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After 3 weeks of polling the Miner Dream Team has its frontcourt starters set. David "Big Daddy" Lattin gets the nod at center, Jim "Bad News" Barnes is the clear starter at power forward, and Omar "OT" Thomas is our starting small forward. Now we get to look at two stacked positions in the backcourt in the coming weeks. First up, the shooting guards. Let's begin by noting that some of the candidates listed in this category could also have been listed in last week's small forwards category. For example Stefon Jackson, Jason Williams, Scott English, and Johnny Melvin all played some a lot of time at the 3. We here at the Rush decided to count these players as 2-guards for various reasons. So let's get down to it and look at this week's Dream Team candidates: Orsten Artis, Scott English, Jake Poole, Luster Goodwin, Kent Lockhart, Mark McCall, Johnny Melvin, Antoine Gillespie, Kimani Jones-Young, Jason Williams, Stefon Jackson, and Randy Culpepper.
Below we have the candidates with their years played, all-time field goals made and field goal percentage. Ever since Jordan the 2-guard has sort of been the glamour position in men's basketball, and so unsurprisingly, many of this week's candidates are in the 1,000 points club and among the top scorers in Miner basketball history.
| Player | Years Played | GP | FGM | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orsten Artis | 1963-1966 | 82 | 381 | 45% |
| Scott English | 1969-1972 | 77 | 312 | 47.50% |
| Jake Poole | 1973-1977 | 91 | 382 | 44.70% |
| Luster Goodwin | 1981-1985 | 119 | 572 | 47.40% |
| Kent Lockhart | 1981-1985 | 120 | 394 | 44.10% |
| Mark McCall | 1987-1991 | 105 | 262 | 48.00% |
| Johnny Melvin | 1988-1993 | 129 | 425 | 45.10% |
| Antoine Gillespie | 1992-1995 | 94 | 534 | 42.30% |
| Kimani Jones-Young | 1994-1997 | 83 | 337 | 43.50% |
| Jason Williams | 2003-2006 | 97 | 443 | 46.10% |
| Stefon Jackson | 2005-2009 | 124 | 810 | 44.80% |
| Randy Culpepper | 2007-2011 | 138 | 782 | 42.80% |
Below you'll find our candidates total numbers in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals:
| Player | Total Points | Total Rebounds | Total Assists | Total Blocks | Total Steals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orsten Artis | 939 | 278 | |||
| Scott English | 782 | 484 | |||
| Jake Poole | 951 | 180 | |||
| Luster Goodwin | 1327 | 178 | 218 | 2 | 97 |
| Kent Lockhart | 974 | 349 | 279 | 12 | 83 |
| Mark McCall | 798 | 300 | 93 | 17 | 54 |
| Johnny Melvin | 1142 | 602 | 270 | 58 | 154 |
| Antoine Gillespie | 1706 | 385 | 180 | 16 | 87 |
| Kimani Jones-Young | 1058 | 234 | 201 | 15 | 103 |
| Jason Williams | 1225 | 614 | 321 | 22 | 135 |
| Stefon Jackson | 2456 | 643 | 205 | 11 | 140 |
| Randy Culpepper | 2338 | 373 | 274 | 35 | 251 |
Four of the top 10 scorers in Miner history appear on this list (#1 Stefon, #2 Randy, #4 Antoine, #9 Luster). Jason Williams and Johnny Melvin are in the top 20. Not surprisingly, the players who spent a lot of time playing the small forward position also lead the group in rebounds (Jackson, Williams, Melvin, English). What is surprising is that the only player on this list that managed to tally more than 300 assists was Jason Williams. And that was with 2 years spent playing with Fili Rivera who was also dishing out assists at a high pace. None of these players were really known for their shot-blocking skills but Johnny Melvin and Randy Culpepper lead the way in that category. Culpepper also leads by a large margin in total steals, which is just further evidence of his underrated and tireless defensive activity.
Below are the per-game stats of the categories from the previous table:
| Player | PPG | RPG | APG | BPG | SPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orsten Artis | 11.5 | 3.4 | |||
| Scott English | 10.2 | 6.3 | |||
| Jake Poole | 10.5 | 1.9 | |||
| Luster Goodwin | 11.2 | 1.5 | 1.832 | 0.017 | 0.815 |
| Kent Lockhart | 8.1 | 2.9 | 2.325 | 0.1 | 0.692 |
| Mark McCall | 7.6 | 2.8 | 0.886 | 0.162 | 0.514 |
| Johnny Melvin | 8.8 | 4.7 | 2.093 | 0.449 | 1.194 |
| Antoine Gillespie | 18.1 | 4.1 | 1.915 | 0.17 | 0.926 |
| Kimani Jones-Young | 12.7 | 2.8 | 2.422 | 0.181 | 1.241 |
| Jason Williams | 12.6 | 6.3 | 3.309 | 0.227 | 1.392 |
| Stefon Jackson | 19.8 | 5.2 | 1.653 | 0.089 | 1.129 |
| Randy Culpepper | 16.9 | 2.7 | 1.986 | 0.254 | 1.819 |
The per-game stats sometimes give us a better idea of a player's style. For instance, you didn't have to see Jackson, Culpepper, or Gillespie play in order to know that they were among the best pure scorers in UTEP history. Averaging over 16 points per game should tell you that. All 3 of those guys were huge recruiting prizes from big recruiting hubs (Stefon from Philly, Antoine from Chicago, and Randy from Memphis). The other candidates on the list were all great scorers as well. Again, the players who also played small forward lead the way in rebounds per game. At 6-5 or so, Jackson had pretty good length for the Miners and Jason Williams was the type of player who could do all the dirty work for the Miners (guarding the opponent's best player, defend well, rebound). The assists, steals, and blocks per game are all listed as well to help you decide in case the choice is too close.
Ultimately though, we encourage you Miner fans to vote not on the numbers but based on your memories. Who deserves to be the Miner Dream Team's starting shooting guard?