# 2015–16 SMU Mustangs men's basketball team

The 2015–16 SMU Mustangs men's basketball team represented Southern Methodist University (SMU) during the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Mustangs were led by fourth year head coach Larry Brown and played their home games on their campus in University Park, Texas at Moody Coliseum. They were members of the American Athletic Conference. The Mustangs finished the season with a record of 25–5, 13–5 in AAC play to finish in second place in conference.
Due to multiple violations, including academic fraud and unethical conduct, SMU was ineligible for all postseason play including the AAC tournament and NCAA tournament. Additionally, head coach Larry Brown was suspended for nine games.

## Previous season

The Mustangs finished the 2014–15 season with a record of 27–7, 15–3 in AAC play to win the AAC regular season championship. They defeated East Carolina, Temple, and UConn to win the AAC tournament. They received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as a #6 seed where they lost on a controversial goaltending call in the Second round to UCLA.

## Departures

| Name | Number | Pos. | Height | Weight | Year | Hometown | Notes |
| Ryan Manuel | 1 | G | 6'4" | 185 | Senior | Houston, TX | Graduated |
| Yanick Moreira | 2 | C | 6'11" | 220 | Senior | Luanda, Angola | Graduated |
| Kevin Dunleavy | 10 | G | 6'3" | 180 | Senior | New Providence, NJ | Graduated |
| Crandall Head | 13 | G | 6'4" | 180 | RS Senior | Matteson, IL | Graduated |
| Cannen Cunningham | 15 | C | 6'10" | 225 | Senior | Arlington, TX | Graduated |

### Incoming Transfers

| Name | Number | Pos. | Height | Weight | Year | Hometown | Notes |
| Semi Ojeleye | 33 | F | 6'8" | 230 | Junior | Ottawa, KS | Transferred from Duke in January during the 2014–15 season. Under NCAA transfer rules, Semi Ojeleye has to sit out until January and will be eligible to start in January during the 2015–16 season. Semi Ojeleye has one and a half years of remaining eligibility. |

## 2015 recruiting class

US college sports recruiting information for high school athletes :
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date |
| Shake Milton PG | Owasso, OK | Owasso High School | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | 190 lb (86 kg) | Oct 15, 2014 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 84 ||||||
| Sedrick Barefield PG | Corona, CA | Centennial High School | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | 185 lb (84 kg) | Feb 17, 2014 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 79 ||||||
| Jarrey Foster SF | Houston, TX | North Shore High School | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | 180 lb (82 kg) | Oct 8, 2014 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 78 ||||||
| Overall recruiting rankings: ||||||
| Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2015 SMU Recruiting List". Rivals.com. "2015 SMU Recruiting List". Scout.com. "2015 SMU Recruiting List". ESPN.com. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout.com. "2015 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. ||||||

