If you wondered what in the world could get the men’s basketball coach at SMU fired after just two seasons — and after doubling his first-year win total, at that — you need only look at the second paragraph of Rick Hart’s statement on Rob Lanier’s dismissal.
Besides mentioning the money they’ve put into the facilities and the value of a degree as well as the NIL opportunities, SMU’s athletic director slipped in “membership in the country’s preeminent college basketball conference.”
Thus Lanier becomes the first casualty of the move to the ACC.
Expect SMU to aim higher on the next coach.
Firing a coach without any NCAA violations or police records only two years into a five-year contract is never a good look. Makes it seem like you didn’t really believe in him in the first place. But a lot has changed at SMU since Lanier was hired in the spring of 2022 after a modest track record at Siena and Georgia State.
From all indications, he might have been in trouble going into this season after a 10-22 debut. He improved to 20-13, at one point winning six in a row. But four losses in his last five regular-season games, then another to Temple in the first round of the AAC Tournament before getting bounced by Indiana State in the NIT made it easy.
Any school with aspirations of going head-to-head with the best of the ACC — a school like, say, SMU — figures it has no shot with a coach who can’t win an NIT game.
The stakes are so much higher in the ACC, Tony Bennett could be out at Virginia after losing a play-in game, and he’s got a national championship on his resume.
Of course, the worst part of it wasn’t that Bennett lost. The worst was a 67-42 humiliation mocked in memes for its offensive incompetence.
Perception is everything, and the perception at SMU these days is that it hasn’t been the same on the Hilltop since Larry Brown left. Bet on the Mustangs to try to bring back a little buzz.
