It's hard to justify firing a coach that led his team to second place in the conference. However, we just landed in the NIT for what would have been the 3rd straight year (second straight as 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19). This is probably the high point for SMU in the last 5 seasons and probably the high point of the next 2-3 seasons. That is better than the average SMU season, but not what the administration said was our goal. My thinking is that you can't fire him, but don't fight to keep him if Kansas State comes calling. Interested in your thoughts.

- if he advances in the NIT, he is coming back

Assuming a loss in the 1st 2 rds of the NIT
-- if Davis is coming back- yes
— if not I wouldn’t, but it’ll be a really tough decision

Your noncon is not up to par.. your early season tourney for next year was released 2 weeks ago, it wasn’t good…so your no con is likely weak again

Tough decision

(03-13-2022 06:18 PM)pesik Wrote:  - if he advances in the NIT, he is coming back

Assuming a loss in the 1st 2 rds of the NIT
-- if Davis is coming back- yes
— if not I wouldn’t, but it’ll be a really tough decision

Your noncon is not up to par.. your early season schedule for next year was released 2 weeks ago, it wasn’t good…so your no con is likely week again

Tough decision

Luckily you don’t know anything going on behind the scenes

He under scheduled at Illinois State, he under scheduled at SMU. Great for W's but doesn't help at the end of the year. Doesn't matter if he's at ISU, SMU or KSU, he's not changing his spots.

Don't fire a coach that finished one game out of first place in the AAC. The next coach could be worse.

Even if you hired a better coach it could take years to reach the same level. Is Larry Brown available and does SMU have the nerve to hire him?

.

Based on his record, it would appear that, if Jankovich were to be replaced, he would almost certainly be snatched up immediately by another school.

With UH, UC, and UCF on their way out of the conference a year from now, SMU may be the #2 program in the "AAC 2.0."

Career record: 281-184 (.604)

2015-16: Jankovich inherited the program when Coach Brown stepped down.
2016-17: 30-5 (.857) SMU finished ranked #11 in the nation
2017-18: 17-16 (.515)
2018-19: 15-17 (.469)
2019-20: 19-11 (.633) Covid Pandemic
2020-21: 11-6 (.647) NIT tournament team (3 seed)
2021-22: 23-8 (.742) NIT tournament team (1 seed) NCAA "first four out"

The data are indicative of a program that was rebuilt successively and has improved steadily since 2018-19.

If it were up to me, I'd keep him one more season to let him sink or swim. Next year should be a rebuilding year unless KD and others stick around and we land the right transfers.

Needs another year at least

(03-14-2022 06:43 AM)HoustonRocks Wrote:  Don't fire a coach that finished one game out of first place in the AAC. The next coach could be worse.

Even if you hired a better coach it could take years to reach the same level. Is Larry Brown available and does SMU have the nerve to hire him?

I agree, they finished 2nd place and in 2 years they will be poised to be at the top of the league with Memphis in the new AAC. Unless you are certain you can get an elite coach I wouldn't make a move right now. The one critique I would make is schedule some better OOC games to raise that profile a little and get some more opportunities for additional Q1 wins.

Please give Count Jankula a long term extension.

(03-14-2022 09:04 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Please give Count Jankula a long term extension.

What is it that makes him so unpopular with some SMU fans?

With a nickname like that it sounds like you're suggesting that there is something creepy about him. Is that how you view him? Is there a suggestion that he's got a Gregg Marshall type of problem?

Or is it simply that you all are disgusted with him because he hasn't taken a team back to the NCAA tournament yet?

If it is the latter, a lot of fans of the other AAC teams are having a hard time grasping why certain SMU fans want to ditch the guy when he has been showing a clear pattern of steady progress.

(03-13-2022 06:18 PM)pesik Wrote:  - if he advances in the NIT, he is coming back

Assuming a loss in the 1st 2 rds of the NIT
-- if Davis is coming back- yes
— if not I wouldn’t, but it’ll be a really tough decision

Your noncon is not up to par.. your early season schedule for next year was released 2 weeks ago, it wasn’t good…so your no con is likely week again

Tough decision

Just looking at the data, I see clear signs of steady progress over the past four seasons. If I were SMU's President, it wouldn't be a tough decision for me. I would extend him, based on the data alone.

However, there have been obscure suggestions that there is something going on behind the scenes that most of us don't know about.

It's all very mysterious and obscure. No one has come out and stated what their concerns or issues are. As a result, none of us outsiders have any way of knowing whether these are just sniping, unfounded rumors or fact-based concerns.

There have been some who've complained about him "under-scheduling" or playing it safe or somehow being slightly inept in some way. However, he came damn close to making the NCAA tourney this year, so all those kinds of complaints seem rather unfounded. He may be more capable than some SMU fans think he is. Yet, we remain in the dark...

(03-14-2022 08:44 AM)mustangxc Wrote:  If it were up to me, I'd keep him one more season to let him sink or swim. Next year should be a rebuilding year unless KD and others stick around and we land the right transfers.

If I were in the Coach's position based on his win pct. alone, I would promptly resign if offered a one-year extension, because that would put him in an extremely high-pressure situation and a rather untenable position. It could also be taken, quite rightly, as an insult to a man who has dedicated nearly a decade of his life to SMU athletics.

From the perspective of an outsider, with Jankovich's record, he should be able to get a better job with a higher salary somewhere else, where he wouldn't have to put up with all these slings and arrows, at the drop of a hat.