## Schedule

SMU has been invited to play in the Las Vegas Classic, where they will play against two the following three teams: Colorado, Penn State, Kent State. Two on-campus games will precede the Las Vegas-hosted games. The Mustangs will host Gonzaga, Michigan, Brown, and Yale. SMU will also play true road games at Stanford and TCU.
SMU's American Athletic Conference schedule will include home-and-home matchups with Cincinnati, UConn, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, USF, Tulane, and Tulsa. The Mustangs will also host UCF and play a true road game at Temple during its conference schedule.
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Regular season ||||||
| November 14, 2015* 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Sam Houston State | W 85–50 | 1–0 | Moody Coliseum (6,852) Dallas, TX |
| November 19, 2015* 10:30 pm, ESPN2 | | at Stanford | W 85–70 | 2–0 | Maples Pavilion (3,687) Stanford, CA |
| November 22, 2015* 3:30 pm, ESPNews | | Yale | W 71–69 | 3–0 | Moody Coliseum (6,852) Dallas, TX |
| November 29, 2015* 2:00 pm, TWCS | No. 25 | Brown | W 77–69 | 4–0 | Moody Coliseum (6,852) Dallas, TX |
| December 2, 2015* 7:00 pm, FSSW | No. 22 | at TCU | W 75–70 | 5–0 | Schollmaier Arena (4,672) Fort Worth, TX |
| December 5, 2015* 12:30 pm, TWCS | No. 22 | New Hampshire | W 98–44 | 6–0 | Moody Coliseum (6,754) Dallas, TX |
| December 8, 2015* 8:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 19 | Michigan | W 82–58 | 7–0 | Moody Coliseum (7,245) Dallas, TX |
| December 16, 2015* 7:00 pm, TWCS | No. 18 | Nicholls State Las Vegas Classic Regional Round | W 86–42 | 8–0 | Moody Coliseum (6,460) Dallas, TX |
| December 17, 2015* 6:00 pm, TWCS | No. 18 | Hampton Las Vegas Classic Regional Round | W 105–72 | 9–0 | Moody Coliseum (6,329) Dallas, TX |
| December 22, 2015* 7:00 pm | No. 18 | vs. Kent State Las Vegas Classic Semifinals | W 90–74 | 10–0 | Orleans Arena (2,120) Paradise, NV |
| December 23, 2015* 9:30 pm, FS1 | No. 18 | vs. Colorado Las Vegas Classic Championship | W 70–66 | 11–0 | Orleans Arena (2,154) Paradise, NV |
| December 29, 2015 4:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 17 | at Tulsa | W 81–69 | 12–0 (1–0) | Reynolds Center (5,364) Tulsa, OK |
| January 2, 2016 6:30 pm, ESPNews | No. 17 | South Florida | W 72–58 | 13–0 (2–0) | Moody Coliseum (6,852) Dallas, TX |
| January 7, 2016 6:00 pm, ESPN | No. 15 | Cincinnati | W 59–57 | 14–0 (3–0) | Moody Coliseum (6,971) Dallas, TX |
| January 10, 2016 3:00 pm, ESPNU | No. 15 | UCF | W 88–73 | 15–0 (4–0) | Moody Coliseum (6,952) Dallas, TX |
| January 13, 2016 5:15 pm, ESPNews | No. 10 | at East Carolina | W 79–55 | 16–0 (5–0) | Williams Arena (6,022) Greenville, NC |
| January 17, 2016 2:00 pm, ESPN3 | No. 10 | at Tulane | W 60–45 | 17–0 (6–0) | Devlin Fieldhouse New Orleans, LA |
| January 19, 2016 8:00 pm, ESPNU | No. 8 | Houston | W 77–73 | 18–0 (7–0) | Moody Coliseum (7,059) Dallas, TX |
| January 24, 2016 11:00 am, ESPN2 | No. 8 | at Temple | L 80–89 | 18–1 (7–1) | Liacouras Center (6,096) Philadelphia, PA |
| January 30, 2016 7:00 pm, ESPNU | No. 13 | Memphis | W 80–68 | 19–1 (8–1) | Moody Coliseum (7,205) Dallas, TX |
| February 1, 2016 7:00 pm, CBSSN | No. 12 | at Houston | L 68–71 | 19–2 (8–2) | Hofheinz Pavilion (6,195) Houston, TX |
| February 7, 2016 1:00 pm, CBSSN | No. 12 | at South Florida | W 92–58 | 20–2 (9–2) | USF Sun Dome (2,857) Tampa, FL |
| February 10, 2016 8:00 pm, CBSSN | No. 16 | Tulsa | L 77–82 | 20–3 (9–3) | Moody Coliseum (6,852) Dallas, TX |
| February 13, 2016* 9:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 16 | Gonzaga | W 69–60 | 21–3 | Moody Coliseum (7,249) Dallas, TX |
| February 18, 2016 6:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 21 | at UConn | L 62–68 | 21–4 (9–4) | XL Center (15,564) Hartford, CT |
| February 21, 2016 1:00 pm, ESPNews | No. 21 | East Carolina | W 74–63 | 22–4 (10–4) | Moody Coliseum (6,852) Dallas, TX |
| February 25, 2016 6:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 24 | at Memphis | W 69–62 | 23–4 (11–4) | FedEx Forum (13,546) Memphis, TN |
| February 28, 2016 2:00 pm, CBSSN | No. 24 | Tulane | W 74–53 | 24–4 (12–4) | Moody Coliseum (6,781) Dallas, TX |
| March 3, 2016 8:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 24 | UConn | W 80–54 | 25–4 (13–4) | Moody Coliseum (7,303) Dallas, TX |
| March 6, 2015 11:00 am, CBS | No. 24 | at Cincinnati | L 54–61 | 25–5 (13–5) | Fifth Third Arena (13,176) Cincinnati, OH |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. ||||||

## Rankings

Ranking movements Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking RV = Received votes :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Final |
| AP | RV | RV | 25 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 12 | 16 | 21 | 24 | 24 | 25 | 24 |
SMU is ineligible to be ranked in the Coaches poll due to sanctions stemming from academic fraud and unethical conduct.

## Midseason recognition

On February 1, 2016, Nic Moore was named one of 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award. He was named to the 35-man midseason watchlist for the Naismith Trophy on February 11.