Joe on utepia

Price must be interested

By now, after almost a week's time, football coaches NOT interested in leaving for another job SAY SO.

If you're not interested, you clear the air quickly so you don't get hurt on the recruiting trail.

"Don't go to UTEP," the rival recruiter tells Biggy McBash. "Their coach won't even be there."

UTEP's Mike Price has allowed his name to remain in apparent contention at his old school, Washington State.

And recall he's already told Yahoo.com this fall that he actually he looked at the Arizona State job when it opened last year. Price's old high-school teammate, Dennis Erickson, got the ASU job.

Be assured now Price is interested in leaving UTEP.

Price among candidates

UTEP Football Coach MIKE PRICE is one of the three bigger names being mentioned for the Washington State football job.

Others are:

Fresno State's PAT HILL, who is not commenting on the speculation. He still has a regular-season game (at New Mexico State Friday) and a bowl to play. Fresno State is projected by the AP to play in the Dec. 23 Hawaii Bowl at Honolulu against East Carolina.

The other is JOHN L. SMITH, formerly of Idaho, Utah State, Louisville and Michigan State. He was an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Washington State in the late 1980s. Recall, after the 2000 season UTEP's Gary Nord was mentioned as a possible replacement for Smith at Louisville. Nord, in his first year here, had gone 8-3 in the regular season before losing to Boise State in the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl. But Smith didn't leave Louisville for Michigan State until 2002. And Nord's program was falling apart by then. Nord, a native of Kentucky, played and was an assistant coach at Louisville.

Bill Moos, a national consultant, is the middle man in the WSU search. He's saying in the Seattle Post-Intellingencer that Price was "among the first" people he contacted Monday after the job opened upon Bill Doba's resignation. Moos said he was just feeling Price out a little bit. "... Mike and I are close friends."

John L. Smith has confirmed in the Post-Intellingencer he has been contacted by Moos.

Price is playing it cool. "I sure appreciate everyone's kind words and support," he said in the Post-Intellingencer.

Smith is the only one really talking, and is the only one of the three not coaching. He's worked as an NFL scout for St. Louis after being fired at Michigan State last year.

"I'd be very interested, of course," Smith said from his home in Louisville.

Coach departure?

Heard: UTEP Defensive Cooridinator Tim Hundley to Minnesota as a position coach. Let's see if it's true.

Side note: Please, please cut with the juvenile bantor about the Miners and/or Aggies being rooked by the refs.

Price and Washington State

Perhaps there IS something to UTEP Football Coach Mike Price being a candidate for the now-vacant Washington State job.

There are "little things," such as protocol, that give this some credence, although at this point I'm saying Prices stays in Utepia.

As of this blog, the firing of WSU Coach Bill Doba, a good friend of Price, was imminent.

WSU Athletic Director Jim Sterk told the Seattle Times if a change is made, "He (Price) would be somebody on a list of coaches that I would obviously consider but by no means is he the guy."

ADs aren't supposed to talk about possible candidates unless they've gotten permission to contact that coach from his present employer.

Did UTEP give Sterk permission, or is Sterk messing up protocol.

Don't expect to get much out of Price. After all, it wasn't until a recent interview with Yahoo.com that Price said he checked out the vacant Arizona State job when it had opened.

Don't bet Aggies at Miners

Crazy people bet money on UTEP vs. New Mexico State in basketball. Might as well shoot craps because that's what it is.

Foul problems, turnovers and shooting percentages can't be predicted with accuracy beforehand, especially in rival games. These are often big factors in rival games of two near-equal basketball schools.

NMSU has the better veterans, but UTEP is the home team.

Neither team has beaten a big-name opponent this year. UTEP has played only one, Texas A&M.

UTEP has been idle for more than a week.

One thing I have noticed over more than three decades of these home-and-home games. Leads of 10 to 15 points in the first half almost never hold up. It's usually close in the final minutes.

NOTE: Coach Tony Barbee should reveal the reason he suspended Manuel Cass indefinitely. Cass got great ink as one of the best Miner signees in years. If he can get the good ink, he can take the bad. Secrecy makes people wonder what he did — what he REALLY did. Defamatory rumors start when coaches won't talk about reasons for suspensions. Fans who buy the tickets deserve to know WHAT'S GOING ON.

