Real UTEP?

UTEP's 37-point win was courtesy of Randy Culpepper and his nine 3-point baskets.

But the second-half physical takeover at the University of Central Florida Saturday (96-59) was accomplished by the style of play UTEP is supposed to be unleasing - terrifying opponets under the basket with Derreck Caracter and Arnette Moultrie.

UTEP turned a 44-41 halftime lead into the Conference USA victory when UCF just plain gave up trying to break UTEP's big-guy wall and go to the basket. In the first half UCF got some pick-and-screen easy layups off the half-court game, but when UTEP closed that down there was nothing the Knights could do but futz around the perimenter. And they had a cold shooting game. Actually, UCF had good strategy vs. the Miners, perhaps the only strategy that can lift good teams over this tall Miner teams. That is, clog the middle and make Miner guys shot from outside, where on most night the shooting percentage is far below than a shooting percentage from inside with 6-9 and 6-11 tremendous athletes such as Caracter and Moultrie - and some subs just as big. In games the Miners are hot outside, such as Saturday, then you'd better be a Kansas or North Carolina or one of those types.

UTEP is now 13-5 and tied for second in C-USA at 4-1. Next is a Wednesday home game vs. not-so-good Tulane, followed by a road game against a smart opponent, University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB will get better position on offense and defense than did UCF.

The Miners, with their upset win at Memphis Wednesday, and then the rout at UCF, are on their biggest roll in Coach Tony Barbee's four seasons here.

Watching Culpepper be so hot-of-hand shooting was entertaining, very much so. Seeing that UTEP is starting to intimidate other teams - so they won't attack close in because they're scared - shows the Miners can be a really good team this year. And remember there are no seniors on this 13-5 team.

Comments

[Pepto Bismol]

Not sure how to track this game since UCF looks like exactly what it is... a 10-9 team.

Still it was entertaining.

Discuss at the newest Utep sports board... txelpaso.proboards.com

[CLEOFITZWITZ]

Culpepper can shoot you into as well as out of a lead. I don't buy the thinking that he needs to quit shooting when he's cold. Shooters shoot themselves out of slumps. This team is nearly unstoppable when it finds it's rhythm. And they are in rhythm right now.

Moultrie and Caracter are beasts inside. Especially when Moultrie is not trying to be Dirk Nowitzki. We cannot relax against so so Tulane but make no mistake about it Joe, UAB is much more than a smart team. They are VERY good. Quit minimizing the quality of CUSA opponents. The league is up this year.

[Prospero]

Two road wins is always good! We still got some tough games ahead of us but we played excellent these last two games. Hopefully we take care of business against Tulane, and then that game against UAB is gonna be really exciting!

[OC paydirt]

Thanks CL...WITZ for verbalizing what I have been thinking for a while about Moultrie. This kid has nothing but upside, but he has to develop his inside presence before he even thinks about knocking down 3's.

Keep an eye on the next game against Tulane. It will be a team character test to see if they can apply pressure or if they relax after 2 impressive road wins.

[Walter in Denver]

unleasing = unleashing, Joe?

Great game by the Miners.

[weatherbuddy]

Two VERY impressive wins by the Miners this week BUT lets not crown them just yet. The BEST is yet to come and we ALL know how UTEP plays down to the leave of of competition. Look what happened against SMU? So lets all take a deep breath and see what UTEP does against Tulane in the DON HASKINS CENTER!!!!! UTEP comes out with a win, then follows that up with a win on the road against UAB then and ONLY then can we start to get the blood pumping. SO for now breath in breath out. Slowly............

[weatherbuddy]

OOOOOOOOOOOps!! That should read level of competition. Sorry folks.

[Lorenzo]

These 2 wins on the road proved that UTEP deserves the label of "C-USA title contender." The problem is there are four other good teams who can be considered legitimate contenders: UAB, Tulsa, Marshall and Memphis.

The good news for the Miners is that the next round of games will have all the contenders play each other in tough games, while the Miners get to play so-so (but gritty) Tulane... UAB will host Tulsa (winner will be only undefeated team left in CUSA) and Memphis will visit Marshall. From here on out I'm rooting for Memphis considering we only play the Tigers once this year and own the tie-breaker. The win at the Forum looks especially good now that Memphis has bounced back to blow out the Houston Cougars.

[Lorenzo]

By the way, UAB is probably the only team (maybe Tulsa) who will have a chance to get at-large consideration for the tourney if they don't win the conference crown outright, thanks to their early wins over Cincinnati and Butler... But something tells me they won't survive this 4-game stretch their in unscathed:

1/23 at Marshall (won by 2)
1/26 vs Tulsa
1/30 vs UTEP
2/3 at Memphis

Essentially the Blazers play all of the four other contenders one after the other.

[stahala]

I think Williams, Culpepper, Moultrie, Caracter, and Polk should be the five on floor at the same time as often as possible with Stone being the sixth man instead of Polk. But I was very excited to hear the starting line ups. I was like, whoa. That's a line up that would give any team in the country trouble.

Too early for any legitimate NCAA scenarios, but I cant resist. I put CUSA as a two bid conference.With their being 5 evenly matched teams at the top of CUSA, I seriously doubt that the regular season champs will also win the tournament, just because the games between the 5 teams are going to be toss ups. I think CUSA is a good enough conference this year where the reg season champs get an automatic at-large. If the top 3 teams can dominate the conference and only lose to each other we might get a third bid. I can see UAB, Memphis, and UTEP all getting in, but most likely two of those teams will be in. Then one or two go to the NIT, and another one or two into CBI. But Tulsa and Marshall have to help by dominating the rest of the conference so that beating these teams look like big wins.

