Greendylan

Benford spoke quite highly of Harris yesterday and gave every indication that he will have a big role on the team next year.

Mark, I didn't get a chance to say hi to you, but I was at the table behind you. Your summary above is pretty thorough, so I don't really have too much to add, but I'll just agree that the attendance rhetoric was more laudatory to those present than what you reported from Gainesville.

According to USA Today, McCarney's 2014 salary ranked 84th out of the 128 FBS teams. If that's the extent to which we are able to "open up the checkbook for him," then we ought to be mighty grateful that there are now 42 bowl games.

Well sure, certainly no one in the article is suggesting that SMU is about to shutter their doors. Obviously they're quite sound financially in the grand scheme of things. But, it would be a bit of an awkward move from a PR standpoint to announce layoffs for the sake of liquidity while at the same time awarding a record multimillion dollar salary for one new employee at a non-profit educational institution--even a private one such as theirs. Of course, the money has probably been completely arranged and worked out by major donors, and if that is indeed the case, then there's really no problem.

Well, if those salaries are not primarily, at least, coming from donors, then they have some questions to answer, considering this: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/park-cities/headlines/20141204-smu-plans-layoffs-other-changes-to-cut-35-million.ece

That Gino Guidugli for Cincinnati was the real deal. I actually ran into his mom the night before the game and had a nice chat. Believe me, Cincinnati wanted to win.

Yeah, I tend to agree. I'm more disheartened Mac's record in non-conference road games than his PR rhetoric when discussing this series.

Forgive me if I'm confusing terminologies here, but aren't you guys kind of splitting hairs when it comes to the 2/3 in college basketball? I've always seen Jordan Williams listed as a G, but when you have two other guards (one a PG and the other some sort of 2 guard), doesn't that taller, third guard essentially become your 3 (i.e. small forward)? As far as the college game goes, it seems like the difference between a 2 and a 3 isn't necessarily all that significant if you're playing a three guard offense since essentially they're still both wings hanging around the perimeter. And, sure you could say that we don't really play three guards, but that just seems like semantics because most small forwards who truly have the athleticism to play the wing at even a pretty high D1 level are probably not going to be much taller than 6'5/6'6 anyway (unless you're Kentucky or someone of that ilk). Am I missing something here? Now, I do see Cooley's point that replacing JW with someone new who possesses legitimate height and forward skills rather than sliding over Aniefiok from his current 2 guard spot could create some mismatch problems with a lot of back-courts. But, how likely are we really to find that type of player who is good enough to actually start by next season? If we do have to, even just sometimes, start Mo at the 3, at least there isn't really a significant difference in size between the two: Williams is listed at 6'6 202 and Aniefiok is 6'5 212.

I feel like the CBI/CIT are starting to get more respect than they did in their first couple years. I really hope we've changed our policy toward playing in them from the Sun Belt days. Now that we're in CUSA it could easily take a decade or more before we make either the NIT or NCAA tourney.

If you take out the Nicholls State game, it's essentially a statistical toss up between Dajon and McNulty. Also, I tend to think that whoever starts next year at QB will look at least a little better because he will have more playmakers at receiver to work with.

We did beat them on their home court a season ago. So yeah--there's that. Scoreboard, Pilots!!!!!

I don't know what the exact odds of a 7 game home schedule are, but what I do know is that if we did have 7 home games, McCarney would probably go 7-5--so that's something.

I agree that Iowa is more winnable than Tennessee, if we're purely operating in comparative terms. But, this Iowa QB news only really amounts to some loss of depth for them at one position. I hate to say this, but even if they suspended half their starters the night before our game, they would still be favored. Let's concentrate on not going 0-6 on the road again before we start entertaining notions of major upsets.

Yeah, I'd rather see them at Apogee.

Agreed. Playing at Dayton is a tough draw. I believe Dayton is undefeated at home this year.

For what it's worth, CUSA will be well-represented in the NIT.

Since you are "NotAFan" and yet you find yourself on a fan message board, it appears that you are the most confused of all. I'm officially done with this thread and the pointless turn it took.

I'm so confused by the direction this thread has taken. Let me get this straight: A Jungian collective consciousness "ghost of coaches past" has manifested in this thread to cryptically haunt message board ("blog") fans for not closely assessing all the underpinnings of a women's basketball coach two hires ago. And, the main piece of evidence against said fans is that they didn't scream bloody murder at the mere possibility that Aston would use this job as a springboard to a higher-profile one? Don't we always discuss that possibility almost ad nauseum with every hire? That's the ever-present reality of the mid-major lifestyle.

I hate to say this, but when you look THAT bad against a lower seeded team on neutral territory, something is deeply wrong with your team/program.

This is one of the most dismal ends to a Mean Green basketball season that I could even imagine.

I know. And failing to even be middle of the road is really unacceptable.

#hit.500

Rough. I hope this is merely a bad game against a good team and not a sign that the Old Dominion performance derailed our momentum.

For the moment, Old Dominion has an RPI of 41. That probably won't improve much and would drop some after a CUSA tournament loss, but they have a good chance of remaining ranked ahead of some of their at-large competition--for what it's worth.

Sadly, it looks like the magic of the win streak is gone. The play going on right now is reminiscent of earlier in the year.