The SMU athletic department faces a very crucial period. Firstit cut its men’s track program, and then fired its basketballcoach Mike Dement. Questions should start to swirl regarding thebasketball team. Will the program ever succeed?
Athletic Director Jim Copeland has a difficult task ahead of himafter choosing to fire Dement. Copeland needs to find the rightcoach for a program that hasn’t won consistently in almost 10years.
Unfortunately, SMU has a very limited budget to dangle in frontof prospective coaches. He will be hard-pressed to find anestablished coach for the kind of money that he is willing todish-out.
To most of us, of course, the issue lacks immediacy, frankly,because most of us have forgotten that SMU has a basketballprogram. Certainly, it has been some time since the SMU basketballteam did anything to remind anyone of its existence. Disregard thefluke wins over Texas Tech and Purdue, and look at overall recordsat the end of the seasons.
How far beneath the radar has the basketball team beenlately?
We suspect that if Copeland were to introduce football coachJohn Gruden as his new coach, very few people would be alert enoughto say, “does that guy even have any basketball coachingexperience?”
In all seriousness, Copeland needs to complete an extensivesearch for our new coach. The new coach needs to be someone youngand hungry. Unlike Dement, he needs to be ambitious, and he needsto be willing to recruit high- profile players. Then he has to leadthem through a respectable schedule. For crying out loud, it istime we invest in a good coach.
Copeland needs to focus his search toward an up-and-comer coach,someone with enough swagger to believe he can take SMU into thenational scene. We need someone who pushes for change as far asconferences. We are all tired of the NCAA punishing us for being ina weak conference. SMU must look to play highly ranked teams andwin. This will ensure national exposure for our program.
Another place to look for a coach would be at other schools. Topschools such as Oklahoma State University might have assistantcoaches that would fit well here. Let’s not forget that wehad a chance to snag Bobby Knight a few years ago. There is nodenying that Knight helped out Texas Tech tremendously. Copelandneeds to keep his eye out. There is definitely another Knight outthere.
