Joe on utepia | The place for commentary for UTEP athletics

UTEP basketball question marks

Here are some UTEP basketball weaknesses and questions, as seen on the statistic sheet:

With one senior on this year's 10-10 team, who's in line to be next year's team leader? Yes, a team needs a leader both off and on the court. And that leader is most often a statistical leader on the floor, as well as when the guys are out of uniform. Usually it's an upper-classman.

I'd say senior forward-type Gabe McCulley is handing that role well this year.

Will it be senior-to-be Jaques Streeter taking over that role? Dunno.  He's a point guard, after all, and that means the ball is in his hands a lot. And he's played more minutes than any Miner so far this season. He's seasoned after two years at Cal State Fullerton.

However, there's one telling stat. So far, at least, Streeter is a poor shooter in traffic. He's making a good 45.7 percent from 3-pointburg, but overall his field goal percentage is just 38.1. You should be shooting better inside the arc than from way out there. But Streeter has been missing too many LAYUPS.

UTEP's defensive problem this year will likely go away next year. Right now the tall men are not in position near the basket and opponents are driving to the hoop and being fouled - or they get easy baskets.  It's a learning-type of problem. Good defense does not come naturally, or easily.

Six-foot-11 soph John Bohannon, with a lot of offensive talent, has fouled out of four games so far. He's averaging three fouls a game. Freshman inside player Cedric Lang is also averaging three fouls a game. McCulley is up there in fouls, but he's usually giving away a few inches to taller opponents - or he's the last guy in line when the younger players let the opponents whiz by.

Bohannon has to get better on defense so he can stay on the floor, what with his 10.1 scoring and team-leading 6.8 rebounding averages. And expect those to get better.

Overall, the biggest question is who'll be the team leader coming up. It looks like there's a lot of talent now, with more coming in next season. But to have that break-out season some think the Miners can have, there's got to be somebody other than the coaches to keep the team glued.

I realize there are still 10 games, plus the Conference USA Tournament still to play. But it's not jumping the gun to start talking about the future. But that the coaches are already playing for the future. It's a frosh/soph team, after all.

There are already 10 losses on this season's chart. And if next season is to be as good as many expect, the Miners will need a leader.

UTEP; A peek at the future

It would have been a simple home-court-type win - for veteran teams. Years of data show whose strategy works in such games. And it's not  3-point shooting on the road in most college basketball games. There's more.  UTEP's 70-56 victory over East Carolina Wednesday made a statement: OK, no big season for wins. No NCAA Tournament. But  lessons from a good coach, Tim Floyd, are being  learned by  a real young 10-9 basketball team.

East Carolina was face down on the floor, via young Miners' play, for the last 10 minutes of the game.

Those Pirates  made some 30 points on 3-point shots, but it's always been my contention you don't win from outside the arc unless you have NCAA top-10 rebounders under the basket.  Given that, the virtually-everybody-is-an-underclassman Miners played in the paint and banked and dunked their way to a win.

The final oomph came midway into the second half when freshman Cedric Lang scored five points in a row and then had a steal at a time those 3-point shooters were still in the game on the scoreboard. John Bohannon, the 6-foot-11 sophomore, was dominent inside with Lang.

There's going to be a team in Utepia, all right. Next year. OK, "Wait until next year."  But I'm not talking Cubs here.

This is the time of the season when teams either get better, or fade. This is a team that is being coached into a  future of 1980s de ja vu.

 

 

Miners win; crawl over hump?

Here's a UTEP win that can be, at a later date, referred to as the night UTEP's "Froshsophs"  matured into ... let's say the future.

It took an overtime, but then UTEP climbed over SMU, 70-64.  And it was a climb, not a rout. UTEP had to come back from blowing it heading into the final part of the second half. The coming back part ... maturity.

UTEP is still only 9-9 and 2-2 in its lame duck Conference USA. And SMU is 9-8 and 1-2 on its way to the Big East. But UTEP shone on its home court.

