Mine's absolutely a biased opinion but I'd argue SMU is better than people thought.

No shame in losing to Larry Brown at his place. I'm hopeful Cincy and Louisville find out the same.

(02-01-2014 04:38 PM)Tygrys Wrote:  Marginal top 25 team with top 10 talent...

We do not have top 10 talent.

Lack another post rebounder/defender for that.

Quote:Cal made us big time and we WON big time games with some regularity (although not until Cal's 5th year). It was fun watching us (a) be in big time games and (b) WIN them.

I know people are down about the SMU game and we see fans yearning for yesteryear, evoking memories of Fredo's fabulous 4 year run. However, that run did not begin until his 6th season.

His 5th season was one when he lost 12 games including three at home to Mississippi, Providence, and Louisiana Tech. It ended with the infamous D-Wash missed FTs against Louisville and the NIT trip. People were frustrated with Fredo then.

No arguing with Fredo's terrific run 2006 - 09, with nearly all big games won. Well, except for the final 1:50 of the Kansas game down in San Antonio, of course. That was the perfect storm of hard events that denied MEMPHIS its title.

Pastner has won some big games this year (2nd OSU game, @ Louisville) but had some serious stinkers as well (1st OSU game, Cincy, @SMU). No, I don't include the UCOnn game because it was a 4 point game with 50 seconds left when Jackson missed that layup. The point is there is inconsistency that drives the fanbase nuts.

So is Pastner drifting from great coach (Louisville, OSU 2) to poor coach (SMU, OSU 1) over a period of weeks? He has preached the I-O offensive approach and recently focused on defense. Again, it's the inconsistency thing. The guards are experienced and the front line is young, not in shape, hitting freshman wall, etc. Teams that are physical and inside-oriented pose problems for MEMPHIS.

When the shots fall, MEMPHIS looks like a top 10 team. When they don't, they look like a first round NIT loser.

But even when the shooting is off, players can defend, rebound, shoot FTS, and show intensity/hustle. Those things can be done in each game by all players. It seems when teh shots aren't falling, this team tends to lose focus in the other four areas. Plus, as others pointed out yesterday, they let tough calls (or non calls) affect them. That is life on the road; it's going to happen. You must play through that.

I agree with those who say Pastner must start benching players who don't put out that effort in the four areas mentioned above. "Okay, your shots aren't falling today. Play 12-15 minutes and defend like a demon, get 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and make 90% of your FTS. That contributes to the effort."

This is all part of the evolution of Pastner and this team. There are 10 games left in the regular season. Let's play it all the way out and see where things stand on March 9.

(02-01-2014 07:35 PM)SMUleopold Wrote:  Mine's absolutely a biased opinion but I'd argue SMU is better than people thought.

No shame in losing to Larry Brown at his place. I'm hopeful Cincy and Louisville find out the same.

I believe it's how we lost not that we lost.

I agree with boss man. I think that's an honest evaluation. When we play outside in, and our outside shots drop, we can play with anybody. When they don't, we look bad, but we do it to ourselves.

As he noted, it is much more than just missing shots. We appear not to be mentally tough. When we get punched in the face, or when we can't get shots to fall, we tend to "get out of our game plan," as Chris Crawford said yesterday. We stop playing help D, we get out-rebounded even worse than usual, we lose the battle for loose balls, and we stop executing the offense.

I used to think coaching might be the issue, but not this year. We have proven we can play well against good teams, and even win a few. We have proven we can do all those things, when our effort is there (not just playing hard, but doing all those things that don't go into slumps). As boss man says, Pastner doesn't suddenly get good and bad with each game.

We did a great job of making adjustments against OSU the second time, and played a solid game, to win. We played great against Florida, even when we fell behind by 12 early. We didn't play great at Louisville, but hung in, played tough the last few minutes, and pulled out a great win.

Yesterday, we had one great run early, and were tied at the half. But SMU came out hot in the second half, and we didn't respond. We got beat by 17 points in about 6 1/2 minutes, and that was the game.

I thought the TV guys, who haven't seen us much this year, got it right. They said you could see us starting to panic, like a deer in the headlights. Our body language changed. We started griping at the refs, rather than getting where we needed to be on the floor, playing help defense, diving for loose balls, getting rebounds, executing the offense, etc. And we get worse with FTs, which is mostly concentration.

Highly frustrating. I'm sure the staff feels the same way. It's not like we don't know how to play. We've proven that we do know. But we tend to blink in and out, especially when things get rough.

At some point, it will fall on the coaches, but I'll let those who pay the salaries worry about that. I honestly think these players have the tools and resources and talent to make a run this year, at least to the S16. We'll see. I think it's mainly up to them.

(02-02-2014 09:59 AM)TripleA Wrote:  I agree with boss man. I think that's an honest evaluation. When we play outside in, and our outside shots drop, we can play with anybody. When they don't, we look bad, but we do it to ourselves.

As he noted, it is much more than just missing shots. We appear not to be mentally tough. When we get punched in the face, or when we can't get shots to fall, we tend to "get out of our game plan," as Chris Crawford said yesterday. We stop playing help D, we get out-rebounded even worse than usual, we lose the battle for loose balls, and we stop executing the offense.

I used to think coaching might be the issue, but not this year. We have proven we can play well against good teams, and even win a few. We have proven we can do all those things, when our effort is there (not just playing hard, but doing all those things that don't go into slumps). As boss man says, Pastner doesn't suddenly get good and bad with each game.

Coaching IS STILL an issue when he won't hold guys accountable. Shaq was getting out worked on the glass by Kennedy and we were down 25! Take him out!
We did a great job of making adjustments against OSU the second time, and played a solid game, to win. We played great against Florida, even when we fell behind by 12 early. We didn't play great at Louisville, but hung in, played tough the last few minutes, and pulled out a great win.

Yesterday, we had one great run early, and were tied at the half. But SMU came out hot in the second half, and we didn't respond. We got beat by 17 points in about 6 1/2 minutes, and that was the game.

I thought the TV guys, who haven't seen us much this year, got it right. They said you could see us starting to panic, like a deer in the headlights. Our body language changed. We started griping at the refs, rather than getting where we needed to be on the floor, playing help defense, diving for loose balls, getting rebounds, executing the offense, etc. And we get worse with FTs, which is mostly concentration.

Highly frustrating. I'm sure the staff feels the same way. It's not like we don't know how to play. We've proven that we do know. But we tend to blink in and out, especially when things get rough.

At some point, it will fall on the coaches, but I'll let those who pay the salaries worry about that. I honestly think these players have the tools and resources and talent to make a run this year, at least to the S16. We'll see. I think it's mainly up to them.

SMU was a desperate team coming off a bad loss , I expected a possible loss but was disappointed that it ended up that way. Big game with a more than likely top 25 and 21-3 Gonzaga team on Saturday is now a must win for seeding purposes.

Ranked 23rd this morning in Top 25 + one. Knew with so many top 25 teams getting beat this week it would be close even with our lackluster loss yesterday:

"The Tigers have three wins against schools ranked in the top 55 of the RPI and zero losses outside of the top 50."