Post by MinerMan2010 on Mar 27, 2013 22:38:02 GMT -5
Another basketball season has come and gone and as usual, it ended is disappointment. No NCAA, NIT, or even "lesser" tournaments like the CBI and CIT. The coaching staff didn't think the extra games and practices were worth possibly "tarnishing" the UTEP name and with the staff ready to eject half the roster to bring in "better" recruits, we look forward to next year. Hopefully it will be as good as some of the cheerleaders say.
Breakdown:
Oral Roberts - Was pretty impressed here. Sadly, this was Chris Washburns best game and he actually got worse as the season progressed!
Arizona - blowout loss. I expected a loss, but this team looked like crap.
Old Spice Classic - Had a good little comeback to make OU score look close, absolutely pathetic in losses to Clemson and Vandy.
NMSU & Idaho - Two must needed wins, sneaked out with a win versus NMSU and let Idaho back into the game to make the final score look closer.
UNLV - Lost opportunity. Thought we could have been headed in the right direction with a winner here. Awful offense and blown opportunities..... A sign of things to come.
Oregon - Easily the Miners best win of the season. Oregon is a really good team. Nice win for UTEP, but ultimately meant nothing as the season wore on.
Sun Bowl Tourney - Beating Pine Bluff is like taking a piss in the morning, nothing special about that. A good win versus Big Ten bottom dweller Nebraska. Pretty impressive, in my opinion. Really blew them out.
Colorado St - Miners fought hard and almost pulled it out, just couldn't hit the big shots and rebound. Would have been huge had we won.
Tulane, Marshall, & HBU - Picked up a much needed road win. Some fans will try and tell you that beating Tulane was a good win, sorry, but they suck. Marshall underachieved this year and we beat them pretty good. HBU should have probably been played between the NMSU and Idaho games. I wonder why we couldn't. Garbage, blowout game.
at Tulsa - Awful, awful, awful. This is where I really started to question what kind of team we had. Turns out very mediocre!
SMU & ECU - Beat up a bad SMU team and went on the road and beat an okay ECU team. Nothing special except for the last second game winner by McKenzie.
UAB - Couldn't believe the Miners lost this game. They were dominating in the 2nd half and the coaching staff decided to take the air out of the ball. Bad mistake. Brutal loss.
Tulane & Rice - 2 easy home wins. Expected every year.
Tulsa & Houston - Awful. Losing to rookie coach Danny Manning twice is one year is tough to accept. Especially since he had a lot of new players. Some fans will make excuses for Floyd's record because of new players, but same logic doesn't apply for other schools. Houston kicked our ass in front of 200 people, embarrassing.
UCF - A needed win. Last time we will play them. "They will be missed" said no one.
USM & NMSU - 2 road losses against good competition, what else is new? Boring game vs USM and awful first half vs NMSU. Again, with a good lead, coaching staff took the air out of the ball and allowed NMSU to come back and win. Last 30 seconds of the game were pitiful.
Houston & Rice - 2 wins the Miners needed and got. Again, wins that should be expected.
Memphis - Probably the last time we will play them. Was a good game, Miners had their chances to win, but ultimately blew it.
SMU - Crushed their sorry asses for probably the last time. With winning 3 of their last 4 and playing Memphis tough, it gave us some hope leading into the CUSA tournament.
Houston (CUSA) - Miners took care of business and put it to the Cougars.
USM (CUSA) - Yes, there were some bad calls, but the Miners didn't compete. Blowout city.
Miners ended their season at 18-14, an improvement over last year, but not what some fans expected for being Floyd's 3rd year. No matter which players are on next years team, anything less than 2nd place in CUSA will be a complete failure. I would say USM is going to be the favorite. MTSU was exposed in their NCAA game, LaTech beat up on a soft schedule this year, maybe Charlotte could be dangerous, but none of the other newcomers should give the Miners any problems.
