SMU
 

Sat. February 2nd, 2019
8:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
CBSSN

It's been a new season with familiar problems for SMU (12-8, 4-4, NET #119, KP #119) as they've fought through various injury issues to go along with their final year of scholarship reductions. As a result, they continue to boast the least amount of depth in the league, playing with a rotation of 6 currently.

Despite losing 4 of their last 6 games, a glimmer of hope may have arisen last night when their battle @Wichita State came down to the wire resulting in a narrow 2-point loss.

There is a bit of talent with this group however, starting with 4th-year guard Jamal McMurray who is currently averaging 18.4 ppg on solid shooting numbers. He's complemented by 3 other starters averaging double figure scoring - big men Ethan Chargois, Isiaha Mike, and play-making guard Jimmy Whitt.

SMU is currently the best offensive rebounding team in the AAC and one of the best free throw shooting teams as well. As expected with their limited depth, they've done a good job of limiting fouls over the course of the season.

SMU has already lost @Connecticut by 12 and @Memphis by 22 so I expect us to be solid favorites in this one.

SMU's defense is ranked 259 on Kenpom. That's worst in the conference, below even Tulane.

Keep up the good work! I expect us to go to the rack often as they will likely not want to get in foul trouble. A healthy dose of Cumberland, Williams, Broome, Brooks and maybe Scott.

If they can't be too aggressive on D we should win this comfortably.

They have less talent, fewer players, and Bearcats are at home.

Bearcats win at home, this will be no exception.

Cumberland gets players into foul trouble. Williams and Broome finish at the basket.

Cincy 77
SMU - 64

-10

Bearcats by 17

UC 74
SMU 68

In the 3 losses Cane Broome is a combined 1 for 16 shooting so if he has even a decent game we win. If he does not show up we could lose any game on the schedule.

Good for Trevor and cane, love these kids and love to see them do well

The shooting tonight...Geesh!!

We are doing a poor job on the D glass

Cumberland.....wow

Moore and Broome's contributions were huge. Without them I doubt we go into the half with a lead.

Isn't SMU #1 in O. Rebounds though?

Yah 13 points 6 boards and 3 assists. Broome with 9 and 3. Moore feeling it.

D looks awful

That was a garbage push off call...McMurray has been doing that all night.

Still looks awful

What the hell did Mick think was going to happen on those offensive possessions where Jennifer holds the ball for 20 seconds?

Every game comes down to the wire

Are we going to lose?

This is a horrendous defensive effort tonight

Haven't established any rhythm this half. It's just gonna be Mick throwing out random lineup after random lineup until something sticks.

What does tre Scott do that warrants any minutes?

He shoots well and rebounds well at times. But he is too inconsistent. Has a double-double one night and doesn't show up the next game.

Agreed

What about Brooks? He has been dreadful tonight

I’ll take any win we can get this year.

To be fair, there were a lot of players I thought underperformed but we got the W, just move on at this point

A wins a win. On to the next one.

First half bench points: 18

Second half bench points: 2 ...and they came in the final seconds to ice the game.

On a side note, how about Va Tech holding NCST to 24 points, holy smokes. Leading scorer for NCST had 7 pts lol

And good news about our W, we should finally crack the top 25.

Missed the game, happy we won. Was it a wake up call

Two big road games

Honestly. They made some real tough shots to keep it close. They do have some good players albeit only 7 of them

Teams have been making tough shots on us all year. At some point we have to take full ownership. Like Gary or Jacob would. We have to do more than we are doing to disrupt shots or offense

The only games that haven’t been wake up calls in conference were Tulane and Tulsa home. So yes it was

Agreed. Although I don't know if I would call a wide open 3 a tough shot in 2019. Pretty much any team has 3 or 4 people on the floor who can make a wide open 3 at a good percentage. Multiple times I watched our D close down to double a man just for the ball to get kicked out for a wide open 3.
How is this still happening?

I think our defense is designed to take away high percentage shots (at the rim). Every defensive scheme has a flaw and ours is the 3 in the corner or on the wing. The only way you can prevent those threes is play man 2 man and have 5 elite defensive players that can square up and not get beat off the dribble. That is highly unlikely and we don’t have that personnel.

I think Cronin has always played the percentages when it comes to D. Traditionally an open 3 is lower percentage shot that a layup. I do think that the trend in basketball to 3 point shooters is making Cronin second guess the D scheme...just from listening to him talk.