What’s the hottest sports team in the metroplex at this moment?
If you say anything other than SMU Women’s basketball, you are sorely mistaken.
It’s not your fault if you aren’t aware of the Lady Mustangs success this season. On a national scale their record is average and they aren’t nationally ranked… yet.
SMU has received votes for the Associated Press top 25 in seven straight polls. The Mustangs boast a 16-4 overall record and are second in the league in points per game (69.4). In the NCAA SMU is ninth in shooting percentage from 3-point range (37.5) and 34th in steals with 11.6 per game.
What I get out of those stats is that this team creates turnovers and then shoots the lights out. No doubt the emergence of junior transfer Keena Mays has elevated the Mustangs however, 10 out of 12 players on SMU’s roster have a shooting percentage higher than 35 percent.
I’m by no means down playing the importance of Mays, but it should be known that this was a good team before she became eligible. However, her presence has propelled the Mustangs to elite status, in Conference USA at least.
In 12 games, Mays has racked up three C-USA Player of the Week awards. She is averaging 20.2 points per game and shooting 43.8 percent from 3-point range.
In order to be ranked nationally with stat leaders, a player must play in a minimum of 75 percent of games, Mays has only played in 60 percent so far.
If she could be compared to other players in the country, she would rank 17th in points per game, and 10th in 3-point percentage, she is also dishing the ball out at a clip of 4.58 assists per game.
The Mustangs are on a historic ride. The last time the team received AP Poll votes was back in January of 2010. The current eight game win streaks is tied for the second longest in school history. The longest win-streak was 12 and that was during the 1999-00 season.
Dallas hasn’t seen a successful team completely dominate in some time. The Texas Rangers led the AL West for almost all of last season only to lose it on the very last game. Remember when the Mavericks won the NBA Championship in 2011 and then blew up the team in the offseason for pipe dreams in free agency?
Of course you remember how the Dallas Cowboys fell in yet another ‘win and get in’ scenario.
Troubles have even befallen SMU, head men’s basketball coach Larry Brown has had to battle a short bench all season long. The Mustangs started strong but the season is slowly tanking.
Given that Brown is rebuilding the basketball program it isn’t surprising that there would be some adversity early on.
Next year, when a few transfers become eligible, and if a few recruits pan out, SMU will have a complete team and a bench to go with it.
With the lack of success of other Dallas teams and the obvious success of the Lady Mustangs, can someone please explain why only 713 people attend the home games?
The worst part is that number is an average- an average skewed by the 802 that attended the Wichita State game. Prior to that game, the high was 502 against Montana State.
Attendance may be on the rise but it isn’t enough when the men are able to attract more than 3,000 consistently, despite a 12-11 record.
Just an FYI, women can play sports too, and the SMU women’s basketball team is dominating.
