SMU Basketball faces No. 14 Houston in showdown for AAC positioning
SMU Basketball heads to face No. 14 Houston on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CT on ESPN in a game that could bolster the momentum the team has for the NCAA Tournament. With the AAC Tournament just under two weeks away, a victory would go a long way to a bid.
The stakes are high. Head coach Tim Jankovich and his team embrace them.
“It’s going to be a very, very, very hard, tough game,” Jankovich said after the win over Tulsa. “I’m sure both teams are very excited to play in it. The truth is the plan will be taking place during the game. Trying to figure out what’s working and what’s not working. That’s going to be the same with them. Both teams will try this and try that and we’ll just see who’s doing more good things by the end of the game.”
On Wednesday, SMU Basketball notched a 75-61 win over the Golden Hurricane to keep its perfect record in Moody Coliseum. Point guard Kendric Davis scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half. Forward Marcus Weathers, guard Emmanuel Bandoumel and guard Michael Weathers added 14 points, 14 points and 11 points, respectively.
Guard Kyler Edwards scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half as the Cougars defeated Tulane 81-67 on Wednesday. Guard Taze Moore finished with 18 points as forward Fabian White added 12 points and three blocks. The Cougars shot 62 percent from the floor in the second half, including six of 13 from three-point range.
Houston pulled away in the second half after a 32-27 halftime lead. The Cougars quickly took a double-digit lead in the second stanza and never looked back.
SMU Basketball not looking back on earlier win vs. UH
Keeping calm is the approach SMU Basketball plans to take inside the Fertitta Center, which hosts Houston for its final three regular season games.
“I would say we’re gonna keep a cool, level head,” Michael Weathers said. “We know that we already beat them once at home so we know that going on the road, it’s gonna be a hostile environment. As long as we remain calm and keep our heads and just weather the storm, we should be fine.”
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SMU Basketball took an 85-83 win over the Cougars inside Moody Coliseum in Dallas on Feb. 9. That game has very little impact on the one approaching, Jankovich said.
“My experience is the game that you played before will have very little to do with the game that you’re getting ready to play. They’re different games,” Jankovich said. “We will prepare not as if we didn’t play the game, but we’re not going to fall into the trap of look, everything that worked here, that’s going to work again. Probably it’s the opposite because they’re looking at the things going, ‘Well, this really worked for them. We got to take it away.'”
Mustangs guard Zhuric Phelps was injured in the win over Tulsa, leaving the game with a quad injury, Jankovich reported. Even with as bad as the injury looked, the coach sounded optimistic about his initial prognosis. His status along with guard Jalen Smith and forward Tristan Clark, is up in the air for Sunday.
Right now, SMU Basketball currently sits as one of the Last Four In for ESPN Bracketology expert Joe Lunardi. Lunardi updated his latest NCAA Tournament projections on Thursday. Memphis sits as a Next Four Out team and just beat Temple at home Thursday night.
SMU Basketball finishes the regular season with home games against Cincinnati on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2/ESPNU and Tulane next Sunday at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