UTEP cannot lose to UNT, UTSA, FIU, FAU, Old Dominion, Rice, UAB, Tulane, ECU, or Marshall next year. Just can't happen. Losing to those teams next year is unacceptable. NIT should be the minimum expectation and winning a game or two in the tournament is a realistic goal.
Time for UTEP to step up.
Breakdown:
Oral Roberts - Was pretty impressed here. Sadly, this was Chris Washburns best game and he actually got worse as the season progressed!
Arizona - blowout loss. I expected a loss, but this team looked like crap.
Old Spice Classic - Had a good little comeback to make OU score look close, absolutely pathetic in losses to Clemson and Vandy.
NMSU & Idaho - Two must needed wins, sneaked out with a win versus NMSU and let Idaho back into the game to make the final score look closer.
UNLV - Lost opportunity. Thought we could have been headed in the right direction with a winner here. Awful offense and blown opportunities..... A sign of things to come.
Oregon - Easily the Miners best win of the season. Oregon is a really good team. Nice win for UTEP, but ultimately meant nothing as the season wore on.
Sun Bowl Tourney - Beating Pine Bluff is like taking a piss in the morning, nothing special about that. A good win versus Big Ten bottom dweller Nebraska. Pretty impressive, in my opinion. Really blew them out.
Colorado St - Miners fought hard and almost pulled it out, just couldn't hit the big shots and rebound. Would have been huge had we won.
Tulane, Marshall, & HBU - Picked up a much needed road win. Some fans will try and tell you that beating Tulane was a good win, sorry, but they suck. Marshall underachieved this year and we beat them pretty good. HBU should have probably been played between the NMSU and Idaho games. I wonder why we couldn't. Garbage, blowout game.
at Tulsa - Awful, awful, awful. This is where I really started to question what kind of team we had. Turns out very mediocre!
SMU & ECU - Beat up a bad SMU team and went on the road and beat an okay ECU team. Nothing special except for the last second game winner by McKenzie.
UAB - Couldn't believe the Miners lost this game. They were dominating in the 2nd half and the coaching staff decided to take the air out of the ball. Bad mistake. Brutal loss.
Tulane & Rice - 2 easy home wins. Expected every year.
Tulsa & Houston - Awful. Losing to rookie coach Danny Manning twice is one year is tough to accept. Especially since he had a lot of new players. Some fans will make excuses for Floyd's record because of new players, but same logic doesn't apply for other schools. Houston kicked our ass in front of 200 people, embarrassing.
UCF - A needed win. Last time we will play them. "They will be missed" said no one.
USM & NMSU - 2 road losses against good competition, what else is new? Boring game vs USM and awful first half vs NMSU. Again, with a good lead, coaching staff took the air out of the ball and allowed NMSU to come back and win. Last 30 seconds of the game were pitiful.
Houston & Rice - 2 wins the Miners needed and got. Again, wins that should be expected.
Memphis - Probably the last time we will play them. Was a good game, Miners had their chances to win, but ultimately blew it.
SMU - Crushed their sorry asses for probably the last time. With winning 3 of their last 4 and playing Memphis tough, it gave us some hope leading into the CUSA tournament.
Houston (CUSA) - Miners took care of business and put it to the Cougars.
USM (CUSA) - Yes, there were some bad calls, but the Miners didn't compete. Blowout city.
Miners ended their season at 18-14, an improvement over last year, but not what some fans expected for being Floyd's 3rd year. No matter which players are on next years team, anything less than 2nd place in CUSA will be a complete failure. I would say USM is going to be the favorite. MTSU was exposed in their NCAA game, LaTech beat up on a soft schedule this year, maybe Charlotte could be dangerous, but none of the other newcomers should give the Miners any problems.
UTEP cannot lose to UNT, UTSA, FIU, FAU, Old Dominion, Rice, UAB, Tulane, ECU, or Marshall next year. Just can't happen. Losing to those teams next year is unacceptable. NIT should be the minimum expectation and winning a game or two in the tournament is a realistic goal.
Time for UTEP to step up.