Thoughts

[superjohn]

We're gonna be really good soon. Our bigs just aren't nearly good enough and with Akok in this major funk it'a glaring. Our young backcourt is going to be beastly, Bouknight is already there and we're just seeing the beginning but Gaff is also going to be damn good, he still hasn't shown off the athleticism he has in there. Adams is going to be a really good 4 year guard. Throw in Cole and that's serious. We're going to be good next year, we're just that big time big away from what could be a great team.

Had to fight uphill too much with that bad stretch from Hurley going zone and keeping AG in when he was in really bad form. We fought like crazy and had our chances. We missed a couple 1 and 1's and it's tough to come all the way back against a team that never misses ft's. If Hurley reels in that 1 big man recruit, look out.

This conference is an abomination from the refs, travel, gyms, fanbases, and tonight is the capper with the lower than a high school game broadcast. Thankful we'll never have to play in that gym again and watch the game through a peephole from outer space.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Yeah, frontcourt is still an enigma offensively and defensively.
Whaley is closest to putting it together in terms of what Hurley wants him to do on O and D but he's not a 30mpg guy. I like him and want him out there for 20mpg and at end of games.
Josh played hard tonight but got completely posterized because he let a guy drive him 15' straight back down the lane.
Sid still looks timid.

A made to order big would be huge for next season.

Gaff, Bouk, Cole, Adams are a nice block of players to build a perimeter rotation.

 

[GHSWolverines]

Without a doubt the future looks very bright. It's been exciting watching the games. I am still optimistic that they will make some noise this year and be in postseason play.

 

[UCfor3]

I'm a big Gaffney fan. Love his shooting stroke and court vision. Can't help but think he is more of a combo guard than a pure point though. He really struggles to get by his man and break him down to create or score when the defender plays up on him and he is isolated at the end of the shot clock or half. He needs space and a running start to get past someone and his handle while facing a quick defender isn't quite there yet. I think his handle will improve with development. The aspect of getting by his defender...I'm not sure yet whether that will improve enough with development or if that will end up more of a limitation in his otherwise emerging game. Either way, he is a great piece for the future.

 

[Fatroony5]

We're gonna be really good soon. Our bigs just aren't nearly good enough and with Akok in this major funk it'a glaring. Our young backcourt is going to be beastly, Bouknight is already there and we're just seeing the beginning but Gaff is also going to be damn good, he still hasn't shown off the athleticism he has in there. Adams is going to be a really good 4 year guard. Throw in Cole and that's serious. We're going to be good next year, we're just that big time big away from what could be a great team.

Had to fight uphill too much with that bad stretch from Hurley going zone and keeping AG in when he was in really bad form. We fought like crazy and had our chances. We missed a couple 1 and 1's and it's tough to come all the way back against a team that never misses ft's. If Hurley reels in that 1 big man recruit, look out.

This conference is an abomination from the refs, travel, gyms, fanbases, and tonight is the capper with the lower than a high school game broadcast. Thankful we'll never have to play in that gym again and watch the game through a peephole from outer space.

It’s funny to see the rollercoaster this team gets you on. Happy that they battled back and the young kids playing well tonight. Bouk is the real deal, there’s more out there for him, he needs to be even more aggressive. It’s funny how after each game, the board will say “we need this, we need that...” I think you’re right tho, this team needs a ready made big. Might be easiest to find that in a grad transfer. Either way, still a lot to play for and a huge game Sunday.

 

[UConnStats]

Just glad to see Adams play solid and Gaffney shoot well. Getting that on a regular basis would be huge. That was one of the best offensive performances we’ve had all year.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Having a talented big like Cliff or Sanogo in this game woulda put us over the top. SMU’s bigs are terrible.

 

[Candyman]

We're gonna be really good soon. Our bigs just aren't nearly good enough and with Akok in this major funk it'a glaring. Our young backcourt is going to be beastly, Bouknight is already there and we're just seeing the beginning but Gaff is also going to be damn good, he still hasn't shown off the athleticism he has in there. Adams is going to be a really good 4 year guard. Throw in Cole and that's serious. We're going to be good next year, we're just that big time big away from what could be a great team.

