Film Room: SMU screens the screener for easy alley-oop lay-up

Things looked really bleak for SMU on Thursday. And then they looked really good. And then they were terrible again, with the Mustangs losing to UCLA on a ridiculous game-winning goaltended triple.

But hey, it was good for a while during a 19-0 second-half run. That run included a really nice piece of action from head coach Larry Brown, an NBA veteran, that resulted in an easy Ryan Manuel-to-Markus Kennedy alley-oop layup.

After a quick look on the left side of the floor, the ball comes up top to Manuel, with the Mustangs clustering slowly.

Kennedy comes up high to ostensibly screen for Manuel, but it's loose enough that it's more of a walk-through than an actual screen. Meanwhile, there's action off the ball on both sides of the floor to keep defenders moving.

Kennedy then reverses to set a proper screen for Manuel, with Nic Moore simultaneously setting a back pick on Kennedy's man.

As Moore sets, Kennedy slips the screen he was setting. Manuel's original man stays with him as a result, but Kennedy's man is caught on Moore's screen, and Moore's man hasn't noticed Kennedy leaking away,

The final line of defense, the would-be rim-protector, has all of his attention on Yanick Morreira, who has flashed to the elbow to set another screen for Manuel, should he hold on to the ball. That leaves Kennedy wide open.

Manuel makes no mistake, finding Kennedy for the alley-oop. Though, he nearly misses the layup after realizing too late that he won't be able to finish the dunk.

(Courtesy: CBS)

SMU isn't going to walk away from this controversial finish happy about much, but at least Larry Brown got to flex for a second,