Miners Escape Mustangs, Take Over Reigns in C-USA
by asalom on Feb 13, 2011 1:13 AM MST
in UTEP Miners Basketball
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PrintIt wasn't their best performance, but it was far from the worst. The Miners jumped out to quick leads of 6-0 and 10-2, before the Mustangs finally settled in with a 12-2 run. SMU took the lead at 17-15 on a three pointer from Jeremiah Samarrippas with 12:30 to go in the first twenty, and they would carry that lead for a good portion of the game. The Miners were down by as many as nine in the first half, but were able to close the gap to 4 at intermission.
The second half was played much like the first, with the Ponies leading almost the entire way. SMU pushed its lead back up to as many as seven points in final half, but the Miners were persistent and refused to let their opponents pull away. A Jeremy Williams jumper with 7:20 to go tied the game for the Miners, and after thirty-three minutes of stagnant offense, and uninspired defense the home team finally found its spark. UTEP outscored SMU 21-7 over the final nine minutes of the game, and pulled away for a 67-57 victory.
Christian Polk led the way for the Miners on this night, scoring 18 points and pulling down 5 rebounds. Randy Culpepper had a fairly quiet night going 3-8 from the field for 14 points, to go along with 3 boards and 3 assists. Gabe McCulley played tough going for 8 points, and 7 rebounds, while Jeremy Williams chipped in with 10 points, and 6 boards. And, of course, Julyan Stone had another Julyan Stone like performance with 11 points, 7 assists, and 0 turnovers.
As usual Papa Dia led the way for the Mustangs registering a double double with 18 points, and 10 rebounds. Jeremiah Samarrippas and Collin Mangrum each put up 12 points, respectively, and Robert Nyakundi had a tough night at the office as Julyan Stone held him to 4 points, with 4 turnovers.
The Miners improved to 19-5, 7-2 with the victory, but are not playing at the level that such an experienced team should be playing at at this point. At times the offense seems completely out of whack with players standing around, trying to play too much one on one basketball. The defense which had been completely suffocating earlier in the season has eased up a bit, and it showed tonight as the Mustangs shot over 50% for the majority of the game.
Now is not the time for mistakes, now is not the time for letdowns. These guys have been here before, these guys know how to win. They need to play like it. Winning games is great, but if we continue to play the way that we have the last few weeks, those wins will be a lot more sparse down the stretch.
Up next for the Miners is a trip to Hattiesburg, MS to take on Larry Eustachy and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. The Golden Eagles are coming off a loss to Memphis, and will surely be looking to get back on the winning track on their home floor. Besides BYU, this will be the biggest test of the Miners' season to this point. Come in like we did tonight, and we may get run out of the gym. Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m. et, and will be carried by 92.3 the fox.
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Sorry if i sound upset at a victory
I just know the Miners are much better than we have seen over the last few weeks, and its upsetting to see them in games like this. I truly don’t mean any disrespect to SMU, but we are a much better team, and should not be playing from behind for 30 minutes on our home floor. Teams like USM, Memphis, Marshall, and even UCF will eat us alive if we play so flat for 20-30 minutes.
I think the odd schedule may have a little to do with it as the Miners have had three straight weeks with only one game. I’m sure that throws a wrench in the system, but still. We need to straighten things out, play more consistent on offense, and more than anything get back to the shut down defense we all got spoiled with there for a month. If we can do that, we will win out, and we will definitely find ourselves back in the NCAA tournament. If we can’t, NIT here we come.
I think the unusual layoff had something to do with the slow start
They were definitely rusty. But, I agree to some extent because UTEP really struggled out of the gate against UH last time too., Perhaps the slow starts are more indicative of a larger problem.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
You Know
I’ve been a Miner fan my whole life. I’ve been going to UTEP football and basketball games since I was probably like 8 years old (I’m 25 now). My family has always had season tickets, and I would be there going nuts even in the times when no one else would be. Also, going for almost 20 years now, I got to see the crazy nights in the Special Events Center in the old WAC. You just don’t see it anymore. We’ve got horrible fans here in El Paso, and it gets to me. There are a ton of programs out there where their crowd literally carries them night in and night out. We could have that here, but we just don’t have the fans. Last night, the fans were extremely quiet until about the last seven minutes of the game, from then on the crowd actually showed how loud the DON can get. I just wish they would have that enthusiasm, and cheered like that more often. If they did, we would almost never lose at home.
