AAC Preview: #2 SMU Mustangs

2013-14 Season Results: 27-10, 12-6 conference record. T-3rd in the AAC, 63-65 loss to Minnesota in the NIT Championship Game.

Key Losses: Nick Russell (graduation), Shawn Williams (graduation).

Key Returners: G Nic Moore, F Markus Kennedy, F Ben Moore, C Yanick Moreira, G Keith Frazier.

2014 Recruiting Class: Emmanuel Mudiay (ESPN 5-star, #2 PG).

As you may or may not know, Emmanuel Mudiay will not be playing for Larry Brown’s Mustangs this season. He was successfully recruited by Larry Brown and was admitted to SMU, yet Mudiay chose to play overseas in China, signing a contract to play with the CBA’s Guangdong Southern Tigers. There is a whole big ol’ ball of red tape concerning Mudiay’s NCAA eligibility centered around his time spent at Dallas’ Prime Prep, a charter school co-founded by Deion “Prime Time” Sanders and outfitted exclusively by Under Armour. Mudiay opted for the CBA to help alleviate some of the financial burdens brought on his mother, who escaped the Mudiay’s native Congo and sought asylum in the United States in order to give her two sons a better life.

Why spend so much time on a player not even playing for SMU this season? Because Emmanuel Mudiay is a tremendous talent who had his pick of virtually any Division I school and he chose SMU. Had Mudiay stayed in Dallas, he would have made SMU a near lock to win the AAC before bolting for the NBA draft. He is the biggest story to come out of the SMU basketball program since Larry Brown was hired back in 2012. This SMU squad will, however, be just fine without Mudiay’s talents, as they were thought to have been the first team out of the NCAA Tournament last season. They used that snub to help motivate them all the way to the finals in the NIT, where they fell to Minnesota. This is a young Mustangs team, as well, that isn’t losing a whole lot of offense from last season.

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The Mustangs return six out of their top eight scorers from last season, including guard Nic Moore, who lead the AAC last season in shooting percentage at 61.6%. Moore will again be called on to lead his team as they gear up for an AAC conference schedule that includes two late season tilts on the road against Memphis and Connecticut that very well might decide who gets the #1 seed in the AAC Tournament. There’s little room for error for Moore and company this season as the top team in the AAC standings last season was only separated from the fifth team by three losses. There’s room for improvement on defense for the Mustangs, as they allowed conference foes to score 63.5 points per game last season while finishing sixth in the AAC in total rebounds.

There’s no denying that SMU will get its Moody Madness going in 2014-15, but the Mustangs are going to need significant gains from their guard play should they hope to compete for the top spot in the AAC. The Mustangs’ frontcourt is solid with 6’10” C Cannen Cunningham, 6’11” C Yanick Moreira and 6’9″ F Markus Kennedy. The backcourt, however, could use some work. The departure of senior guard Nick Russell opens up a spot for sophomore Keith Frazier to step in as Nic Moore’s counterpart. The sophomore has the talent to average over 10 points a game for the Mustangs, which would go a long way to help keep SMU atop the conference rankings.

The pieces are all there for Larry Brown in Dallas. So the arguably biggest recruit of Brown’s career is playing professionally right now in China – that won’t keep the Mustangs from playing competitive ball once conference play rolls around late December. With the AAC adding three new teams, it’s as if the conference has been again born anew, with the top spot easily ready for the taking. Consistent guard play from the Mustangs will earn them a spot near the top of the conference standings, but it is going to take a bigger effort for them to overtake that number one spot.

Projected Finish: 2nd