Miners Rebound Versus Michigan
by asalom on Nov 27, 2010 8:29 PM MST
in UTEP Miners Basketball
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PrintWhat a difference a day makes. After losing to Georgia Tech in the opening round of the Legends Classic, the Miners righted the ship against the Michigan Wolverines to win the consolation game. The first half was a well fought battle. After leading for much of the first twenty minutes, the Wolverines rallied late to tie things up going into the half.
The second half opened with something that we hadn't seen from the Miners this year. They came out on fire with a 13-0 run, holding the Wolverines scoreless for nearly the first 6 minutes of the second half. The Miners torched the nets shooting 61% from the field in the final twenty, while holding Michigan to an ice cold 25%. The suffocating defense that had apparently taken the night off vs. Georgia Tech was back in full effect on Saturday. The Blue and Maize were held without a fg in the second half until nearly 8 minutes to go in the game. By that time the Miners had sprinted to a 15 point lead, and never let up winning the game by a final of 65-56.
The Miners were led by reigning C-USA player of the year, and former 6th man of the year Randy Culpepper who shot 10-16 from the field for a game high 24 points to go along with 3 boards, 3 steals, and an assist. For whatever reasons Coach Tim Floyd decided to bring Culpepper off the bench and it definitely worked out well. John Bohannon had his best game thus far with 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Julyan Stone was right on par with 10 points and 5 boards, while Jeremy Williams neared a double double with 8 points and 10 rebounds. Also noteworthy was Wayne Portelatin who had 5 points and 4 boards in only 12 minutes of action. Michigan was led by Darius Morris who was 8-11 from the field for 20 points. Unfortunately for Morris, his teammates were only 8-42 from the field.
Today was a good win for the Miners, but they need to learn how to play with more consistency. We've seen that they can play some great defense and are finding their groove offensively, but they can't take nights off. We've seen it a couple times this year and both games ended in losses. The fact is that we aren't as deep as we were last year, and we can't afford to play like we did yesterday come conference time. If we can make our efforts consistent we can definitely compete for the conference title and a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Up next for the Miners is the sequel to the battle of I-10 on Tuesday at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces. The Miners used the Thanksgiving break wisely playing some good competition to keep the wheels rolling on the season, while the Aggies have been idle since the first game against UTEP. The game will be at 7:00 p.m. and tickets are still available.
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Bohannon
Had a breakout game. Imagine when he adds 10-15 pounds of muscle? Great write-up asalom!
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
wheres tf recruits?
other than perez who else from floyd recruit class is contributing? ive only seen barbee players on the court
Yeah, but.....
Do you really think that they would be producing and playing as a team the way they currently are if everything was exactly the same yet the only difference was who was coaching? Meaning, look what they’re doing so far sans Caracter and Moultre. I sincerely doubt they’d be playing this way under Barbee.
Without AM and DC
No way would Barbee beat Michigan like that. UTEP is winning with defense- never the strength of a Barbee coached team that always emphasized running and playing offense.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Floyd only brought in three players.
Michael Perez, Michael Haynes, and Deshun Watkins.
Perez is the only one thats even on the bench right now.
Haynes has personal issues, and Watkins can’t play this year, for reasons I am not to clear on.
Tony Baker was a walk on who probably won’t get much playing time ever, unless he blossoms into a good option.
Solid points...
Do we even know what’s the latest status on the latter two young men (Haynes & Watkins)? I completely forgot about Watkins, what is the story on this? Did he not clear the NCAA clearinghouse?
He's on the roster, so I'm pretty sure he cleared the clearinghouse
Haynes is the biggest mystery because he would be an immediate contributor although J Will is playing so well right now that his loss has been off set somewhat
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Floyd brought Rashanti Harris..
but he’s ineligible.
by TooLegitToQuit on Nov 28, 2010 11:19 PM MST up reply actions
TF's Recruits
Its hard whenever a new coach comes in and has to start a recruiting class after all the other schools are already done. CTF had to take some chances on the best players who other schools had let go by because of academic troubles. Sadly, those academic struggles cost UTEP Lee and Harris. Perez was probably the least lauded of CTF’s class as he came on very late (after the Strong schollie opened up) but he’s shown promising signs at times and definitely looks like a future leader. This incoming class will be considered by most to be Floyd’s first “full” class and I think he has some studs there. I would like to have seen another PF/C prospect other than Cedric Lang who looks like he will need to add some muscle before he can bang with the bigs but the array of PG’s and SF’s give UTEP athletes who can run and gun with anybody out there.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
I just want to say
That I am far from impressed with either Bohannon or Perez. They’re both young and they will both likely improve greatly over the next year or two, but Bohannon has no power inside. He get’s pushed around on the defensive boards, and when he gets the ball down low he’s to weak to hold on to the ball. He REALLY needs to get bigger and stronger, and to be honest doesn’t deserve 20-25 minutes a game till then. Then again I’m not the coach.
