Turn Up the Orange | UTEP sports talk

Blame the refs

Paul Buker over at the Oregonian received a call about the bad officiating Monday night, as well, and he wrote a funny post: It's 7:20 a.m., and I get a call from an irate fan who thinks UTEP got hosed.

An excerpt:

The underlying implication, of course, is that Oregon State - playing its FOURTH straight home game in the CBI - got all the breaks from those guys. ... that UTEP, the road team, got hosed.

Barbee, who was slapped with a technical with about seven minutes left in the game, said all of the right things in the post-game.

Which was funny, because what's going to happen if he absolutely blasts the officiating - the Gazelle Group fines him?

Which leads me to a thought: Is there any other sport where the way a game is called makes such a big difference in a game?

It's my main frustration with basketball. The refs are huge in basketball, and often can take over a game. There are just so many tough judgment calls in basketball. Calling a game tight, loose or biased makes a huge difference.

The only sport I can think of that even comes close is soccer. And that's just because there is so little scoring in soccer that one call can mean the game. But I still think refs have a bigger impact in basketball.

There are tough calls in football, but it seems there is not as much difference in how a game is called week to week.

But there's one thing everyone seems to agree on. The Miners are going to be getting the calls on Wednesday and Friday ... but it's up our rowdy crowd to make sure that's the case.

The positives of UTEP's loss

1. At least now, if UTEP can pull off a victory Wednesday, we'll get another home game on Friday, which should be fun.

2. Oregon State on Monday shot better than 60 percent from the field. That will not happen again. They were on fire last night, but the high-altitude air of El Paso will throw them off on Wednesday night.

3. The way the came was called was clearly crowd driven. That may be the same on Wednesday, but at least it will be an El Paso crowd driving the calls, instead of a Corvallis crowd.

4. And it sounds like it's going to be quite a crowd on Wednesday. Already more than 8,000 general admission tickets sold.

I'm probably going to arrive early again to get a good seat, but I'm also tempted to just show up later and take whatever is available. Last game, sitting in the third row, I was surrounded by loud, obnoxious, wanna-be coaches. My ears were ringing with great advice like, "DRIVE THE HOLE, GUEY, DRIVE THE HOLE!" "WHO WANTS IT MORE, STEFON, WHO WANTS IT MORE?!" followed by, "SHOOT THE BALL, GUEY!"

Cliff Kirkpatrick of the Corvallis Gazette-Times has some great stuff from the game. Read his UTEP Postgame report here. He even goes as far as comparing Oregon State Center Roeland Schaftenaar to Magic Johnson.

And in response to a reader's question on whether the refs were from the Pac-10, he responds,

"Yes, they were familiar crews. That’s why opposing teams don’t like the calls. Expect a ton of calls to go UTEP’s way the next two games."

Word.

What is Oregon State saying?

Interested in what the Oregon State Beavers basketball team is thinking heading into there three-game championship series with UTEP?

Well, here's Monday morning's story from the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

And the Beavers' beat reporter, Cliff Kirkpatrick, is blogging about the game, as well.

You can find all the Times' coverage, including live scoring tonight, over at Miners Mania.

UTEP in finals tonight

Sorry about the lack of posts regarding UTEP basketball's march through the CBI ... I was in New Orleans while on furlough.

But while walking the streets of the French Quarter, I still quickly learned of UTEP's victory over Richmond from an El Paso Times text alert. If you haven't already, you can sign up for those here.

And now I'm pretty excited for this three-game championship series. Last Monday's home game against Northeastern was a lot of fun, and I expect the atmosphere to be even better in El Paso on Wednesday. You can watch game one, of course, at 8 p.m. tonight on HDNet.

Who would have thought UTEP would be playing even later into March than my beloved Kansas Jayhawks Conference USA-darling Memphis?

Some reader comments: First, Unbekannt asks, "Why doesn't someone from the Times staff do some live blogging from UTEP's home games?"

That's not a bad idea, Unbekannt. If there's enough interest, maybe we will in the future. I have live-blogged many events in the past, including the WAC basketball tournaments in Las Cruces, and today we unveiled a new live blogging tool at the border forum with Sen. John Kerry, so maybe we'll try that tool again soon.

Caesar says, "Jay, here is some food for thought. If Kentucky hires John Calipari, Tony Barbee is a great candidate for the Memphis job. You heard it here first!!"

