What was he Thinking?
It took John Wooden 14 years to create his legendary Pyramid of Success. He wanted it to apply to both his UCLA basketball teams but to life off the court.
Indeed, Wooden’s wisdom translates to this modern era of college basketball. But it moves beyond the pyramid.
Amid the often unstable and kneejerk thoughts summoned in the world of message boards and social media, the construction of this SMU roster has been forged through two Wooden statements:
Be quick but don’t hurry.
Don’t mistake activity for achievement.
Instead of waiting for the ending, I’ll bring the conclusion to the top of this week’s visit: new SMU men’s basketball coach Andy Enfield and his staff are applying these as they build this roster and this program.
The first “Woodenism” describes expectations and the passion to attain them. Poetically written in The Wooden effect, “Impatience and unrealistic goals will sabotage a talented group of individuals in any environment.’’ Followed by, “Set your sights too high and expect immediate attainment and you won’t reach your destination.’’
How does this apply to Enfield? He just celebrated his first month at SMU this past Thursday. In that time, he built a staff – most of which he brought with him from USC – developed the infrastructure at SMU and began working the recruiting ranks both at the high school and transfer portal level.
Adding a tweak along the way, Enfield likely followed the script at SMU that helped him be successful at both Florida Gulf Coast and USC.
It plays to his personality. For him, the visibility of his program is at its best when it’s invisible.
And as all of us are getting to know Enfield, we should have been tipped off by the introductory presser. Soft-spoken. Said what he needed to say and then the remarks ended.
What you see from Enfield is what you get. Billy and I absorbed that April 2 at the Miller Events Center. Enfield is not the kind of person who is going to take off his polo shirt, stand bare chested on the press table and wave that polo over his head to fire up his crowd. His replacement at USC does that.
A presumed detailed examination and evaluation into the NCAA transfer portal probably created a portal recruiting board. Like any staff, it has to know who it wants to pursue before it pursues.
Enfield, Chris Capko likely had three or four options at point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward the low post presence on the block.
Then there was the purging of the 2023-24 SMU roster. With the exception of Zhuric Phelps, this mass exodus should reveal that Enfield shared with many it was time for them to move on based on however those conversations went.
For those who remained, Chuck Harris, B.J. Edwards and Keon Ambrose-Hylton, they know what their expectations for the first ACC season will be. They accepted them.
As for the portal travels, there were early misses. Some of those hurt. That included Drew Thelwell, Saint Thomas and Brody Kozlowski, a player who signed with Enfield at USC.
But you keep going. With reportedly more than 2,000 players in the portal and significant names still entering before the April 30 deadline and leaked days after it, the market remained flush.
Between the last 10 days, SMU has landed four in Long Beach State guard AJ George, Wake Forest point guard Kevin “Boopie” Miller, UCSB power forward Yohan Traore and now UMass wing Matt Cross. There’s the likelihood of more additions.
This program must build a roster that can withstand unforgiving road trips to Chapel Hill, NC, Raleigh, NC, South Bend, IN and Charlottesville, VA.
SMU was quick but didn’t hurry.
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As for the second “Woodenism”, activity is not an end but a means to achieve. Initiative should not be stifled. Achievement is procured through planning, execution, attention to detail and time management.
Let’s look at it this way. The media is naturally drawn to big personalities.
Eric Musselman is one because of who he is and what he’s done. Plus, he’s been known for those big splash portal days when he locks down several. He did it again at USC.
Arkansas coach John Calipari is the same because he coached at Kentucky and for what he also accomplished at UMass and Memphis. Baylor’s Scott Drew has it because he took over a program in shambles off a huge scandal and turned into it the new group of blue bloods.
What Enfield had going against him was coaching on the West Coast. Despite putting together a good run, he constantly competed for oxygen against UCLA, the Lakers and the Clippers.
Enfield also fought for his own space because he was at a school where football came first, second, third and probably fourth.
Now, with a school like SMU that has the desire to be good at everything, Enfield can go carte blanche.
He and his staff have worked their plan. They paid attention to the details of who fits what they want to do and who doesn’t. They managed their time to bring these players in without media bells whistling. They took their time.
Enfield’s lowkey personality actually fits SMU because this is the first time SMU basketball has swum with the sharks in this kind of recruiting. It’s rough. Really rough.
