On paper, the Monday night game between SMU and Stanford should’ve been an interesting matchup between a knockdown offense and a shutdown defense but SMU has begun putting its pieces in the right places. The Mustangs took down the Cardinal 72-49 after a 12-0 run to start the game.

With the tallest player on the SMU roster, at 6-foot-9, being a Greco-German walk-on, the SMU coaching staff and head coach Tim Jankovich have had to get creative with their lineups. SMU’s starting five outscored Stanford’s starting five 59-16 and the Mustang’s defensive efforts to shut down Reid Travis worked to hold him to 10 points, when he typically averages 18 or more points per game. Despite being on the short side, the Mustangs out-rebounded Stanford handedly in the first half but allowed the Cardinals more chances in the second half finishing with just two more rebounds by the end of the game.

“We are improving,” Jankovich said post-game. “I see guys understanding more and more on defense. And Stanford has had some really good wins so I’m just very proud of our guys because of the improvements I’m seeing.”

In the first half, Stanford couldn’t contain SMU’s ball movement, which resulted in 20 points in the paint. SMU’s success on the interior opened up the Mustang’s shooting game with Ben Moore going 5-5 in the first half as well as the rest of the team shooting near 60 percent. Coach Jankovich noted that guys like Ben Emelogu, who have struggled shooting lately, found their confidence against Stanford and now the team is closer to his vision than ever.

“We’re far closer to the team I wanted to see than we were a few weeks ago but we’ve got a lot more growth to be where I think we can be,” Jankovich said. “We’re trying to play free flowing basketball with interchangeable parts.”

While in theory, a team stocked with nine healthy, versatile players is ideal, SMU still has to struggle when they face unexpected depth issues. The Mustangs went dry defensively and offensively for a stretch of about five or six minutes as Ben Moore had to head to the locker room for stitches in his mouth.

“It’s not fun when Ben Moore is out for about half an hour getting stitches and you’re looking down the bench not sure if he’s coming back,” Jankovich said. “A good basketball player can pass, dribble and shoot… we just don’t have as many as some teams.”

While SMU and the coaching staff had days to prepare for the Cardinal and game plan for how to stop Reid Travis, SMU has just a day’s turn around before they face Albany Tuesday night, again in Moody.

“I like days to prepare,” Jankovich said. “I’m not a guy that plans two games ahead. The basketball gods don’t like when you do that. It gets you confused.”

With SMU’s rotation flowing seamlessly and the team coming off of their 22nd consecutive non-conference home game win, they’ll look to extend that streak to 23 before beginning conference play against Memphis on Dec. 27.

Team Leaders:

Sterling Brown: 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists

Ben Moore: 10 points, 9 rebounds

Shake Milton: 11 points, 3 rebounds, 9 assists