Had to fight uphill too much with that bad stretch from Hurley going zone and keeping AG in when he was in really bad form. We fought like crazy and had our chances. We missed a couple 1 and 1's and it's tough to come all the way back against a team that never misses ft's. If Hurley reels in that 1 big man recruit, look out.

This conference is an abomination from the refs, travel, gyms, fanbases, and tonight is the capper with the lower than a high school game broadcast. Thankful we'll never have to play in that gym again and watch the game through a peephole from outer space.

That broadcast was awful. I really wanted that win so people will talk about us more. Damn. Adams missed open corner three I thought was money. His shot just didn’t get air under it.

 

[Bomber36]

It’s funny to see the rollercoaster this team gets you on. Happy that they battled back and the young kids playing well tonight. Bouk is the real deal, there’s more out there for him, he needs to be even more aggressive. It’s funny how after each game, the board will say “we need this, we need that...” I think you’re right tho, this team needs a ready made big. Might be easiest to find that in a grad transfer. Either way, still a lot to play for and a huge game Sunday.

That was a roller coaster....in the past, it would have been a precipitous drop, but this group is learning how to fight back and it’s fun, heartrending and promising all at the same time.

 

[ucawn]

Why are people so down about this game? Yes it’s another close game that went the wrong way but we beat the spread in a historically bad matchup, where in addition we played against one of the best 15 offenses in the nation. Our freshman are studs and Adams is becoming a knock down shooter. We still have 7 games and if those 7 games each is a VERY winnable game IMO. Winning those leads us to a 20 win season (the goal), and an 11-7 conference record granting us a decent seed and potential to run through the AAC tournament where we’ve proven to be a very tough matchup for each team

 

[AJP12]

Story of the season. Got down 10 early in the 2nd half. Hit two quick 3s to cut it to 4. Then got a steal. Gilbert has a 2 on 1 and throws away an alley oop.

Then his man gets an and 1 on him the next play. He then over penetrates, gets blocked, they hit a transition 3 and its back to 10 in less than a minute. Boom 8 pt swing just like that.

Thats why we lose these close games. He hit two big threes at the end, but was probably -15 up until that point. Its always just too big of an uphill climb.

 

[superjohn]

Yeah, frontcourt is still an enigma offensively and defensively.
Whaley is closest to putting it together in terms of what Hurley wants him to do on O and D but he's not a 30mpg guy. I like him and want him out there for 20mpg and at end of games.
Josh played hard tonight but got completely posterized because he let a guy drive him 15' straight back down the lane.
Sid still looks timid.

A made to order big would be huge for next season.

Gaff, Bouk, Cole, Adams are a nice block of players to build a perimeter rotation.

Akok will be a stud next year too, he's just banged up right now and has hit a freshman wall.

 

[Towney007]

I'm not even mad about it - we just didn't have it. Just looked gassed, lethargic and just not precise. Even though we've had bad performances, our defense is never bad and today it just was. And the effort down the stretch was there and we almost stole one.

Oh well.

 

[jdb50]

The quick lineup got us back in the game . Quite a bit of movement on offense with less dribble themed possessions. A big that can score would be very nice. AG did better at shooting guard. Gaff was able to perform well tonight at point but he may be better at 2 guard as well. As would be expected our freshman aren't great at defending in man to man yet. Forget the zone.

 

[HuskyBoi]

The commentator's microphone was working on the arena's microphone and they had to shut it off TWICE
MOODY COLISEUM

 

[Fatroony5]

Akok will be a stud next year too, he's just banged up right now and has hit a freshman wall.

Yeah he seems off right now, not really too worried about him long term tho. Weird game, oh well. Really curious to see if this team can bounce back and grab a win on Sunday, still plenty of games out there to be had...

 

[uc1990]

That camera angle was just weird. I kept thinking “ no this is better, I am able to see more of the court” then realizing I can’t really see anything correctly. Shots I thought were hitting the side of the basket were rolling in. Didn’t see the two travels in one play at the end of the game until they showed it from another angle(to bad they didn’t call either of them). I was able to see us play really poor defense on some possessions unfortunately. always need to go defense first but that is the bit of a sacrifice we make with the young guys playing. Hopefully they learn from it. A few more great defensive possessions and you win that one.

