The fall of 2015 should have found the Southern Methodist men's basketball program in a triumphant mood. After all, March marked the Mustangs' first NCAA tournament appearance, first regular-season conference title and first conference tournament championship in more than two decades. Even 2014-15's dreadful finish could be spun cheerily: Here was SMU, a No. 5 seed, utterly devastated by its first-round tourney loss to UCLA. When's the last time that sentence made sense?
Much of that team would return for 2015-16. The Mustangs would enter their fourth season under wizened tactical genius Larry Brown ranked in the top 25 and favored to repeat as American Athletic Conference champs. Life was good.