Examining the carcass of McNeese State’s basketball season — both by coach Dave Simmons and athletic director Bruce Hemphill — will not begin until the team completes its slate, which we now know will last just two more games.
The Cowboys’ 81-70 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last weekend eliminated them from Southland Conference tournament contention — the third time in Simmons’ 11-year tenure the school will not participate in postseason play.
Losing either of these next two games — Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. road game at Sam Houston State or Saturday’s senior day tilt with Lamar — will tie the single-season high for losses under Simmons, set last season. Two losses would break it.
“We battled, we went through this course of the year. I think you can see where the pressure’s off them,” Simmons said Monday while his team practiced. “We’ve been playing pretty good, we just haven’t been finishing the job. We’re probably playing our best right now but we have to try to get better. There’s a lot of young kids on this team and if you look at the injuries, the youthfulness, add it all up, it hasn’t been what I envisioned going into it.”
In the preseason, Simmons touted this team as perhaps the best collection of perimeter shooters in his regime. It shoots 33 percent from 3-point territory, good for 10th in the 13-team league. Its field goal percentage (41.5) is 13th.
Simmons signed two Itawamba Community College transfers — LaBarrius Hill and Howard Thomas — just before opening practice. He hoped to pair the duo with Stephen Ugochukwu inside, who seemed prime for a breakout year.
Once in preseason practice and again in pre-conference play, Hill — renowned as a rim protector who could mask some defensive deficiencies — injured his foot and has largely been a bench player, playing just 17.4 minutes per game.
Thomas showed up to campus overweight, necessitating the staff spend most of the fall and pre-conference play running him into shape. He musters just nine minutes per game and was suspended for the team’s last two losses after violating team rules.
“It didn’t pan out as well as we thought coming in,” Simmons said.
Ugochukwu, when not in constant foul trouble, maintained Simmons’ preseason hype. He averages 10.9 points and 8.9 rebounds a game, possessing the ability to overtake games when the perimeter shots were, often, not falling.
Ugochukwu is a junior. Kalob Ledoux, the team’s leading scorer, is a freshman. Should he maintain his title, he’d be the first McNeese freshman to lead the team in scoring since Joe Dumars in 1981-82. Jarren Greenwood, ostensibly the point guard of the future, and James Harvey are sophomores.
“This team has got the nucleus and has some good pieces to it but we still need to add a piece to help Stephen,” Simmons said. “But you learn from everything, even adversity. This team here is the team of the future because you can see what they’re capable of doing against some of the better teams in the league.”
Before that future can be addressed, Simmons will attempt to send his two seniors away with some semblance of positivity. Both Jamaya Burr and Lance Potier, who has cleared concussion protocol, will start the team’s final two games.
“Our job is to win basketball games and the biggest thing is we have two seniors and we want those guys to go out on a winning note,” Simmons said.
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