SMU and Houston are going at it on Thursday and Larry Brown's Mustangs team is playing in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals and the matchup is streaming online from TV on ESPNU and the WatchESPN website and starts up at 1 pm and comes as Game Southern Methodist is ranked in the top 25 and it will be ahead of the NCAA tournament.
SMU went 12-6 in the conference this season and overall they are 23-8 and the team has been very impressive under Larry Brown and now has the chance to advance to the semifinals in the AAC tourney. The team comes in after a loss to the ranked Memphis Tigers and now they play against Houston, who went 8-10 in the conference this past season and the Mustangs have been playing better than they have in years and Brown could lead the team to a championship in the conference tournament, but they have some very tough teams to get through.
The Mustangs come into the game after losing their past two games and those were to ranked teams in Louisville and Memphis and before that they had a win against UConn and the previously beat Cincinnati when they were ranked in the top 10 and they have a win over Memphis from earlier in the year. The AAC quietly is one of the deepest conferences in the country and they currently have five ranked teams in Cincy, Louisville (defending national champions), Connecticut, as well as Memphis and SMU and that gives the teams a nice edge heading into postseason play, as they have been battling each other all year.
SMU hasn't had this many wins in a season in two decades and now they have to make sure they don't overlook Houston, as they have lost the last two games, including to the Cardinals after having a double digit lead and that has to be tough for the team to swallow. SMU is back in the quarters of a conference tournament for the first time in nearly 10 years after they did it in Conference USA and now they have the chance to make some noise for everyone in the tourney.
Brown has totally rebuilt this team since taking over and they have been very impressive overall, scoring 71 points per game this season while averaging over 35 rebounds per game. The team ranked in the top 12 in field goal percentage with nearly 50 percent shooting and they are also in the top 40 in assists per game this year.