With the AAC Tournament on deck, SMU will return to the court for the first time in more than a month.
The good news is that the SMU basketball team is back on the court practicing again. The Mustangs are scheduled to play their first game in over a month when they face Cincinnati in the quarterfinal round of the AAC Tournament.
The bad news is that the Mustangs will be shorthanded on Thursday. Shorthanded and very rusty. Because of COVID-19 issues, the last time SMU played a game was Feb. 8, when it beat East Carolina.
"That's the biggest thing we're trying to overcome right now. We've got to try to get a semblance of game shape, which you can only get in games," SMU coach Tim Jankovich told Rich Phillips during the latest episode of "The Fast Track With Tim Jankovich" Monday evening.
"We've got to be careful not to overdo it, because you can break a body down. This is not time to break them down, and it's certainly not time to break them down and have injuries. We're trying to find that fine line and do the best we can to pique what we've been able to do in a short period of time."
Jankovich spoke to Phillips about having "12 or 13 days of pauses," as well as using this week to attempt to return to game shape. The Mustangs will need a strong performance in the AAC Tournament to boost their resume for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Jankovich did acknowledge that the team wouldn't be at full strength Thursday. He didn't mention names of players expected to be out, but a new rotation is anticipated against Cincinnati.
SMU is 11-4 on the year and managed to float around the bubble of a few media sites' tournament projections. The Mustangs will enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will play a Cincinnati team that beat them, 76-69, at Moody Coliseum on Jan. 7.
Thursday will be the first game in Texas for SMU since Jan. 28, when it beat Memphis, 67-65, at Moody. Prior to the pause, the Mustangs were scheduled for a four-game home stand.
SMU was 6-2 on its home turf this season. What may have been more unintentionally forgotten was the team's 5-2 road record. The Mustangs only won four road games in 13 attempts all of last season.
"Look how many home games we didn't get to have," Jankovich said of this season. "If you look at our record over the years at home, had all things been fairly similar, you'd have to feel like we'd have won a bunch of those.
"The fact that we were able to win a lot of road games shows we are a better team."
SMU's quest for an AAC Tournament championship begins at 2 p.m. Thursday. A win there could set up a potential matchup with top-seeded Wichita State. A win over the Shockers could put the Mustangs in a strong conversation for an at-large bid.
It won't be easy, particularly with everything that's happened with the program. But Jankovich expects his team to compete. He said the team isn't dwelling on the pauses; it simply wants to focus on the goals in front of it.
"There's no sense looking back," Jankovich said. "We should just try to look forward."
AAC TOURNAMENT
No. 4 SMU (11-4) vs. No. 5 Cincinnati (10-10)
2 p.m. Friday
Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas
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