 

[navery12]

Where does SMU find all of these talented kids?

The same place we do, by employing a good coach

 

[Towney007]

I was surprised by their team's speed.

But we're a better basketball team. We were just in a cloud tonight.

 

[BFieldHusky]

I'm not even mad about it - we just didn't have it. Just looked gassed, lethargic and just not precise. Even though we've had bad performances, our defense is never bad and today it just was. And the effort down the stretch was there and we almost stole one.

Oh well.

Can't wait to get out of this league. Traveled 7,000 miles in 12 days in conference. But guys like freescotter want us to stay.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

We're gonna be really good soon. Our bigs just aren't nearly good enough and with Akok in this major funk it'a glaring. Our young backcourt is going to be beastly, Bouknight is already there and we're just seeing the beginning but Gaff is also going to be damn good, he still hasn't shown off the athleticism he has in there. Adams is going to be a really good 4 year guard. Throw in Cole and that's serious. We're going to be good next year, we're just that big time big away from what could be a great team.

Had to fight uphill too much with that bad stretch from Hurley going zone and keeping AG in when he was in really bad form. We fought like crazy and had our chances. We missed a couple 1 and 1's and it's tough to come all the way back against a team that never misses ft's. If Hurley reels in that 1 big man recruit, look out.

This conference is an abomination from the refs, travel, gyms, fanbases, and tonight is the capper with the lower than a high school game broadcast. Thankful we'll never have to play in that gym again and watch the game through a peephole from outer space.

The team gets torched from outside and it is the bigs' fault? That is stellar analysis on your part.

The refs also gifted us several calls, so we can't blame them for tonight. The team didn't play any defense at all, and the only reason they came back was SMU inexplicably went into this loose 1-3-1 that left everyone wide open for about 4 minutes.

 

[Towney007]

Can't wait to get out of this league. Traveled 7,000 miles in 12 days in conference. But guys like freescotter want us to stay.

We just looked cooked. Plane trip certainly didn't help but we were just gross on defense, lethargic...

It was an outlier performance...even in our worst offensive performances, we're great defensively. I haven't seen this bad version of us yet lol - is what i'm saying.

These are gonna happen.

 

[tjhusky]

SMU has gone position-less and has started recruiting that way. Also improving skill to allow them to play that way. No real bigs, but big players can play outside, handle, pass, and shoot.
Big guards that can also post up.

Skill over Size: How Positionless Basketball & Creativity Powered SMU's Standout Season | Hudl Blog

Tim Jankovich ditched traditional positions last season, a move that propelled the Mustangs to a conference title.

www.hudl.com

We weren’t athletic enough to stop that and when the ball wizzed around faster than I could follow on tv our D had no chance.

Even with that, we were never out of the game.

 

[Huskybass]

I though Bouk and Gaffney did great for the most part. I do wonder if Gaffney is still a not quite 100%. He goes east west a lot and can't really get by his man. I think he is more athletic than that. Bouk plays like a Junior, and a damn good one. When was the last time on of our freshman scored over 20 points 3 straight games?

I thought Hurley stayed with Gilbert a few too many possessions at one point, but then he hit 2 big 3s later to get us back into it. Missed free throws hurt, especially the front end by Whaley, that's essentially a turnover.

That said, next year should be exciting. With Cole our spacing should be better and I suspect we will see Cole, Gaffney and Bouk on the court together a lot. That's an exciting trio. Add Andre Jackson and an improved Akok, as well as senior Josh and it's a real nice nucleus. Not to mention a really good role player in Adams.

We are close, but not quite there yet.

 

[superjohn]

The team gets torched from outside and it is the bigs' fault? That is stellar analysis on your part.

The refs also gifted us several calls, so we can't blame them for tonight. The team didn't play any defense at all, and the only reason they came back was SMU inexplicably went into this loose 1-3-1 that left everyone wide open for about 4 minutes.

We get nothing from them down low offensively and it was a layup line for them defensively. When they weren't late on rotations they were put in the spin cycle. Of course Nelson would be the one guy to think the bigs are a strength on this team.

Lakers will finish 10th in the West!