Put it this way: UTEP has some young talent as it  apparently heads into a division with the Mountain West Conference .  Yahoo! So does SMU, which will soon leave C-USA.  

That realignment speculation being said:

For perhaps the first time this season, UTEP had a game-winner star with a lot of late-game stats.  Six-foot-11 John Bohannon, who didn't start the game due to matchups on defense,  hit virtually all of the game-winning-drive points after the score was 53-53 in regulation play. 

It was a game the Miners showed overtime maturity,  outscoring SMU 17-9 in overtime.

For the books: UTEP matured.

Expected type of loss for UTEP; no panic needed

UTEP lost traditionally at Tulsa Wednesday, 59-48. Tulsa broke open a close game late.

Here's the bottom line: UTEP's "froshsophs" can't be expected to, literally, have their feet placed correctly when playing 1) a home team and, 2) a more-veteran team. Young traditionally loses to wily vets, especially on the road.

It started early. Only a minute and a half into the game, UTEP's big man, 6-foot-11  John Bohannan,  already had two fouls. Tulsa has two big guys - vets - too. But it was an early hack-shove against Bohannan. And UTEP's other top inside guys, frosh Cedric Lane and sole senior Gabe McCulley were having to play under the circumstance of too many fouls most of their minutes on the floor. Advantage older, big-guy Tulsa.

I thought that was a key for Tulsa. But it was also a game where UTEP missed some of the few inside shots it got, and the Miners were  mysteriously short on many perimeter shots. No, no, no. Not tired. Just one of those nights.

Both teams are now 8-9 overall and 1-2 in Conference USA. UTEP is young. Tulsa fans are said to be all over their coach, a reason fewer than 5,000 fans showed up. Tulsa still trumped.

Tulsa is  no great shakes this year, just like Houston. But the good news is that the UTEP basketball program will, by next season, be beating teams like these. UTEP, so young, remains on the way up. The indication, yet again, was that the young Miners were in the game ... almost all the way.

UTEP wins; no real surprise

No surprises:

1: Houston is not great shakes this season, despite coming in at 9-4. Remember, the Cougars have a loss to Texas State (raise your hand if you know where Texas State is located)

2: Houston was averaging right at 80 points a game. UTEP won 70-50 Saturday.

UTEP, young but being schooled into a defensive mindset, held the Cougars to 19 points in the second half. It wasn't that Houston was ice cold. It was that Houston didn't get good shots. This was a game won in the film room and in the pre-game schooling.

UTEP, 8-8, was able to play strategy basketball with its FroshSophs. Houston had no oomph as veteran, average coach James Dickey got nothing out of his kinda-young team.

UTEP lost by 16 at Marshall this week  because Marshall was able to just plain out-physical the FroshSophs inside (offensive rebounds). Talent and muscle will beat this young Miner team. When UTEP has an better physical matchup, it will be able to win games in the old style - defense and smarts.

UTEP: More bumps to come

Big indication: No Miracle on Glory Road this basketball season. It will, indeed, be a step-at-a-time for Coach Tim Floyd's "FroshSophs" who are now 7-8 after some games ending in Miner smiles.

In this Conference USA opener, Marshall took UTEP's life-blood Xs and Os strategy and slammed a fist on the Floyd chalkboard. Marshall just plain chest-bumped UTEP away, taking a 5-point halftime lead into a 76-60 win.

On Wednesday it was like a scene on an elementary school playground. The older guys just beat the holy living daylights out of the first graders, who were playing five freshmen and a football player fill-in as the educational poleaxing was coming to an end in Huntington, W. Va.

It was a bad night, statistically, for the Miners. In fact, en route to just a 5-point halftime lead, the Marshall team did have a rebounding run of 12-1 in those first 20 minutes. Rebounding is Marshall's forte, and the Thundering Herd moved the Miners' Xs and Os around like dumping over the tic-tac-do board.

This will happen again. And good nights will happen again this season. Marshall was a decent-to-good team, more so a good physical team that shot better than its average. And UTEP won't beat teams on nights like these this season.