SMU gets a taste of tournament action and is poised to make noise in March
The Mustangs get tested in the AAC tourney, but it could be just what they need
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3 min read
HARTFORD, CONN. -- Southern Methodist, the most recent school Larry Brown forsook, returned to the land of tournament play on Friday afternoon against East Carolina. The Mustangs were banned from postseason play last year. This season, they are the top seed in the American Athletic Conference, winners of 14 straight and 24 of 25 after an 81-77 victory in the quarterfinals.
But it didn’t come easily. A Pirates team that lost by more than 30 points to SMU twice this season, and fell behind by 24 on Friday, came roaring back to tie the game with a minute left. To hear SMU coach (and AAC Coach of the Year) Tim Jankovich tell it, that’s the best thing that could have happened to his team.
“We needed this. We really did,” Jankovich said. “We haven’t been in a scramble situation for quite some time, and this is tournament time. You need to feel this. I think it was great. I really couldn’t have scripted it much better, honestly. Now, we’ll have to do a lot better in some areas, but for me, it was great to be tested down the stretch like we were today.”
For most of the game, SMU resembled the dangerous team that seems built for NCAA Tournament play. The Mustangs have that signature star to take control down the stretch in Semi Ojeleye to go along with an experienced, capable backcourt in Shake Milton and Sterling Brown. The team only goes six-deep, really, but five of the six are in double figures in assist percentage, with Ojeleye not far behind at 9.3 percent. They rebound well. They shoot 40.3 percent as a team on 3-pointers, 11th best in the country.
Then the Pirates came charging back. East Carolina has struggled this season, but that’s primarily on the offensive end, with an offensive rating of 331. Defensively, they’d allowed 0.83 points per possession, per Synergy, good for 26th.
So when the Pirates combined that defense with 11 made 3s in a half, they made for a formidable opponent. This is the one way to beat SMU. Consider that, as one reporter pointed out, SMU has allowed 12 made 3s in each of its four losses. Defenses can generally control the number of 3-point attempts far more consistently than amount made. And SMU on the season gave up 770 attempts, 35th most in the country. It’s a defensive tradeoff Jankovich says he’s happy to make, and with good reason: SMU’s defensive rating of 92.9 is good for 13th in the nation. It’s also led to a far lower foul rate, vital for a team with a short bench.
He’s also not so sure it’ll be easy for teams to bury SMU with 3s when it matters most.
“In the NCAA Tournament, you know, it’s not always easy to just hit a ton of threes,” Jankovich said. “There’s some nerves and there’s some pressure. Sometimes it happens, and I hope it doesn’t happen to us, but, yeah, you do have to give and take, and sometimes that’s what we give up.”
When it happens, though, there’s Ojeleye, whose career-high 36 points, including nine in the final four minutes, saved the day. He acknowledged how often he had thought about what it would be like to perform in a tournament setting during two years of transfer and injury-induced inactivity after leaving Duke. The AAC’s Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year has both the skills to take this team deep into March and the self-awareness to enjoy it. He also has the experience -- from the bench when Duke lost to Mercer in 2014 -- to know how quickly that chance can evaporate.
“I think we’ve had a good year so far, and everything’s been kind of going well for us all year,” Ojeleye said. “But being in a tournament situation with tournament pressure realizing that if you lose you go home, it’s different. I think being battle-tested with this group is important for us and getting the win tonight is great moving forward.”
And his teammates seem to know they have something extra in their arsenal come tournament time, with Ojeleye leading the way.
“We’ve seen it a numerous amount of games, him step up and make big shots, lead us to a victory,” Brown said when it was over. “It’s something he does. And we’re happy and we’re proud of it, and we are going to keep riding it.”