[Jose Gongora]

I see great things from this team, including sweet 16. Go UTEP, JG in Iowa City,IA

[JRMaynard3]

How soon we forget. BYU kicked our asses with execution, good shot selection, and rebounding. Until UTEP can learn to do all 3 consistently, they won't beat top talent. Athleticism and streak shooting only gets you so far. Sorry thuggers, streetball doesn't cut it.

[JRMaynard3]

P.S. Can you imagine the asskickin' we'd have taken had Jimmer Fredette played that night? It would have just been plain UGLY.

[j.g.]

Most coaches like to have a scoring option as their sixth man. Julyan is not that. Plus, a line-up of Williams, Culpepper, Moultrie, Caracter, and Polk doesn't include a true point guard on the floor. Both Randy and C.P. are much better as scoring guards.

I like the starting line-up Coach Barbee went with at UCF. I think Polk has the potential of being a great sixth man; a great scoring option coming off the bench, much like Randy has been the past two years.

Julyan needs to start, but he needs to improve as a scoring threat. He can do it; we've all seen glimpses of it. How about Myron Strong as the point backup? He had a Julyan-like performance in Orlando throwing a ton of assists with only a single turnover.

Very exciting to see this team start playing to its potential. Let's hope 12,000 fans agree Wednesday night at the Don...

[stahala]

You are right about the sixth man j.g., that makes a lot of sense. But I don't think having a guy on the floor that has the title of "true point guard" is that important if your five is dominating your opponents five in all aspects of the game, and I think that 5 does it. Bottom line, the guys I picked are the 5 best players, and I want my best out at the same time. I could be wrong about not having a true point guard, but I don't think so when we got guys who can score and defend the way those 5 can.

JRMaynard, who cares that we lost by 6 to the #13 team in the nation? After the game I posted that this is really a top 12 team, and on Monday they will be. That week we beat SMU and that was the much more important game than BYU. The loss didnt hurt us, and if we had won, it wouldn't have helped much. The road to the big dance is through conference, period. And as far as executing on all three, I think they are doing it. This new group of players are finally clicking on all cylinders and are ready to beat the top teams in the country. May be my heart speaking, but I really believe this.

[Toasted Whitebred]

BYU will fall apart as the season goes on...as usual. They've never won anything in bball and never will. They beat us during a lull, congratulations if that was their season high and it might be. bottom line is the Miners are more talented and will perform better as the season wears on and in the dance than BYU will.

[First Sergeant]

I don't get why Gordon is on the court. Pourtalatin brings more value to the team on the court. I get he is smart and is a positive role model, but it is obvious the team doesn't have confidence in his ability to produce.

[Pick Ax]

This team is young, exciting and winning. I expect to see 10K+ in attendance tomorrow. Pack The Don...

I was thinking the other day. What is bigger or more impressive?

The football team upsetting the #12 Houston Cougars or the basketball team snapping Memphis' 64-game conference winning streak ON THE ROAD...

What do you think?

Pick Ax

[stahala]

The Houston win was more surprising. I think a lot of us felt we could beat Memphis, but the Memphis game was much more significant.
Also UAB is #25 in nation. That will be four ranked teams we have played this season. Another chance for a quality win. More importantly a chance to take control of the CUSA race.

[Lorenzo]

I'm hoping UAB can knock off Tulsa at home because that would mean the Blazers would head into their game against the Miners with a record of 18-2 (6-0 in conference). A win at Birmingham would then put every one-loss team in a tie for first, but the Miners would own ROAD victories over both UAB and Memphis. We gotta take care of Tulane at home first though.

I totally agree with stahala's assessment of C-USA bids. Let's just hope the top teams don't stumble often to the lower teams in the conference. @ Pick Ax: that's a really good question. Just based on sheer shock value I'd have to say the win vs Houston on the gridiron... But if you asked me which win I would have wanted more for the UTEP program, it would definitely be the Memphis win. To snap that dominant streak one shy of the record on the Tigers' home floor was PRICELESS.

[Pepe Sanchez]

"BYU will fall apart as the season goes on...as usual. They've never won anything in bball and never will. They beat us during a lull, congratulations if that was their season high and it might be. bottom line is the Miners are more talented and will perform better as the season wears on and in the dance than BYU will."

Good post, not! BYU has 8 NCAA appearances since 93, while UTEP had 2. BYU plays in a better league than UTEP too. I highly doubt a win over an unranked UTEP team, will be their season highlight. Try using more facts and less cheerleading.

[stahala]

You know what, BYU sucks bro. It doesnt matter what you say about why they dont suck. I dont care. Im just gonna tell you, BYU sucks. So get outta here with that.

[Toasted Whitebred]

"BYU will fall apart as the season goes on...as usual. They've never won anything in bball and never will. They beat us during a lull, congratulations if that was their season high and it might be. bottom line is the Miners are more talented and will perform better as the season wears on and in the dance than BYU will."

Looks like I outted you, TROLL. Can't find anything interesting at the BYU boards, huh? Not surprising. There's one stat your program can beat ours at "most 30 year olds on the team", that's it. Otherwise, ours is head and shoulders above BYWho's. Now beat it before I call Kent Lockhart.

[Moose Knuckle]

Great wins this past week. A big 4 game stretch coming up and a good opportunity to build some momentum as well as confidence heading into the final stretch. A win at UAB would be a nice boost to the RPI and a quality win vs a ranked opponent.