Final Game Thoughts SMU

[I.I.]

1. SMU has better players and would beat us probably 9-10 times.

2. But today they gave us a chance and we still gave the game up at the free throw line where no one is guarding us. Missed some one and ones and many others. SMU was 19-23 from the line.

3. Lots of silly turnovers by both teams.

4. We have no way to stop big teams inside. Brown was wanting them to post up more rather than shooting outside.

5. Woodard broke the school record for threes. It is hard to imagine how that could happen in a loss.

6. I think we can still beat Cincy in the tournament. They are not nearly as good as SMU IMHO. I would not want to play UConn there.

7. We have a slim shot if we were to win the quarters, the semis against Cincy, as the final against SMU would be coming down to the shot clock on the committee and CBS who wants the bracket 30-45 minutes before their show to get things ready.

8. But a good regular season after a poor start...same as last year.

9. Needs are OBVIOUS. A really good three point shooter who can make open threes AND a post man who can score against good bigs. Our other players are really good.

 

[youngblood223]

Originally posted by I.I.:

1. SMU has better players and would beat us probably 9-10 times.

2. But today they gave us a chance and we still gave the game up at the free throw line where no one is guarding us. Missed some one and ones and many others. SMU was 19-23 from the line.

3. Lots of silly turnovers by both teams.

4. We have no way to stop big teams inside. Brown was wanting them to post up more rather than shooting outside.

5. Woodard broke the school record for threes. It is hard to imagine how that could happen in a loss.

6. I think we can still beat Cincy in the tournament. They are not nearly as good as SMU IMHO. I would not want to play UConn there.

7. We have a slim shot if we were to win the quarters, the semis against Cincy, as the final against SMU would be coming down to the shot clock on the committee and CBS who wants the bracket 30-45 minutes before their show to get things ready.

8. But a good regular season after a poor start...same as last year.

9. Needs are OBVIOUS. A really good three point shooter who can make open threes AND a post man who can score against good bigs. Our other players are really good.

I don't agree with 1 at all. We have some advantages on them, but as a whole, they have more options. That's just hyperbole and an overreaction.

We need a back-to-back basket scorer but Idk if you've noticed, they're really hard to find. But if we can get a couple of bigs that can rebound and block shots, we'll be fine.

 

[bigzit]

II....
I think Tulsa BB comes down to 1 thing right now.... TALENT UPGRADE. We have parts, but certainly not the whole for a top 7 league like this. Also... the rest of the league is recruiting very good talent. Arguably this could be a Top 6 and even a Top 5 RPI league in another year or two...

BOTTOM LINE: Haith better get some of the missing pieces before June.

 

[astonmartin708]

It's too bad that our scholarship limit is filled up. We have a good 3 shooter coming in with Birt... But the fact that Haith went out and grabbed Taplin kind of amazes me when we have such a desperate need for another quality big man. You have to think Reps, & Big E will be gone come next fall.

I still think Littlejohn can help given any minutes... How much of a waste was burning that redshirt though. Sheesh!

 

[drboobay]

People we finished 2nd in this league. Cannot say our talent is inferior.
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[T Up]

Bingo!

This team needs 3 players to go with Shaq and Juice. A really good team has a much better 3,4,&5 than we do. Ray, Smith, and all our bigs are fine as backups bringing energy with the second unit but not as starters. Smith is the closest but just can't seem to slow the game down enough to stop the misses and turn overs. And Ray is unique but he will only be a spark plug off the bench. None of our bigs qualify as starters but I love Swanny's intensity and he and TJ have shown a willingness to improve. Perhaps one of them can step it up another level to be a contributing starter.

Don't think we can replace three starters by next year but we need to start now. There is a big gap coming in two years!

 

[I.I.]

Originally posted by drboobay:
People we finished 2nd in this league. Cannot say our talent is inferior.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Talent is only inferior to SMU (and everybody except really blue and gold glasses will agree on that) and we don't have the bigs of Cincy. But SMU will graduate some (well maybe that is too strong to say for SMU) and all our good players are back. We have to have another big like Kennedy to compete at this level and one more three point shooter to go with Juice. Otherwise we will compete hard and come up 3rd or 4th or 5th next year. Not bad but we have now smelled that NCAA bracket which is very close.

 

[youngblood223]

Originally posted by I.I.:

Originally posted by drboobay:
People we finished 2nd in this league. Cannot say our talent is inferior.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Talent is only inferior to SMU (and everybody except really blue and gold glasses will agree on that) and we don't have the bigs of Cincy. But SMU will graduate some (well maybe that is too strong to say for SMU) and all our good players are back. We have to have another big like Kennedy to compete at this level and one more three point shooter to go with Juice. Otherwise we will compete hard and come up 3rd or 4th or 5th next year. Not bad but we have now smelled that NCAA bracket which is very close.

Look if you're talking about 1-12 you're absolutely right. But we have some really dynamic players, and that's how we overcome our limitations. We could have won today if we'd just made layups. They're not that much better than us, and if this game was played anywhere but Dallas today, TU would have had an even better shot. We played A LOT better today then we did a month ago.

 

[drboobay]

Right. Makes me a bit hopeful for next week.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[loca2874]

I don't feel that SMU is better than us. We are the top two teams and we could have won this game. SMU has been the better team during both of our meetings but it is over now we have to. Look at the tourney and I don't know about you but I am going to be a south Florida fan on Thursday. When they get UCONN. If uconn wins then that will eliminate one of the three teams that have beat us when they play cincy. As long as we don't play uconn to like our chances in this tourney.

 

[TU_BLA]

What is with the melt. 2-3 plays and we win this game. A couple of ill times 3's from Smith and Curtis and some antsy plays from Shaq and add-in some horrendous rebounding on the defensive side when we absolutely made SMU look silly on offense for a couple of possessions. I would agree that we are a low post offensive presence away from being a real contender to be top 20 next season. We will have the best collection of guards in the league next year and Moore was decent but Juice was the absolite best player on the floor today. Points, rebounds and he was excellent defensively. Curtis did a really good job on Moore today. And I was disappointed to see us go away from trying to post up Shaq or Curtis when Moore was guarding them. Moore is not that great a defensive player especially tying to guard someone bigger than he is...which everyone is bigger than he is.

Swannegan did a good job on Moreira and Kennedy for the most part. And we finally got a ref crew that called a pretty even game. There were calls here and there I disagreed with but it didn't seem horribly lopsided. Late in the game SMU had only shot 1 more FT than we had until we started fouling to stop the clock. Hope we see this crew again. They didn't let Kennedy thug it up with the flying elbows.
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