Tulsa's 79-57 romp over SMU was a fitting way to honor the great Bingo Smith.
Martins Igbanu led Tulsa with 23 points and nine rebounds. But the day clearly belonged to Bobby "Bingo" Smith on TU Legends Day.
Smith, who played at TU from 1965-1969, had his number 32 retired 40 years after his number 7 was the first number retired by the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was a touching scene seeing an emotional Smith, who was in a wheelchair due to health problems involving two strokes. Having his coach Ken Hayes there added significantly to the occasion.
With other TU legends Eric Coley, Dante Swanson and Tony Heard gathered around to honor the 2000 Elite Eight team, and with players and coaches on the court at halftime from over the past 60 years watching, SMU had no chance.
TU coach Frank Haith's tweeting after the game focused on Bingo and the Tulsa legends.
"Special Day for all of @utulsa as Bingo Smith has his jersey in the rafters of the Reynolds," Haith tweeted. "Congrats on an unbelievable collegiate and professional career."
Tulsa (18-9, 10-4 AAC) went with a small starting lineup and jumped on SMU (18-8, 8-6) from the start in its victory Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 4,690 at the Reynolds Center.
Going with quickness over bulk, TU coach Frank Haith went with lightning quick Darien Jackson over 7-footer Manny Ugboh to start the game. The move paid off, with TU leading for most of the first half, falling behind for only a few seconds very early.
Jackson joined Brandon Rachal, Jeriah Horne, Elijah Joiner and Lawson Korita in the starting lineup, with leading scorer Igbanu coming off the bench as usual. Jackson responded with his usual high energy and stifling defense, scoring 12 points with three rebounds and a steal.
"I felt like the way they play, the way they spread you out and can shoot threes, I wanted to make sure we could get to them to start the game and get off to a good start where their guys don't have open looks and we are slow closing out," Haith said. "We wanted quickness to get out there to get to their shooters."
Tulsa's 33-26 halftime lead was quickly expanded to double digits. The Mustangs cut it to five points early in the second half, but Tulsa quickly expanded the lead again.
Then the killer blow for SMU came with 8:29 left and Tulsa leading 56-46. Igbanu was fouled by Isiaha Mike, who then slammed the ball on the court, bouncing it high above the backboard.
Mike, who was SMU's best player Saturday, went from three to five fouls, and was gone. Horne made the two technical foul shots, and Igbanu made his two free throws, and SMU was toast. Down 60-46, the Mustangs had nothing left, as TU's lead was up to 65-46 in 53 seconds.
Mike, who had 11 points, including three-of-eight on three-pointers in the first half, only had two points in the second half at the time he short-circuited. He and his SMU teammates were clearly frustrated by a Tulsa defense that held SMU to 38.9 percent shooting from the field and 26.7 percent (eight-of-30) on threes. The Ponies came into the game averaging 46.1 and 34 percent, respectively.
Although SMU did get a few open looks, those looks became less frequent as the game went on and Tulsa's defense clamped down.
Lawson Korita, who had one of his best games of the season with 14 points, along with Jackson and Rachal led a Golden Hurricane defense that has frustrated most opponents this season, especially in conference play where TU is holding opponents to 39.7 percent from the field and 27.5 percent from beyond the arc.
"A lot of people don't like playing our defense because it is a matchup zone and people don't really know what to do," Korita said. "It scares a lot of people when you are out there talking and you know what they are doing, and they are 'gosh, what are we going to do?' We executed very well on the defensive side which led to the offensive side.
Jackson, a player nobody wants to be guarded by, agreed with Korita.
"Nobody wants to play our defense in the halfcourt," Jackson said.
On offense, Igbanu was his normal efficient, almost unstoppable force inside coming off the bench. Igbanu was nine-of-13 (69.2 percent) from the field and made all five free throws, continuing a trend where he was averaging 16.2 points and shooting 63.1 percent from the field in conference play.
"Lawson and Martins are two seniors that are playing their butts off and being great leaders in the locker room and are playing like two seniors who are trying to get into the postseason. That's great to see," Haith said.
Muskogee's Tyson Jolly led SMU with 17 of his 18 points in the second half, but many of those came late in the game with the Mustangs significantly behind.
For Tulsa, the win over SMU was a good recovery from a 33-point loss at Houston where Haith and point guard Elijah Joiner both got ejected in the rugged second half in which the officials had let the game get completely out of control.
"I think you can toss that game out. When one guard leaves and the coach leaves, I don't think you can take a lot from that game," Haith said.
Tulsa's win Saturday put TU a half game out of first place in the AAC after Houston lost at Memphis. TU is currently tied with Cincinnati for second place.
Tulsa has a chance to tie Houston for first place when it plays Tulane (12-15, 4-11) at 8 p.m. Tuesday night at the Reynolds Center. Tulsa defeated the Green Wave 67-54 in New Orleans a little over a month ago. Tulane is coming off a victory Saturday at UCF.
"Four games left, and Tulane's next. We've got to take care of our business," Haith said. "We are in a position where we can control our destiny. So just keep winning. That's all you can do."
