Bright Miner future

No surprise in the game. Memphis defeated UTEP 65-47 in a pull-away, not a rout.

Pleasant surprise: UTEP's freshmen-sophomore basketball team fared better than expected in a 15-17 season. It's going to be OK in Utepia.

The quarter-final game of the Conference USA Basketball Tournament:  Memphis ended UTEP's season by flexing its relentless blue-chip recruit raw talent vs. Coach Tim Floyd's quite potent chalkboard strategy. UTEP wanted to slow it down, slow it down ... slow it down - and did. But Memphis got slap turnover over slap turnover, and UTEP bumbled with its hands. That was the difference. Memphis scored 21 points off UTEP turnovers.

As usual in a Floyd game, the opponents never got to put on a sustained points run. But two Memphis little streaks were the difference. The first was a  slam-dunk binge late in the first half and into the second half. The second was a pullaway 8-0 run midway in the second half.

Be reminded this is a freshman-sophomore UTEP team. It's weakness was on offense, not defense. That's an important plus heading into next season.  Young guys who can guard somebody? A coach's dream. The airballs and the can't-finish-on-layups will be corrected. And the bad passes.

Next season look for points to come and brick hands (this means you, John Bohannon)  to soften. But if there's one lesson Floyd got over to this unit is that they guys - because they did - were most-often able to execute a defense that stiffled the opponent's star scorer.

Bright future. 

 

Comments

[another fan]

Memphis has much better basketball players than UTEP. UTEP players have bigger hearts. If Memphis makes it to the NCAA tourney, I see a first or second round exit for them; they are barely good enough to be at the top of a weak CUSA, but not good enough to make much noise against top notch competition.

I do like the way the kid from UTEP responded to the Memphis player yapping and pointing at him after the blocking foul. The result: two free throws for Memphis and six for UTEP. Memphis gets my vote for thugs of the week.

[Three seconds]

Much better, Joe. Appreciate the thought and tight prose. That's how it's done.
UTEP is in good shape. We must remember these are "Student" athletes, at the university to get an education.
We will be fine.

[Cilyn Myers]

Why is Memphis in the running for next year's Conference USA tournament? Shouldn't the tournament go to a city that has a team staying in the conference?

[David]

Well spoken Joe! This team has a bright future. Inability to score in a slow down offense really handcuffed the miners this year.I look forward to next year!

[MONCHIS]

Wow, gotta love the optimism don't you?
Fact is, UTEP fans are permanently relegated to wishful thinking! "Wait til next year", is a perenial UTEP slogan! There's little, (if any at all), evidence, that UTEP will be superior to or fare any better next season than it has done for the past twenty some years!
Bahh, humbug!!!!

[MONCHIS]

UTEP should focus on "stiffling", not just one player but also the entire opposition, ie, the other five players on the team! That's what wins games! You don't get anywhere focusing on a single player!
What did UTEP gain by merely, "stiffling", the opposing teams' top scorer?
Answer is, nothing but bad losses!

[KIKI]

MONCHIS:

Why don't you take over for Joe as the BLOG writer? With your attitude you can ASSume his old way of supporting the Miners.

[Miner Maniac]

After having some time to digest last night's season ending game, here are my thoughts.

I didn't expect the Miners to beat Memphis, although I desperately wanted UTEP to beat the spoiled brats of C-USA again on their home court. A strong beginning, but turnovers, foul trouble, and the early use of timeouts killed our momentum. We played a very good 1st half, not letting Memphis run away with the game. The 2nd half wasn't so kind, but we hung around to the end. The 3-point blitzkrieg at the end of the game is what allowed Memphis to score more at will against us. In fact, if you were to take those shots away, our FG percentage would almost equal Memphis' FG percentage for the game.

We were hampered by our lack of depth from our bench. You can't discount the season ending injuries of Hooper Vint and Malcolm Moore, plus Cedrick Lang having to battle a stress fracture in his ankle. Gabe McCulley finished his collegiate career in one of the worst ways you can possibly think of, short of a season ending injury. John Bohannon needs to protect the ball and make better decisions, plus he has to bulk up and control his emotions! I said that about Bo last year. He reminds me so much of Greg Foster back in his day, which is why Foster has taken him under his wing. I'm sure he feels the same way about Bo.