Well, I guess 7 minutes of loud is a start
And I saw on facebook/twitter how Julyan was saying that the crowd was pretty loud
i think the cheerleaders, veterans fans like asalom
arena and the team have to educate these new fans when to be loud…sounds like no one is doing anything. Encourage your peers around you. That is what i use to do…
by MinerManiax on Feb 13, 2011 12:03 PM MST via mobile up reply actions
Good stuff here
And the fans in the game thread seemed to agree it seemed quiet for the first too (as did Teicher apparently). The Don has excellent acoustics and when the crowd is rocking, its as fun a place to see a game as anywhere. The crowd always seems to take notice when UTEP gets ranked- so maybe, maybe, if UTEP gets closer to #25 the players can have a lively atmosphere for their final few games.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Definitely
All I can say is after we beat Southern Miss the Memphis, Marshall, and UCF games BETTER BE SELLOUTS, and the crowd better be loud….We should definitely find ourselves just a little closer to the top 25 tomorrow.
it starts with the student section
I hate where our student section is located. If we could move it to behind the bench they would be louder n on their feet forcing everybody behind them to stand up n make some noise
by el javi on Feb 13, 2011 1:21 PM MST via mobile reply actions
we should start a petition to get it moved
Amac or asalom start it…
by MinerManiax on Feb 13, 2011 1:26 PM MST via mobile up reply actions
U took the words right out of my mouth, the students at any school usually make the most noise.
That being said Ive never thought the UTEP student section was that great so what makes up most of those rowdy crowds (back in the day or even now) is really the basketball knowledge this city has.
I guarantee u will see a different feel for the Memphis game two weeks from now. Just like u got a different feel for the old WAC main rivals, (BYU, Utah, UNM) or just like u would get a different feel for the Nevada games in the mid-2000s
I admit I thought this shouldve been a win over SMU no matter how improved they were and I would think most of the fans last night felt the same until…about 7 mins left when we all realized this was gonna be close down the stretch. The fans came to life and made their presence known.
Its an odd-mentality, but with no real student section, its what we have to live with…but again ill take 10k plus for an SMU home game any day of the week.
new rivals
How do we officially start a rivalry with houston n smu? Play for a trophy n state bragging rights any1 knw
by el javi on Feb 13, 2011 2:16 PM MST via mobile reply actions
rivalries happen naturally --cant be forced
In football it seems its already a rivalry. The fans here dont necessary think its an auto win when the coogs travel to el paso. If we knock them off at our place and i think we will then its on like kong. In basketball we seem to be ahead and dont feel like a rivalry…
by MinerManiax on Feb 13, 2011 2:54 PM MST via mobile up reply actions
Something or someone has to spark a rivalry...
that’s what made the old BYU, UNM, Utah games great, our fanbase just despised all their players, fans and coaches…their fanbase respected, but couldnt stand our players or Coach haskins…haskins himself was a bit of an instigator…or sometimes an incident like a fight on the court will spark something..i.e. when Omar Thomas almost threw down with the scrub from Nevada, I dont condone it, but it does add fuel to the fire especially when both teams are competing for the conference title.
Another contributing factor is the post season tourneys—do yall realize we have played Houston 3 straight years in the CUSA tourney…all good games too…thats why im not very fond of them, UAB is another team that rubs me the wrong way. Weve had some heated battle with them the past few years.
AAU ball and coaches all getting along with each other and constantly being politically correct has also led to the decline of these rivalries. Few coaches rub each other the wrong way, I think Coach Cal is one of them, he and Pearl from UT hate each other, i think Pitino at UL also doesnt like him.
But yeah, u cant force these things, and its an issue across the country…check out this article by Andy Katz, he cronicles the decline in rivalries from the Utah-BYU, and UNM-NMSU perspectives…interesting stuff. If those rivalries are dying then we have no hope.
I think the key here is Parody and competition. Honestly, I think we will build a rivalry with Memphis or UAB before we build one with SMU. Houston is getting there, but we need to beat them at their place in Football more often.
