UTEP getting better inside?

UTEP got just enough inside game to hold off New Mexico State Tuesday. But 6-foot-10 freshman John Bohannon needs to mature, and do so quickly, so this facet of the basketball game isn't a "go at" weakness for Conference USA opponents. I'm afraid it will be, though.

I don't think Claude Britton, a vet, can carry UTEP's inside game. Just too lumbersome.

UTEP beat New Mexico State 74-72 (it wasn't that close) because of point guard Julyan Stone and because its shootist, Randy Culpepper, made 3-pointers (5 of 10). He finished with 32 points. He had 25 in the first half, and was cold from the floor when NMSU made its come-up-short run late in the game.

New Mexico State outrebounded UTEP 42-29. Getting outrebounded, but shooting well, has been UTEP's modus operandi this season. No team shoots well every night. But a poor rebounding team can lose the rebounding stat every night. Britton and Bohannan combined for 11 rebounds.

But the glue that made the Miners a team Tuesday was Stone. The big point-guard had 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 points and only 1 turnover. Stone is headed for the NBA after this season. He's not a good shooter now, but recall point guard Tim Hardaway wasn't a good college shooter, either.

Comments

[SM]

Joe is right, it was not as close as the score indicates. Although I hate it when people say what I am about to say, I really wish we could have had Wendell last night. We had 1 senior on the court, who is more of a role player than a leader (Gordo), and we lacked that spark Wendell provides. In his career as an Aggie, Wendell has missed the last 4 games against the Miners due to ineligibility and injury. We are 1-3 in those games.

After an abomination of a football season, I was looking forward to basketball. Now we are riding a 5-game losing streak (which will soon be 7 after the Lobos are through with us). Why am I addicted to Aggie sports?!?!?!

Congrats to the Miners on the sweep.

[RocketScientist]

Britton played pretty good inside the paint last night... Thats a good thing probably his best performance in a while.

[Monchis]

I thought that Tim Floyd made a critical mistake in the second half, with about three to four minutes stil left on the clock!
Why did he, Floyd, go the, "stall", a la Haskins, with so much time still remaining?
With the shot clock so critical in today's game, you can't hold on to the ball for more than 35 seconds. What was Floyd thinking? I'm just puzzled as to why Floyd would employ this mindless tactic.
It made no sense. The Aggies were able to close the gap when the Miner players continually turned the ball over and failed to score any points themselves.
Floyd took UTEP completely out of its rythm, by changing tactics. The Miners couldn't score, and the Aggies took advantage!

[Hector]

I thought the same thing about slowing down the game with a couple of minutes left. The miners need to keep the momentum going, at least offensively, because they seem to be a team that when they go cold, they really go cold, as in few shots falling in. However, u are really starting to c great progress in coach Floyds coaching abilities. The main thing I'm starting to c from the players is they seem more confident with each game. To c a young Bohanan not take crap from the aggies is a sign he is starting to believe in Utep and his team, the players themselves. Great win for the miners!

[Kool Aid]

Before you give the utep big men credit...keep in mind that both Rahman & McKines for NMSU did not play due to injuries.

McKines is double double beast and Rahman is just shy of averaging a double double. Just some food for thought.

[D Naudin]

Why does Muench after all these years continue to berate any UTEP team be it basket or football. Was he a coach or a star player at some time in his life, maybe he should be the UTEP head coach of all sports .

[Realist]

When you compare this piece to the each of the articles by Milan Simonich and Bill Knigtht, you can only conclude one thing, YOU SHOULD TRY GOING TO THE GAME before you embarrass yourself! Joe, do yourself a favor. Don't waste your time writing this stuff. This article is lazy. You pulled a couple stats out from the PDF box score, typed in a couple of lines about a player and think you DID something of importance. We're not stupid. We can detect bad and lazy writing, easy. And for fun lets say you DID indeed go to the game, well then you should feel even more embarrassed. Those other working journalist put you to shame.

[James]

Hey Joe! I think we can put the " formidable Aggie" thing to rest now! DEFENSE baby, DEFENSE! Those miserable Aggies couldn't keep the formidable MINERS from winning in thier house!C'mon Joe! We swished the 3-bomb, scored in the paint! The miserable Aggies grabed everthing under the lights. And what did they do with it? They were swishless! C'mon Joe! By the time Bohannon finishes his career at UTEP those miserable Aggies are gonna wish that they had never heard the name. " No team shoots well every night"? The miserable Aggies don't seem to shoot well at all! They(the"miserable aggies")must have awoken in a cold sweat this mourning, from the Randy Culppeper nightmare.(Swish!)See you miserable Aggies next year! And Joe 'get your ORANGE ON! Its embarrasing! No Fair Weather Fans Needed! Go MINERS! P.S. Thanks guy's! Great job coach!

[Eric]

Get used to Floyd doing that (holding the ball with 3-4 min left). Except for the Pacific game I've been to or watched online all the games thus far and when they have the lead he does it every time. Its don haskins basketball get used to it el paso, the days of barbee are long gone!

[LCR]

"The days of Barbee are long gone".

We have played smarter this season than in any season under Barbee. Without question. We slowed it down a little early last night. Coach Floyd is no dummy. They will work on some things.

[Lorenzo]

Got to see the game on a live stream online. Only the third game I've actually seen all year, since I moved out of town but I think I've seen enough to draw some conclusions on this team.

1. Our low-post area is definitely a weakness. NMSU outrebounded us big and as much as UTEP's defense and shooting made up for it, if that rebounding deficit stays the same, UTEP will def drop some games they shouldn't. This is not to say the team can't succeed. I remember Marquette had a team with no one above 6'8 a few years ago that made it pretty deep. The key for them was that their guards were Fierce rebounders. Stone already is, the others need to follow suit.

2. There's already visible progress for the team in Floyd's system which is great news. My only hope for the tourney this year was that the team would have bought in to Floyd's system by the end of the year making them ready for a stretch run in conference and in the CUSA tourney in EP. Definitely still possible.

3. This team is sort of in Miner limbo, in between the age of Barbee and the era of Floyd, not totally Barbee's team anymore but still not Floyd's team yet. That's why I had my doubts about a repeat of last year. But Culpepper responded perfectly to coming off the bench against Michigan, showing us that he can put his pride aside and do what it takes for a team win. Stone and Williams have both said in interviews that they feel they need to be more vocal leaders. I think the seniors on this team will show up when it really matters.

I say the team goes like 20-10 or 21-9, maybe 11-5 in conference for a 2nd or 3rd place finish. I think UTEP wins the C-USA tourney at home though.

[John Franco]

I think Floyd is finally getting through to Culpepper, maybe he'll make a leader out of him yet. Have only seen the 2 losses on TV, so I can't comment on slowing down the game, but all Barbee had to do last year was get the ball into Caracter's hands at the end of the game to seal the deal. I never saw much creativity out of Barbee's coaching style.

[Prospero]

if we can beat Texas Tech, and then win a very difficult game @ BYU, we,ll be 10-2 at that point.

Getting ahead of myself, but i think at that point we'll be able to start smelling the NCAA tourney just a little bit?

[lee]

Britton is playing more minutes this year which will result in him having more stamina for C-USA games. Don't count inside game out yet.