Price good for El Paso

Coach Mike Price is good for UTEP football; he's the best coach that can be had, for the money, in Utepia.

Price will have off years like this year and last. He did the same at Washington State. He also took Washington State to the Rose Bowl in 1998 and 2002 — after having down times. So it's a good bet he'll also have the big years here, too.

His predecessors, with the exception of Bob Stull in the late 1980s, basically went down the tubes and stayed there. Most started in the tubes and stayed there. And when they had four-win seasons it was considered a major turnaround.

Charlie Bailey came closest to building a program (1994-99) In 1999, after going 5-7, he retired. It was UTEP's best won-lost record since Stull's 10-3 in 1988. Bailey's five wins was the closest to a winning record for any coach since Stull.

Bailey left Gary Nord a team Nord would coach to an 8-4 record. Nord would have meager two-win seasons his last three years.

Bottom line: Nobody got real good the longer they stayed at UTEP. Stull was here only three years so it's difficult to judge his 4-7, 7-4, 10-3. Recall that Stull's replacement, David Lee, went 2-10.

Price took Nord's 2-11 team and went 8-4 in 2004, followed by 8-4, 5-7 and 4-7 so far this year. It'll be 4-8 after Saturday's game at Central Florida.

As down as UTEP's football program seems to be, it's never been in better shape or in better hands. This year's 4-8 would have been a great year in seasons of yore.

UTEP football podcast

To listen to the latest El Paso Times-KTSM UTEP football podcast, which dissects the loss to Southern Miss, and looks ahead to next week's game at UCF, click here.

Participating are Joe Muench, Fred Albers, John Erfort and Pablo Villa.

That's Gillispie, all right

Just a few quick thoughts:

That's our Billy Gillispie, all right. It's been seven months and he still hasn't signed a contract as Kentucky's basketball coach. He didn't sign a contract here, either, and he coached two years in Utepia.

Kentucky pays big bucks with all the best perks. You'd think a guy would want that in writing. If you know Billy at all, you know none of that matters a lot. He's just a basketball junkie.

Billy doesn't have an agent, doesn't seem to be in a hurry to sign, and Kentucky officials say it's no big deal.

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Some on this blog are already whining that the Miners should be given time to mature. They're young and inexperienced ...

C'mon. This goes on every season. Whiners say "Give them a chance before you criticize them."

Why can't UTEP start out playing smart basketball? As I said in a previous blog, all these guys have been playing virtually all their lives. They should know about shot selection ...

And, no, just because one guy is young and an opponent may be an upper classman, that's not THAT big a difference. In football, yes. In basketball, no. In basketball it's skills and on-the-court intelligence. Freshmen can be dominant, too.

Not tough in clutch

UTEP's basketball team started this season like it finished the last. It's not tough in the clutch.

Yes, foul problems hurt the Miners' ability to play tough defense late in Wednesday's game at Texas A&M. But that should be the only excuse.

The Miners must take the percentage shots, make those drives to the basket count, and not make silly mental mistakes like they usually seem to do. No, don't say the team is young. Nowadays these talented freshmen who play in Division I basketball should be smart players, too. They've been playing for many years. They've been coached for many years.

UTEP should have defeated No. 15-ranked A&M. That would have looked great in the power ratings and would have followed the Miners all year. Beating a ranked team is that little "extra" that might get a bubble team into the NCAA field.

UTEP would have done so — if it had played smart.

good basketball sign

It's always a good sign when the hometown school signs basketball players on the first day of a signing period.

It likely means the coach got who he wanted. If no signees are announced, it means the coach has either lost his most-wanteds or remains in a recruiting battle with one or more schools.

"There's no question in my mind that we signed the two best players out of the city of Memphis this year," said UTEP Coach Tony Barbee in a news release Wednesday.

Jason Jones is 6-6 and Arnett Moultrie is 6-11.

All the news about the two is now in the sports section of this Web site and will appear in Thursday's print edition.