"BCS does not apply to basketball. It's football. You can't tell me Memphis is a mid-major. You can't tell me UTEP, with its history of players, crowd attendance and NCAA Tournament berths, is a mid-major. Same for Gonzaga and St. Mary's - it doesn't apply. These are high-major programs that can play. All we can do is win games and hope others recognize. … We should pass the eye test - if anybody ever watches us." - Tim Floyd
One other thing...Katz mentions UTEP-Memphis could turn into a rivalry..
why CUSA doesnt schedule us to play them twice every year is pretty dumb. I can see their fans getting on CTF over there….Pastner on the other hand is like a choir boy.
Definitely, Memphis fans seem to really like to talk smack about UTEP, and that can only mean one thing. They see us as a threat.
With Floyd being here we have a solid coach, who can recruit. Pastner is a great recruiter as well. We will be competing for the top recruits, and also competing for the best classes in the conference. I think a lot of C-USA championships are going to be fought for between both schools.
"BCS does not apply to basketball. It's football. You can't tell me Memphis is a mid-major. You can't tell me UTEP, with its history of players, crowd attendance and NCAA Tournament berths, is a mid-major. Same for Gonzaga and St. Mary's - it doesn't apply. These are high-major programs that can play. All we can do is win games and hope others recognize. … We should pass the eye test - if anybody ever watches us." - Tim Floyd
Well since the 2005 realignment
Only Memphis and UTEP have won the C-USA regular season championship…Memphis 2006-2009, and UTEP 2010. If we can make it back to back I can certainly see a real rivalry growing between the two
Improve the atmosphere in the Don...
Do it by building luxury boxes. How would that help? By moving all the older (and richer) season ticket holders away from courtside and letting rowdier fans sit closer.
For the record...
I don’t like anybody in our conference! I find that an air of condescension exists amongst the other universities towards us. I don’t know if it’s that we’re a border town; our cultural make-up; or just that we are so far west of the rest of them. Perhaps it’s all three? Regardless, I see them all as rivals and don’t care for any of them.
However...
To be clear, none of them yet exists lower in bowels of dislike than BYU at present, however Memphis is making a strong push. Simply because they tend to squawk and whine the loudest with a disfunctional sense of entitlement.
I tell you what, if SMU keeps up taunting the crowd like they did on Saturday...
Then there would be no choice.
I heard mention of this during the webcast....
What exactly was being done as I was not able to either see or hear an explanation of what occured. Can you fill in the blanks?
I don't remember all of them, but I remember Papa Dia...
Putting his finger on his lips, like “Shhhh”, to the crowd after he nailed one of his threes. There were one or two more taunts from other players , but I don’t remember exactly what they did.
Student section
I’m one of the students always in the front row of the student section closest to the visitors bench, and believe me we are trying to get it back to what it was like! I don’t know if any of you can hear us but we really research the players and start getting on them during warm ups slowly but surely we’ll get it rocking again! We are also gonna start waiting for the opposing team when they arrive to the Don and start the fun when they get off the bus!
by cybarra2 on Feb 14, 2011 2:58 AM MST via mobile reply actions
Good to hear....
This all starts with you, the students. Hopefully this will continue to grow not only for the remainder of this season but through the C-USA tournament and in years to come.
C-USA tourney
Only thing that sucks about the tourney is that since it is a C-USA event there will be no student section
by cybarra2 on Feb 14, 2011 6:08 PM MST via mobile up reply actions
I always thought playing the song "We will rock you!" as the opponent team entered
The Don would be great and intimidating, especially if all the fans joined in hitting their seats with the song so that while the team is in the tunnel all they hear is this crazy pounding and chanting.
Better music can go a long way!
Seriously in football, UTEP’s music selection drives me absolutely nuts. It’s part of the experience for sure.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
I always like the intro to...
Thunderstruck, Crazy Train or Enter the Sandman. Something heavy and daunting that starts pumping blood into the team and the fans.
when do the new rankings come out?
It use to be sunday evening.
by MinerManiax on Feb 14, 2011 10:47 AM MST via mobile reply actions
Rankings are released Mondays usually by about 11 or 12
The Coaches poll is out…UTEP received 8 votes, which puts them up to about 31st, the AP is not out just yet
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