The men’s basketball team has had limited success on the road over the past two seasons.
This year the Mustangs have been able to pull out one win on the road in six tries, and the seventh will be the toughest of all. Don’t expect the Mustangs to get their second road win tonight against No. 1 Memphis.
Last year the Mustangs thrived on the road early in the season, going 4-1 on the road in non-conference games. But once SMU started facing Conference USA opponents on the road, it was a different story.
In those games the Mustangs went just 1-7. Against Memphis one year ago, SMU fell by 36 points, 88-52.
Before the Mustangs traveled to face Tulsa last weekend, head coach Matt Doherty said that with a young team it can be hard to win on the road.
Doherty went on to say the team has really fed off the home crowd this year. All of that changes when SMU steps out of Moody, especially tonight when they step into the FedEx Forum.
The Mustangs of a season ago achieved more success than this year’s team leading up to the Memphis game, but still faltered. This year’s team is younger and has not had much success.
The fan in me wants to say that could be a good thing. It may take a young, spirited team to knock the only undefeated team down. However, the realist says, “Not this team, not today.”
Give this team a few years and they will be a formidable foe on the road. But youth still hangs over the Mustangs’ heads.
Once this team can string together a few wins at home, and some good games against strong teams, like they did against UCF, then people can start talking about the big upset. As of now, though, the team needs to do what Doherty has said and not focus on wins and losses.
The Mustangs have a chance to grow as a team tonight and that doesn’t necessarily mean getting a win. It means putting together a full game, putting points on the board and not turning the ball over.
The Mustangs got another strong game from Jon Killen against Tulsa and they also saw Papa Dia back from injury. But 22 turnovers led to 25 points for the Golden Hurricane and the Mustangs lost by 12.
Killen has proven himself capable of leading the Mustangs; the rest of the team just needs to follow.
After SMU’s win against UCF, Doherty said that Killen just wouldn’t let the team lose that game. The rest of the team needs to take that intensity and belief into every game.
The freshman class still has a lot of learning to do on the court, and a game against the No. 1 team in the country is just another lesson.
The Mustangs need to start turning those lessons into wins at home. Once the team starts doing that, SMU can be a team that can start racking up wins on the road.
