the other side now.

[Nacho]

we shut them down in the 2nd half.

[Zippy79]

The biggest problem I have is that opponents are making almost as many 3's as we are shooting and these lower scoring games that can make the difference in the game. For example last night Temple made 8 3's and we shot 10 and made 2. That's a difference of 18 pts and I'm not saying that I want us jacking 30 3's a game but we need to shoot a few more because you are playing a little bit of Russian roulette with the percentages.
This will come back to bite us at some point and it already has hurt us at times this season.

[Morris Code 11]

Another issue with not taking any 3s is the opposing defense packs the lane because their isn't sufficient spacing, which lessens margin for error...and as a result you get tons of turnovers.

The only good passer on our team is Markus, if you think Nic is a good passer you haven't been paying attention. I can't wait til Barefield gets here and actually runs the O, while Nic can get to his true spot as a 2 and dominate off ball. We made that run when Larry finally sat Nic down and pulled his head out, ball started flowing better and Markus got touches. Then, Nic got in and did his thing. If MK and Nic are on at the same time, we are tough to beat.

MORE STERLING BROWN

[ponyte]

This was a solid road win and very much needed. But to me it wasn't a good win outside of that. The defense, turnovers, and lack of execution on offense in the first half was was a disappointment. The improved defense the second half is what saved us. Yes, we got the points in the clutch but without defense we would never have been in the position to have clutch pints late in the game. This reminded me of the Cinncy game except the opponent wasn't as athletic as Cinncy. It hard to get really excited about this team until this team consistently plays well for 40 minutes game in and game out.

[EastStang]

Temple is a good team. They've beaten some very good teams this year. So, it is no surprise that they would do everything they could to keep us from getting the ball inside and make us take outside shots. Our outside shooters had an off night. And the turnovers for the most part came from trying to force the ball inside. We showed some guts and made some great adjustments. The fact that we stuck to our game plan forcing them to take 3's worked out in the end. When you have a team that shoots 35% from the 3's and was shooting about 60% in the first half, you have to believe that's not going to continue at that rate and if it does kudos to them. Some of those shots were uncontested, others were contested and some were shot from Delaware they were so far out. We won in the paint where all basketball is won.

[LA_Mustang]

Temple beat Kansas three weeks ago by 25. Their only other loss at home was to Tulsa and they win that game if Cummings doesn't get injured.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

The last 10 minutes of the first half was appalling. It reminded me of a Doh team playing against tough competition on the road. The last 10 minutes of the second half was awesome. It reminded me that this thing has come a long, long way since the Doh years.

Let's kick ECU's [deleted] and keep this thing rolling!