Well, Caesar, you're right, that's the first I've heard of that crazy theory. But Memphis is too much of a big-league program for Barbee to jump there. Even Billy Gillespie, who had great success at UTEP, had to also have great success at Texas A&M before he could make the jump to big-league Kentucky.

Barbee, meanwhile, hasn't even had great success at UTEP. He hasn't been a failure, by any means, but he hasn't done anything that would make Memphis hire him considering all they'll have to choose from.

Before making it to Memphis, Barbee will need to find his "Texas A&M" success story. But I'm hoping he'll stick around for his UTEP success story, first.

UTEP basketball: Game Day reading

I went looking for some more info before the CBI matchup between UTEP and Northeastern.

Northeastern is based in Boston, but I found not a word about the game on Boston.com, the Boston Globe's Web site. Though, to their credit, they did have a photo gallery from the New England Patriots' cheerleader tryouts. (It's amazing the things I'm forced to look at while trying to help you out.)

However, Northeastern University offered up a 27-page game guide, so print it out, and save yourself the cost of a program at the game. Download Northeastern's game guide

No more floor seats

This just in from UTEP: "Floor seats are sold out for Monday's UTEP-Northeastern CBI quarterfinal game.  All remaining seats are $10 general admission."

So, be there, or be square.

Nice win by UTEP

I hope you were able to watch UTEP vs. Nevada on Tuesday night. It was an entertaining game, with a fantastic finish.

Hats off to the UTEP Miners for the victory.

And it was great watching it in HD, instead of that usual barely watchable Metro Sports channel.

Now, I'm looking forward to another home game. After what I saw Tuesday, I'll definitely try to be at the Don Haskins Center on Monday. Win that one, and the Miners are cruising in the CBI. Could make for a fun end of the season.

Reaction to UTEP in the CBI

Well, the comments are split on whether the CBI is good for the UTEP men's basketball team. Our poll on the home page shows a majority saying, "It's great. Any postseason play should be appreciated."

I have a hard time saying it's great. I would more agree with the second voting option, "It's OK, I guess. At least it's on TV."  And thanks to Caesar and Gabe for offering up the details on how to watch the game on whichever system you have.

And I liked "no pain no gain's" breakdown of why UTEP shouldn't be embarrassed to be in the CBI:

As far as everyone ridiculing these tournament, it isn't that crazy when compared to college football. 348 teams from 32 different conferences compete at Division 1 level for college bball. there are 128 teams (37%) that compete in 1 of the the 4 postseason tournaments.
there are 120 teams from 12 different conferences that compete in Division 1 football, and of those 120, 68 teams (57%) play in a bowl game.

Apparently we have a math major reading this blog. Nice work.

As far as the comments saying UTEP should get rid of Barbee ... I'm willing to give him some more time, I suppose. UTEP isn't likely to get another Billy Gillespie, even if Kentucky doesn't want him anymore. I'm was as frustrated as anybody this year watching this team, but let's see what happens with a new dynamic next year.

But why am I already talking about next year? Unlike NMSU, we still have this year to talk about! Neveda on Tuesday night is going to be a difficult matchup, but I'm looking forward to watching the game on HDNet.

UTEP to play Nevada on Tuesday

The CBI has finally been announced, and it's UTEP vs. Nevada at 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

The game will be on HDNet, which you should have if you're a customer of Time Warner Digital Cable.

The CBI Web site isn't specific yet on the location of the game, but I'm guessing it's the usual style with the home team listed second. Anybody want to head to Reno for Spring Break?

UPDATE: So, now that UTEP is in the CBI, let's take a look at the rest of the field. To me, it looks again like a field that UTEP won't be able to mow through. Houston, Wichita State, Oregon State, and Nevada for that matter, all look like teams that could take UTEP out.

And, oh yeah, we all got so caught up in the UTEP news, we forgot to make fun of the other news: NMSU didn't make any of the postseason tournaments.

I bet Pistol Pete is really mad now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: UTEP has confirmed the game is at Nevada. And for those, like me, who haven't been able to download the bracket from the overwhelmed CBI site, here it is: Download Cbi09_bracket[1]

If UTEP beats Nevada, they will play the winner of the Wyoming-Northeastern game. After that, the tournament is re-seeded, so quien sabe?

It's official: No UTEP in NIT

Along with the NCAA Tournament bracket, the NIT bracket was released tonight. And as Pablo predicted, UTEP ain't in it. Download Bracket

Looks like the UTEP career of Stefon Jackson is over.