SMU continues to be quite a story. A program that was not relevant at all for decades got new life from a legendary coach, and now is showing they are not a one-hit wonder. Even after significant personnel losses, the Mustangs are continuing to be relevant, and possibly more.
They boosted their chances to be a lot more on Wednesday night when they scored a big road win.
SMU went into Wichita, not an easy place for a visiting team to play. The Shockers came into the night with a seven-game winning streak and a 5-0 mark in conference play, and they looked very much like the class of the conference. Meanwhile the Mustangs were playing their third road game in a four-game stretch to start 2018, and they had yet to get a win since the calendar flipped to 2018.
With this win, the Mustangs now have wins over USC, Arizona and Wichita State. They can’t rest on their laurels since there are some bad loss possibilities ahead, but those three, plus a win over Boise State that looks better all the time, go a long way towards helping their case.
This also shows the legacy of Larry Brown at the school. Despite his unceremonious departure, he revived the program and left Tim Jankovich a pretty good cupboard, led by Shake Milton, who had a career night on Wednesday with 33 points and has been quite a story in development. He was the preseason Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference, and is certainly playing like it. There is good young talent as well, so the potential is there to be relevant at least a little longer.
With no dominant teams in college basketball, many teams are going on and off the NCAA Tournament radar of bracketologists all season. SMU is just one of them, and after Wednesday night, they may be back on many of them, as we talk about in a podcast coming later today.
Side Dishes
TCU handily took out visiting Iowa State 96-73 without Jalen Fisher, and will be without their starting point guard for an unknown period of time – possibly the remainder of the season – after he injured his right knee in Tuesday’s practice. The sophomore, who injured his left knee during the summer, has played well of late, though the Horned Frogs entered Wednesday night with a 1-4 Big 12 mark. Alex Robinson filled in quite nicely with a program record 17 assists in the win. Not too far away, in Austin, Texas knocked off Texas Tech 67-58.
As noted a day earlier, Notre Dame freshman guard D.J. Harvey left Tuesday’s double overtime loss to Louisville with a left knee injury. On Wednesday, it was revealed that he has a bone bruise in the knee and will be out about four weeks. The Fighting Irish are already thin up front, and this is a hit to their perimeter depth.
Alabama was without freshman sensation Collin Sexton, who sat out their 76-71 win over arch-rival Auburn with an abdominal injury. The announcement came right before tip-off, and the win is a little more impressive considering he didn’t play.
Other results of note on the evening: Villanova handed Georgetown their worst Big East loss ever, annihilating the Hoyas 88-56; Ohio State remained perfect in Big Ten play with a 71-65 win at Northwestern, dropping the Wildcats to 2-5 in Big Ten play; Stanford improved to 5-1 in Pac-12 play and continued Arizona State’s malaise with an 86-77 win in Palo Alto; Florida kept Arkansas in a tailspin with an 88-73 win in Gainesville; Missouri edged Tennessee 59-55 in a good game in Columbia; and Boise State and Nevada both won to set up Saturday night’s Mountain West showdown in Reno.
One game was postponed due to weather. Norfolk State will visit North Carolina A&T on Thursday evening instead of last night as originally scheduled.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a busy night of action, with a number of mid-major conferences having full slates of action.
- A good early game is an Ohio Valley showdown between signature programs as Belmont hosts Murray State (7 p.m.)
- The best of the CAA games may be conference leader William & Mary hosting Northeastern, one of the teams right behind them in the standings (7 p.m.)
- Virginia tries to keep their undefeated mark in ACC play going as they travel to Georgia Tech (8 p.m.)
- An early West Coast Conference showdown is on tap in prime time as Gonzaga hosts Saint Mary’s (9 p.m.)
- Michigan tries to keep their momentum going as they visit Nebraska (9 p.m.)
- Pac-12 action of note includes USC at Oregon (9 p.m.), Washington at Utah (10 p.m.) and UCLA at Oregon State (11 p.m.)
