Photo by Lindsey Perkins, The Daily Campus. During the trip to Africa, the Mustangs visited Bamba Fall’s birthplace.

Africa

Within the last few months the men’s basketball team has traveled and returned to Africa, appointed an assistant coach, hired a director of basketball operations and is still in a dispute with NLI signee Jarred DuBois.

SMU teamed up with Adidas and the SEEDS Academy in Senegal to travel to Africa.

While in Africa the Mustangs played games against the Senegalese National team, the South African National team and the South African Club team as well as running clinics.

The Mustangs traveled to the hometown of Bamba Fall and Papa Dia while in Africa. Both Fall and Dia come from St. Louis, Senegal, and along with Mouhammad Faye are products of the SEEDS Academy.

“We got to bond as a team,” SMU head coach Matt Doherty said. “Being in a foreign country without cell phone usage forced us to rely on each other for fun and communication. It forged a bond that will help the chemistry of this team.”

That bond was built as the Mustangs spent 12 days touring the continent. But before they could go they were required to take a class.

“Our players took a formal anthropology class taught by Professor Joci Edwards,” Doherty said. “Dr. Edwards traveled with us, as did Dr. Vicki Hill. The players had about eight days of class leading up to the trip and they met in Africa on a regular basis. We toured Goree Island in Senegal and the Civil Rights Museum in “Joburg”. Informally, our players saw another culture unlike their own, a culture of poverty, a culture where people have a lot less than we have here in the U.S. They saw how another country lives without the luxury items we take for granted.”

Malcolm Farmer

Malcolm Farmer had spent the previous two seasons as the Director of Operations for the men’s basketball team at SMU, and was instrumental in coordinating the team’s trip to Africa. On April 15, Farmer was named assistant coach to replace Lance Irvin who accepted a job at Southern Illinois University.

“Malcolm will bring to his position a set of fresh ideas that we can use in recruiting,” Doherty said. “He is a very smart guy that has a lot of good ideas that we can implement into our recruiting style. Malcolm will also bring an energy to the practice floor that will help a great deal. He is good at breaking drills down and coaching with a passion that the players will gravitate to.”

Farmer has been with coach Doherty as a manager with Notre Dame and as his Director of Operations at Florida Atlantic University before coming to SMU.

Brion Raven

Filling the position left open by Farmer is Brion Raven, who will take over as SMU’s Director of Operations for the men’s basketball program.

Raven comes from Georgia after spending two years as their Director of Operations.

“Brion will now be ‘A.I.2’, as in Allen Iverson 2, as in ‘The Answer 2,'” Doherty said. “Malcolm was the original ‘Answer,’ now Brion will carry that torch as he will have all the answers in running our program from schedules, travel, hotels, meals, uniforms and equipment. The players will know to ask ‘A.I.2’ when they need the answer to their questions.”

Raven is a native of Grand Prairie and graduated from Texas A&M in 2005.

Jarred DuBois

Jarred DuBois, an SMU signee at point guard, made his last attempt to get out of his National Letter of Intent stating that he would attend and play basketball at SMU.

DuBois was denied his appeal to the university and was denied his appeal to the national letter of intent committee on June 16.

The DuBois family had previously stated that if Jarred was not allowed out of his NLI he would sit out a year, lose a year of eligibility and play somewhere else in 2009.

SMU declined to comment on the issue as it is still a “somewhat fluid” matter.