Let’s flash back to June for a moment, when SMU fans envisioned a starting five of Emmanuel Mudiay, Keith Frazier, Ben Moore, Markus Kennedy and Yanick Moreira leading the Mustangs to an AAC title and high tournament seed.
Fast forward to late November, and expectations had changed for reasons we all know. SMU scuffed in the early going without its star big man and with its once-prized recruit playing across the globe.
Even into January, after the Mustangs’ 56-50 loss at Cincinnati, the mood wasn’t great, and the Keith Frazier eligibility rumors were just starting. A return trip to the NIT looked like a real possibility.
Now, fast-forward four weeks and eight straight wins, and SMU’s fortune has taken a complete 180-degree turn. For the first time all season, the lineup of Ben Moore, Kennedy and Moreira took the floor, and just like we expected, it was pretty gnarly on both ends of the floor. UCF’s frontcourt couldn’t muster points or stops when long-awaited trio was on the floor.
They went big, and then we decided to put Ben there,” SMU head coach Larry Brown said. “So then it’s imperative for guys to shoot the ball, because if you give up outside shooting, people might have a tendency to zone (defense) you a little bit.”
As fun as it was to see a closest-yet-to-fully-in-shape Kennedy wreak havoc with 13 points and 11 rebounds in his first double-double of the season, the season’s biggest surprise stepped up with a career day.
Be honest: you didn’t think Ryan Manuel was going to be a key player this year. But when Sterling Brown was forced to sit a majority of both halves because of foul trouble, Manuel filled in with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting, which included a couple jump shots and a rare three-pointer.
“I just play like I usually play,” Manuel said. “The only thing I did different was I took some jump shots, because in practice when I don’t shoot, coach Brown will get mad. He just tells me to shoot every time I get it, and that’s what I did today.”
“He’s getting better every day. Everybody knows he defends great,” Brown said. “He’s doing a lot of other things, and it’s neat his senior year seeing him step up…Everybody gets caught up in him going 9-for-10, but he gets four assists and he gets rebounds.”
And if it wasn’t enough, Ben Emelogu broke a season-long shooting funk by making all three of his three-point attempts, showing the long-range shooting ability he displayed at Virginia Tech last year. He added three rebounds and two steals in 18 turnover-less minutes.
“The support from the coaching staff was huge; it’s kept my spirits up high and my confidence up high,” Emelogu said. “They’ve supported me all the way through, and pushed me hard every practice.”
Now this wasn’t SMU’s best performance of the season. UCF was only down six at halftime. The Mustangs made just 13 of 22 free throws and had 14 turnovers, both eyebrow-raising numbers for the wrong reason. But to see that big lineup that so many dreamed of, to see Emelogu shoot well, to see Markus make double-doubles look easy, and heck, to see Jonathan Wilfong play in the first half of a game, surely made Mustang maniacs throw it back to the summer’s expectations.
It’s only fitting it happened on a night that SMU threw it back to honor its 1972 Southwest Conference championship team. It would be even more fitting if this year’s squad finished with the same result.