Speaking of Lang, major kudos to him for standing his ground against the Barton thug brothers. Hard foul? Yes. Dirty foul? No! Memphis showed what kind of team they are, individualists and the "me" attitude. The Bartons will fit nicely in the NBA, since it's all about "me" in that league. UTEP is about "TEAM", no "I's" or "me's". We don't have one and done players in our program.

UTEP will be a better program next season. Vint and Moore will return, and our new recruits will fit into Floyd's philosophy. We'll have to lose a few players (other than McCulley), most likely some of the bench warmers. They'll be a few changes, but I liked what I saw this season.

I had low expectations coming into the season, knowing we were stocked with a bunch of freshmen and sophomore players. Our early ugly losses to Eastern New Mexico, UT San Antonio, and Stephen F. Austin didn't help my prospects of this team. But close competitive losses to Oregon, UNLV, and Kansas, plus the continued improvement of the team with each game, changed my view of the team. Yeah, there were some ugly games, close losses. It's going to happen with a young inexperienced team. But what I wanted to see this past season was improvement, and not necessarily concerned about the number of wins. I witnessed that this season, and the Miners exceeded my expectations, a testament to Floyd and his coaching staff.

Let Memphis have its run as conference champs. A year from now they'll be heading to the Big LEast Conference. Good riddance I say! As weak as that conference will be, they'll potentially become the new spoiled brats of the Big LEast.

Kudos to the Miners for a great 2011-2012 season. Yes, I said great! Your opinion may vary.

[Miner Maniac]

One other note. Indications are that C-USA will award the 2013 conference basketball tournament to Memphis again. To me this is such a travesty! Memphis is leaving the conference after next season, and the university never held back their disdain of C-USA and their desire to move to a "big league" conference. A few years ago the Big East may have been considered "the big leagues". But with all the defections and conference realignments over the past several years, the Big East has now become the over bloated Big LEast Conference.

All that aside, C-USA is looking at the money potential opportunity of hosting the tourney at Memphis again. Why not award it to one of your remaining member schools instead? UTEP successfully hosted the tourney last year, and while it was a losing proposition for El Paso (and not by much), C-USA made its guaranteed $1 million. If not El Paso, award it to Tulsa, Rice, Tulane, anybody but Memphis, Houston, SMU, or UCF. They're all leaving for the Big LEast after next season.

I encourage everyone to contact Commissioner Britton Banowsky and express opposition to awarding Memphis the C-USA Basketball Tournament for 2013. The information is below:

Commissioner Britton Banowsky
Conference USA
5201 N. O'Connor Blvd.
Suite 300
Irving, TX 75039
(214) 774-1300
info@c-usa.org

[gustavo reveles]

This is what I see as the reason why UTEP didn't fare any better than 15-17. Two key players who could've helped underneath - Malcolm Moore and Hooper Vint - were lost for the season with injuries. Suddenly you lose a 6-7 and a 6-10 guy. That didn't help. In addition, the 6-5 scorer Darius Nelson decided to quit and is now at Fullerton. This team seriously needed a scorer. If those three had stayed healthy and contributing, then UTEP would have had enough pieces to have won more games. So next season, to me, looks very bright because you get Moore and Vint back. Then you have touted recruits Twymond Howard, Chris Washburn and Dustin Watts coming in. I think Ragland showed flashes of being a contributor. Campbell to me looks like he could use a redshirt season to get his game up to D-I specs. Also, if JC transfer Kenny Williams ends up at UTEP, he's supposed to be a rebounder, which the Miners could use. Tim Floyd will certainly have more pieces to work with next season. UTEP will be a winner for many seasons to come.

[a fan]

Here's a laugh:

Doc Sadler got himself fired from Nebraska. Gee...

[Macho Camacho]

Hey Jutep whinners. NMSU is going to the big dance!!!

[a fan]

Hey Macho,

The Aggie fans I know are pretty classy. No rubbing UTEP having a losing record or how they've been to the dance 3 times in the last five years. Then there's you. Guess there is always one lowlife in a crowd.

Good luck to the Aggies against IU and beyond.

[Mexico State]

Aggie thugs will be one and done.

[Dayton Flyer]

Aggie thugs will be one and done.

Posted by: Mexico State | March 13, 2012 at 10:19 AM

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Maybe, but they won't be sitting at home watching everyone else playing.

Truth hurts, doesn't it.