SMU coach Andy Enfield doesn’t keep track of stats from across the country, but those who do report that the Mustangs are unique among college basketball teams.
“I was told we’re the only program in the country to have six players averaging double figures,” he said. “That means we’re sharing the basketball.”
Actually, there are only five. Kario Oquendo is one basket short of 10 points per game (9.9), but you get Enfield’s point. By any metric, Pitt has a difficult task ahead when it plays SMU on Tuesday night in Dallas.
In their first season in the ACC, the Mustangs lead the conference in points per game (82.8), field-goal percentage (48%) and 3-point percentage (38.9%). SMU chooses its shots from the beyond the arc carefully, trying only 489 in 23 games (sixth-fewest in the ACC). In contrast, Louisville has attempted 737.
None of SMU’s top six scorers, led by Boopie Miller’s 13.4 points per game, appear in the ACC’s top 20, but the Mustangs have broken 100 five times, including 103 against Boston College and 117 against Miami.
Enfield, by himself, has an interesting story to tell, growing up a self-proclaimed “ACC fan” in Shippensburg where he was class valedictorian. He matriculated to Johns Hopkins, scoring 2,025 career points while earning third-team Division III All-American status and converting 431 of 466 career foul shots, a then-NCAA record 92.5%. (Strangely, his SMU team does not have the same skill set, standing only 11th in the ACC in free-throw percentage, 73.6.)
He has an economics degree from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from the University of Maryland, but he couldn’t quell his love for basketball and became known as the “Shot Doctor,” running clinics and producing videos to help players clean up their skills. He used to entertain young players by making shots consecutively from all over court left-handed, even though he’s right-handed.
At the age of 25, Enfield became a shooting coach for the Milwaukee Bucks and later served on the coaching staffs of the Boston Celtics and Florida State.
He was named head coach at Florida Gulf Coast in 2011, and only a season later, his team was the darling of the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16. That led to a job as head coach at Southern Cal for 11 seasons, five NCAA Tournament berths and one Elite Eight before he moved to SMU after the 2023-2024 season.
In the Mustangs’ first season in the ACC, they are 18-5, 9-3 in the conference, with 10 new players. Transfers arrived who had played at Wake Forest, Gonzaga, Oregon, Georgia, UMass, Louisville and Miami. Turkish freshman center Samet Yigitoglu stands 7-foot-2, 265 pounds while averaging 10.7 points and 6.6 rebounds and shooting 56.6% from the field.
“We’re enjoying our first year in the ACC,” he said Monday on the ACC coaches’ conference call. “Really proud of our team to be 5-1 on the road in conference play. They kept their focus and have done things to give themselves a chance to win road games.”
With all those transfers, Enfield said he didn’t know what to expect.
“Credit to our team and our coaching staff,” he said, “for how they’ve meshed together.”