For me, SMU didn’t need its name to be attached to a bunch of high valued targets because of the other great whites who would have smelled blood.
SMU couldn’t avoid it all. But it did enough to keep the first commit in Oregon guard Kario Oquendo and Traore on the down low.
SMU couldn’t avoid it all. But it did enough to keep the first commit in Oregon guard Kario Oquendo and Traore on the down low.
We’re about four weeks into this push. I believe we can now appreciate this struggle and what it takes to get someone here.
Not all of Enfield’s first targets are going to play in Moody Coliseum. However, he will get his share. Of course, the early excitement didn’t follow with the early success.
Now, that’s changing. The quality of players who have committed has SMU in a position where it wants to make a splash in its debut ACC season.
Negative recruiting isn’t allowed. But we know better. Whatever SMU endured through Cross’ visit to TCU wasn’t enough for Jamie Dixon to convince Cross to become a Horned Frog. He’s a Mustang.
SMU has done its best to keep everything dark on this unnamed European player. But there’s too much information, too many faces scouting and too many connections with coaching staffs to where SMU won’t be alone in this battle.
You know what? That’s called good ole recruiting.
As we’re witnessing the 2024-25 SMU Mustangs come together with a handful of roster spots to fill, it’s still too early to know what this will look like.
SMU has the activity in place. The achievement is yet to come.
*****
I mentioned this elsewhere but here’s why I believe Chuck Harris will be a better player under Enfield.
He’s probably a solid No. 3 scorer on a P4/5 roster. He averaged a career-high 13.4 points per game for SMU this past season. At Butler, he ranged anywhere from the leading scorer to the fourth-leading scorer.
Beyond a stubborn ankle injury that derailed the end of his season, I think what hurt Harris was he took the most field goal attempts (354) and 3-point attempts (167) than any other season in his career. While the shooting percentages (43.2 overall, 40.7 3-point) were solid, that might have been too much. SMU turned into such an erratic shooting team that opponents appeared to let Harris have his but close the others down. SMU lost six of its last seven.
Harris doesn’t have to be the man every night. He can be the man on the occasional night. There are more established shooters/scorers between Miller, Cross, Oquendo and George. Harris won’t feel the weight. While he may not average 13.4 in 24-25, Harris will be a more effective offensive player for SMU.
*****
Now, a look at other SMU sports…
>In their fourth back-to-back NCAA Championship appearance in program history, SMU women’s tennis (14-11) advanced to the second round of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship as a result of Saturday’s 4-3 win over No. 33 Alabama.
“It was an incredible college tennis match,” head coach Jeff Nevolo said. “I would like to give so much credit to Alabama, they fought their tails off … Our girls did an incredible job of fighting on every single court today. Every court really went after it and I am super proud of Hadley [Doyle] to come back and finish things off with the energy she had.”
SMU turns its attention to the second round of NCAA play. The Mustangs will face off against the winner of Fairlfield (12-8) and Oklahoma State’s (27-0) match on Sunday at 2 p.m.
>SMU women’s golf competes in the NCAA Bryan Regional Monday-Wednesday at Traditions Golf Club in Bryan. The Mustangs have to finish in the Top 5 in order to advance to the NCAA championship May 17 in Carlsbad, CA.
>SMU men’s golf earned a bid to the NCAA Stanford Regional running May 13-15 at Stanford Golf Course. The Mustangs are the seventh seed in the 14-team regional.
The Mustangs are ranked No. 42 in the country heading into the Regional. They are currently on pace to set the SMU single-season scoring record with an average of 282.79. The Mustangs have finished in the top half of the field eight times during their challenging schedule. SMU finished in second, its best finish of the season, at the AAC Championships.
>The SMU men’s tennis team fell 4-0 to No. 20 Stanford at the Headington Family Tennis Center on Friday in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships.
The Mustangs returned to the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year and first time as an at-large bid under Chen.
>SMU Rowing competes in the AAC championships May 12 in Oak Ridge, TN. The SMU women’s track team competes in the AAC championships May 10-12 in San Antonio.
At The Texas Invitational last week, The 4×400 relay made up of Kirin Chacchia, Whitney Williams, Camryn McPhaul and Ariana Sutton won the race with a time of 3:39.21 and, in doing so, ran their best time of the season and the second fastest time in SMU history. The relay is ranked third in the AAC headed into the championship meet.
Let’s make it a great week! Pony Up!
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