As far as Perez goes, wasn’t he supposed to be a pure shooter and scorer?? I have not seen him do any such thing on the offensive end, and it even seems he is a little lost and out of place at times. He is a good defender tho and at this point can prob give someone a breather now and then. That’s about it.
I hate to be so critical of our guys, especially since they’re freshman, but this isn’t high school ball anymore. At this point you’re a dime a dozen. Work hard and do what you have to do to get better or you’re gonna get left in the dust.
I don't agree with your assessment of Bohannon
I realize he needs to add muscle, but watching him from a game to game basis, it is staggering how much improvement he has mad in such little time. I remember watching him play against ENMU in the exhibition, and noticed how he was getting pushed around. I was in the same boat as you at that point. Since then he has impressed me in different ways each game. First I noticed his reluctance to put the ball on the floor, then it was his willingness to pass the ball back out if nothing was there. Finally, it was his drive to go after rebounds that we saw against Michigan. You also have to remember he was playing with a broken nose against both Georgia Tech and Michigan.
I Honestly think that he was a big time steal.
I'm with you here...
I too have seen the same growth in JBo given his infancy at the D1 level. I’m going out on a limb in agreeing with what I heard a commentator state during the Legends Tourney, “Bohannon is a lot stronger than he looks”. I agree he still has a ways to go and still requires to gain more strength and bulk, however he has demonstrated vast improvement in such a short period of time. As for the 20-25 mins remark, I don’t know if CTF has any choice given the lack of conditioning and offensive consistency of Britton and the defensive development of Portalatin. Wayne has also demonstrated some really progess in this aspect of well.
As far as Perez is conerned, I believe he lacks the confidence at this point to start airing it out. Remember, coach has his shooters ranked on who has carte-blanche to take the shot and Perez shouldn’t have a green light unless he’s clearly open for the field goal or an open lane for the drive to the bucket. He has shown glimpses of his shooting ability, but again I think he’s working more on his defensive abilities than his offensive. I believe we’ll see him given more offensive functionality later in the season, he’s still finding his feet with those other aspects of the game.
I honestly prefer Portelatin over Bohannon
Wayne may not be a great offensive force, but he’ll get down and dirty for you. He won’t get pushed around. I think if we gave him more of a chance he might surprise us. He’s big, he’s physical, and he’s a senior. He knows what playing on this level is all about. Bohannon doesn’t. Give Wayne 10-15 minutes a game and he’ll definitely get a couple baskets and a few boards. To be honest that’s all we need.
I’m so tired of the Britten excuses. I’ve made them myself, but honestly he needs to step up and produce. He’s undoubtedly our best big and he needs to show it consistently. For him its all about effort. He needs to be more focused and try harder.
Also, I’d rather not even play a big at this point. I’d really just like to see Williams and McCulley in there for the great majority of the time. They’re both 6-8 so its not like they’re that small. Plus they have great athleticism. A lot of times that will cancel out a couple inches.
That's exactly what occured during the Michigan game...
Wayne had 4 rebounds & 5 points on 12mins. He had more mins than Claude (7).
JBo was three rebounds shy of getting his first double-double with 7 reb; 3 blks, 2 asst, & 10 points on 21mins.
I think you’re onto something with Wayne and it appears he will more than likely begin to see more action. I will also tell you that Wayne looked like a different player out there. He has really shown some development under CTF that I hadn’t seen out of him before, hence the reason he got some quality playing time in this outing.
I'll tell you what
I didn’t get to see the Michigan cause I was on a flight home, but the GT game he was definitely getting pushed around. Maybe the broken nose has a lot to do with it, but you can’t play at 50% just cause your nose is broken. If you can’t go just dont go. Just look at him on the defensive end, he get literally gets blocked out of the paint, and notice how many times he gets stripped. Its at least 3 times a game. Doesn’t seem like a lot but how many touches is he getting? Three might be half the time he touches the ball. Agreed that he has improved, but we also havn’t seen much of a dominant big man on opposing teams. When we do it’ll really show.
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