Since we outsiders have no idea what the SMU fans are objecting to, we look at his record, and frankly, the complaints are really hard to understand. Thus, I for one am starting to sympathize more and more with Jankovich's situation. Yet, there are these strange innuendos...

General complaints about Jankovich:

• He always schedules the weakest possible competition in the non-conference. No opponents to get excited about at home or on the road and no major tournaments. The schedule is what kept us from earning a bid this season. Not a good excuse as it happened to us in 2014 so we knew better but didn't care.
  

• He never met an excuse he didn't like.
  

• Doesn't recruit at a high level. For years he complained about the sanctions and not having enough scholarships and it turned out he wasn't even using all of his scholarships. When we had 11 to give out he only used 10. For years he didn't sign any top 150 players and only recently lucked into Zhuric Phelps climbing his senior year and Todorovic fell into his lap. No excitement from recruiting.
  

• He complained incessantly about not having a full team so we couldn't do full court practice as an excuse for when his teams lost.
  

• He doesn't engage the fans in person or on social media. He has a twitter account and his last tweet was in 2016. In person he doesn't try to engage the students by visiting them and asking them attend games or give out donuts whenever the students pick up their tickets the way Larry Brown did.
  

• This years team was much more disciplined and ran plays and had some very good passing, but the last several years our strategy was play uncontrolled basketball either launching an immediate 3 or dribbling for 25 seconds and launching a last second 3. His inability to coach up players like Ethan Chargois and Feron Hunt was very detrimental. Both are very talented players that really had no business shooting 3s (25% conversion rate) and yet they would routinely launch 3s.
  

• This years team was also much better defensively, but we had been terrible on defense for several years.
  

• Attendance is down in a major way since the Larry Brown years. Jankovich has some to do with this, but this is mainly on our AD who ran away most of our fanbase with a huge money grab.
  

• For years we were told that our peers were Kentucky, Villanova, Kansas. Under Brown and the first year of Jankovich we had one of the highest winning percentages in the country. This was used as the major reason for demanding more money from our fans for the re-seat which was handled as poorly as possible. If you compare your program to blue bloods, then we better make the NCAA tournament at least. We've been told that if we don't make the NCAA tournament Jankovich will be fired for several years and it hasn't happened.
  

• This years teams was as veteran as you can expect and we still fell short of an NCAA tournament bid.
  

Those are most of the biggest talking points. If I remember anything else I'll share it.

Man Larry Brown sure made SMU fans big headed about their basketball program. Y'all were basically ECU before that unless you want to go back to the 1950's.

(03-14-2022 09:55 AM)Milwaukee Wrote:  

(03-13-2022 06:18 PM)pesik Wrote:  - if he advances in the NIT, he is coming back

Assuming a loss in the 1st 2 rds of the NIT
-- if Davis is coming back- yes
— if not I wouldn’t, but it’ll be a really tough decision

Your noncon is not up to par.. your early season schedule for next year was released 2 weeks ago, it wasn’t good…so your no con is likely week again

Tough decision

Just looking at the data, I see clear signs of steady progress over the past four seasons. If I were SMU's President, it wouldn't be a tough decision for me. I would extend him, based on the data alone.

However, there have been obscure suggestions that there is something going on behind the scenes that most of us don't know about.

It's all very mysterious and obscure. No one has come out and stated what their concerns or issues are. As a result, none of us outsiders have any way of knowing whether these are just sniping, unfounded rumors or fact-based concerns.

There have been some who've complained about him "under-scheduling" or playing it safe or somehow being slightly inept in some way. However, he came damn close to making the NCAA tourney this year, so all those kinds of complaints seem rather unfounded. He may be more capable than some SMU fans think he is. Yet, we remain in the dark...

it is an extremely tough decision (assuming they arent in the NIT final 4).

the one thing you are missing in your comparison, is how he looks compared to what he took over

your biggest point is steady improvement - you ar comping him to him self.. he took the fasted growing brand in basketball that was the most dominant team in the aac, and made them irrelevant... they were on path to be the next gonzaga
smu arena was a constant sellout, and had tickets more expensive than the mavericks .. they are lucky to be half filled now.. you cant take something great make it terrible and brag about steady improvement from the terrible

he is on year 7...and they will be worse next year.. and no sign of making the tournament

another point you made was under scheduling make no sense, becuase look how close they were to making the tourney... they the POINT!!!! they had 23 win!!! they had 23 win, #2 in the conference and didnt make the tourney.. those claims are 100% founded, there are 17 win teams that made the tourney.. both of smu beat writers literally noted the non schedule is what held them out yesterday

(03-14-2022 08:44 AM)mustangxc Wrote:  If it were up to me, I'd keep him one more season to let him sink or swim. Next year should be a rebuilding year unless KD and others stick around and we land the right transfers.

id honestly back door some major coaches and see if anyone was interested first

(03-14-2022 11:09 AM)b2b Wrote:  Man Larry Brown sure made SMU fans big headed about their basketball program. Y'all were basically ECU before that unless you want to go back to the 1950's.

Sorry, but we've been much better than ECU in basketball throughout our history.

(03-14-2022 11:36 AM)pesik Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 08:44 AM)mustangxc Wrote:  If it were up to me, I'd keep him one more season to let him sink or swim. Next year should be a rebuilding year unless KD and others stick around and we land the right transfers.

id honestly back door some major coaches and see if anyone was interested first

Who do you propose? Rick Pitino is no longer available.

SMU would make the tournament if everyone else did better in nonconference (LOOKING AT TULANE HERE).

The AAC needs to supply Q1/Q2 wins to teams in conference games like all of the other good conferences do.