The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

SMUs Tyreek Smith dunks as the Mustangs run up the scoreboard against Memphis in Moody Coliseum.
SMU finds new head coach for men’s basketball
Brian Richardson, Contributor • March 28, 2024
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DC Top 10, No. 8: SMU back in NCAA Tournament

If you have a burning desire to go back to Sean Kingston’s days of relevance for the second time in our countdown, well, I’m sorry for your disappointment. And I question your musical taste.

Instead, let’s just rewind about five weeks. The SMU men’s basketball team knocked off UConn in the American Athletic Conference championship game 62-54, sealing its first NCAA tournament berth since 1993, even though most argue that drought should have ended a year earlier. The conference tournament title automatically sent the Mustangs dancing, but their performance record would have earned them a spot even had they lost to UConn.

I don’t have space to name the top 10 moments from this past season, and they’re probably still fresh in your mind anyway: Jonathan Wilfong’s dunk, Nic Moore’s eight three-pointers against Houston, Ben Moore’s SportsCenter Top 10 alley-oop off the glass against UCF, and Nic Moore’s second-half three-point slay in a comeback win against Temple were just some of the fun moments that made Moody magical this year. Frequent guests such as Tony Romo, Jason Garrett and Mark Cuban showed that DFW was taking notice of SMU’s resurgence.

SMU entered the NCAA tournament at 27-6 as a No. 6 seed, the highest in team history since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. While the painful memory of SMU’s opening-round NCAA tournament game against UCLA probably sticks out above all those moments I just mentioned, the Mustangs had one of the best seasons in team history, and much of Dallas had their back.

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Courtesy of SMU
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