UTEP Basketball Comment Thread
by asalom on Nov 3, 2010 12:49 PM MDT
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PrintWhat's going on everybody? I, like many others, cant wait to see what Coach Floyd can do with the players that he has remaining from last year's squad. I think its very apparent that we're lacking downlow, but there is definitely still a lot of talent on the team. With a lot of hard work, and CTF's hard D we should be able to make a run at the C-USA tournament as well as the NCAA's.
Unfortunately, I missed out on UTEP's first tuneup this weekend as I was out of town watching conference foe Tulsa get extremely lucky against Notre Dame (Lucky only because Kelly had no business even thinking about throwing the ball that last play and he did it. However, I'm glad that Tulsa was able to pick up a big W for C-USA even though it seemed like the refs were committed to not letting that happen). But enough about that. Due to the fact that I was at the game I didn't get to see what the Miners looked like and was very surprised to see the result of the game. A game down to the wire against an Eastern NM team is not at all what I expected. I just wanted to kind of open up a thread to hear what you all thought if you saw the game, or any other input even if you didn't. Let me know.
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The Tim Floyd Era has truly begun...
I had a chance to go back to EP for the weekend and see the game. it was apparent that Coach Floyd was not as interested in winning the game as he was in teaching a new system and scouting his own players. Right away, you could see the team trying to get into their halfcourt sets and run some plays. This was a breath of fresh air to anyone as frustrated as me when I watched this team under Barbee merely try to out-athleticize the other team—throw it around the perimeter and dribble drive a la Calipari. A lot of players got PT that I don’t anticipate getting the same amount during the regular season. Namely Bohannon who was left on the floor while he was clearly struggling. When he was taken out he grabbed some bench next to coach Floyd for a little one on one tutorial. Great to see! For a more in depth analysis you should ck out the write up on miners illustrated site. Go Miners!
by ATX_BLUES on Nov 3, 2010 8:57 PM MDT via mobile reply actions
I have a list of games I can see- Texas Tech among others-
I appreciate the comments- ATX- I saw some higlights but couldn’t watch the whole game. Hopefully, UTEP will stream some games again this year like they did last season.
Floyd and Barbee will definitely have different styles as you’ve pointed out. I think it was 2 years ago where UTEP’s offense was essentially: 1) someone drive, 2) someone chuck up a hail mary lay-up.
Barbee only really found success after Randy became more than a one dimensional player. Awesome insight on Bohannon- I will be surprised if he’s more than a 5-10 minute guy just because he’s so young and raw still.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Well thanks for the input
I have no idea what the team looks, and it’s a little more scary that Bohannon isn’t ready to come in and be a factor. With as thin as our front lines are I was hoping he’d be able to help out.
It’s definitely awesome that we finally have some offense and not like we’ve all seen over the last couple years just a 1 on 1 game. Considering our losses we are going to have to execute. We cant just rely on our overall talent.
I think a big x-factor this year is going to have to be Wayne Portelatin. Considering we already are short on bigs he is going to have to step up. Especially with Claude’s asthma problems. Wayne really has to become a disciplined player. In the past he’d go in for a few minutes get a rebound and 3 fouls and go back to the bench. It cant be that way anymore. He has to come in for some solid minutes and contribute. I’d like to see him around 5 points and 5-7 rbs a game.
Obviously our guards are solid and the new additions on make them even more of an asset. The same goes for our forwards. Jeremy has to be big this year, Haynes too. We got to take as much pressure off of our bigs through those two guys.
Overall, I cant wait. It’s gonna be a great year. We have to get ready quick though. Pacific is a really tough opening test. There’s really no time to get our feet set. It’s just go out there and do it. Can’t wait.
Claude was really good down the stretch last year
But you’re righte he’s a 20 minute a game tops guy. The good news about our size is that Tulsa lost Jordan and Marshall lost Whiteside. There isn’t a whole lot of elite frontcourt depth this year. There are some studs, like Papa Dia, but nobody that can kill us single handedly.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Very good points
But you know I’m not so much worried about the bigs in conference having their way with us. I’m more concerned about what will happen vs. schools like Georgia Tech, Syracuse, and Michigan, or even schools like Pacific, Texas Tech and BYU. If our guys can’t handle the bigs of these schools we’re in trouble. As we saw last year we almost got left out of the NCAA tourney with a 26-7 record or whatever it was. We need to be able to pick up some marquee wins to build a solid resume for when the NCAA committee comes knocking, and the our bigs will play an important role in that.
If Claude can only go 20-25 minutes a game that leaves us with Wayne and Bohannon for almost half the game. Point is our big men are going to have to step up big time. Claude is going to have to play smart. He can’t be taking himself out of the game with stupid fouls. Wayne is going to have to be smart also. He’s going to have to be able to come in and give Claude rest and be able to produce with good d, a few boards, and a few points while he’s in there. Bohannon needs to get bigger and stronger. Come conference time he’s gonna be needed so he has to be ready.
I got to go to this second exhibition and I’ll be honest. I’m not ready to say we look good. We didn’t look bad, but we’re far from where we were last year. It is nice though to actually see our guys running a half court offense, and playing aggressive man to man d. Kingsville jacked up a lot of threes like ENM did, but many of them were forced. IDK if it was the same vs. ENM but Kingsville couldn’t do anything against our d and was forced to settle for a three time and time again. IDK if ENM was the same and just made more???
Regardless, we have to get better, and quick. Pacific is here Friday, and Georgia Tech is less than 3 weeks away. Speaking of big men, Pacific has 5 guys over 6-8 on their roster including a 7-1 C. I really hope we can sell out the DON that night cause its gonna be a tough one.
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