After going 30-5 two seasons ago, SMU Basketball was ravaged by injuries and finished towards the bottom of the AAC last year. This season, they’ll have a chance to return to relevance and contend in the league.
The Mustangs got off to a hot start in the regular season in 2017-2018 and even put themselves on the national radar for a time with wins against Arizona (ranked #2 at the time) and USC (#14). That momentum from their non-conference slate carried into AAC play, in which they beat a stout UCF team and embarrassed USF by a score of 79-39 in their first two games, respectively.
Unfortunately, the fun stopped for the Mustangs once the calendar turned to January. Devastated by injuries to two of their best players, Shake Milton and Jarrey Foster, they fizzled to a 6-12 finish in conference and were just the 9th seed (out of 12) for the conference tournament. It was a disappointing ending to what had seemed to be a promising season just months before.
Still, despite the injury problems and the final standings, the team gave fans plenty of reasons to be excited for this coming season. The absence of Milton and Foster gave more opportunities to players like Jimmy Whitt and Jahmal McMurray, transfers from Arkansas and USF. Whitt showed his versatility with averages of 11 points/5 rebounds/4 assists, and McMurray proved himself to be one of the league’s most dangerous offensive threats with 15 points per game on 41% from three-point land. Ethan Chargois, a freshman big man, also turned out to be a bright spot for the Mustangs, averaging 9 points and 4 rebounds to go with a block and a steal per game.
This season, Milton is out of the picture along with 4th leading scorer Ben Emologu II, but the quartet of McMurray, Foster, Whitt, and Chargois are all set to return, and they’ll be joined by some exciting freshman and transfers as well. Whatever questions are left surrounding the Mustangs in terms of their depth and experience, one thing is for certain: they’ll be loaded with talent at the top of their rotation and will be able to score the ball plenty.
Don’t expect this team to go 30-5 as they did two seasons ago, but in a relatively down AAC, they have the star-power to make some noise if things break right for them and they can avoid the injury bug (knock on wood). Here’s what you can expect from SMU this season in terms of key players, their schedule, and where they’re likely to end up in the final standings.