Obviously, a lot has happened in regards to the Miner Men's Basketball Team since Thursday. And, as often happens, I didn't have the time to compose replies to the events as they unfolded, and now I don't want to reply to multiple different threads. Instead, I am composing all my various thoughts into one thread. My apologies if this comes out as disjointed.
My favorite line of this past week was from UTEPMiners8106: "Tim Floyd just went full Rabedeaux." I, too, thought of Rabedeaux when I heard that McSwiggan would become the fourth player to leave the team this off season, joining Romine, Moore, and B. Jones. It reminded me of 2002, when we learned that four players that we were counting on for the 2002-03 season would not be coming: Keion Kindred, Antone Jarrell, Nick Enzweiler, and Luke Martin. Off course, things are a little different - all four of the guys that Rab lost were potential starters, while Floyd lost one starter (Moore), one potential starter (McSwiggan), one potential future starter (B. Jones), and one project (Romine). Still, losing that many guys so quickly did bring back bad memories from the Rabedeaux era.
I find Floyd's spin to be tasteless. The classy thing to do would be to say that the Miners would miss B. Jones and McSwiggan, and to wish them well. After all, he must have had high hopes for B. Jones to pull Caldwell's scholarship, and back in March he was raving about McSwiggan. Also, I don't buy his spin for next season: replacing Romine with Silva is just swapping one project for another, and at least McSwiggan had a year of practice with his teammates, the four guards that we have signed will all be true freshmen. Also, I don't think that K. Jones will be the answer to all of our inside woes: we are essentially swapping him and Vint, and while we all hope that he is stronger defensively and on the boards than Hooper, it is doubtful that he will show the offensive game that the latter displayed this past season. It seems to me that, unless we add a surprise stud at the 4 or 5 spot (and it's getting really late to be able to do so), we will continue to struggle inside, and we're not likely to be near as strong nor as deep in the backcourt next year. I see a real ugly season ahead.
A lot has been said about Floyd and recruiting. Many wonder why we haven't yet signed a quality big man, as, like I've said, Silva appears to be a project, and the rest of the class consists of guards. I have to imagine that Floyd has tried, hard, to find and sign a quality big. It's not like he's clueless as to our needs next year. I appears that he has simply failed to do so. He seems to have completely lost the magic he once had as a recruiter.
Can we please stop blaming conference affiliation for Floyd's recruiting woes? As I've said before, if the issue was a lack of out of conference wins against top teams, the conference affiliation issue would at least be worthy of discussion. But we finished in sixth place in CUSA this year. Can anyone tell me UAB's conference affiliation when they recruited their roster? What about Middle Tennessee? LA Tech? ODU? Marshall? While I am hoping and praying that we do someday get an MWC invite, the conference excuse for Floyd's recruiting issues is a cop out.
I agree with much of what ProjectO said, but do disagree with him on some of his player evaluations. As has been pointed out, Caldwell was a walk-on, not a scholarship player. Even then, he had a bigger impact on this team than several of the scholarship players did last season. His defense, hustle, and ability to make a timely offensive rebound despite being only 6'3" helped us win some games last year
Also, count me in as one of those who thinks that ProjectO was way too hard on Bohannon, who was, BTW, Barbee's recruit. Bo's tendency to get in Floyd's doghouse did hurt the team, as did the way he cowered when playing against a physical center. However, Bo had fantastic post skills, the best we've had on this team since Caracter, and he really stepped up after we lost the three guards to gambling in his senior season. In fact, he played really well that season, winning a couple of CUSA Player of the Week honors, and was a huge reason why we were still in a CUSA regular season title hunt late into that conference season. Also, during that stretch, he even held his own against physical big men. It's true that he never really won anything while he was here, but basketball continues to be a team game, and he was never on a great team. Oh, and as to the comments on John Tofi, I completely agree: I loved that guy, and he is vastly underrated.
I do agree with ProjectO that, when tabulating the number of Floyd's recruits that left early, you need to add in Hunter and Moore. As to the argument that no one's holds Calipari's early departures against him, there is a huge difference: Calipari's early departures are typically drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. Vince went undrafted, and I highly doubt that Moore's name will be called this year.
Completing my thoughts on ProjectO's post, Stefon Jackson and Randy Culpepper belong on the list of great UTEP basketball players. DJ's inclusion needs no explanation, and, while Culpepper's shot selection frequently drove me crazy, he did earn first team all conference honors twice, and is one of only two Miners to have scored over 2,000 career points. Two more that I thought had the potential to be on that list were Julian Washburn and Vince Hunter. Unfortunately Julian's offensive game never progressed after his freshman season, and Vince didn't stick around long enough to develop a strong post and mid-range game. These two have to settle for being very good, but not great, players.
I will shortly go to my poll from last season and change my vote. I had initially put that Floyd needed a CUSA title and/or an NCAA Tournament appearance by the end of next season or he should be fired. This was when I still had some hope for next season. With Moore gone, Omega still in the doghouse, McSwiggan gone, and relying on only the arrival of K. Jones and a hopefully healthy and vastly improved Willms for frontcourt help, I see no way that next season won't prove to be worse than this past one. I will post my mea culpas if I'm wrong.
My favorite line of this past week was from UTEPMiners8106: "Tim Floyd just went full Rabedeaux." I, too, thought of Rabedeaux when I heard that McSwiggan would become the fourth player to leave the team this off season, joining Romine, Moore, and B. Jones. It reminded me of 2002, when we learned that four players that we were counting on for the 2002-03 season would not be coming: Keion Kindred, Antone Jarrell, Nick Enzweiler, and Luke Martin. Off course, things are a little different - all four of the guys that Rab lost were potential starters, while Floyd lost one starter (Moore), one potential starter (McSwiggan), one potential future starter (B. Jones), and one project (Romine). Still, losing that many guys so quickly did bring back bad memories from the Rabedeaux era.
I find Floyd's spin to be tasteless. The classy thing to do would be to say that the Miners would miss B. Jones and McSwiggan, and to wish them well. After all, he must have had high hopes for B. Jones to pull Caldwell's scholarship, and back in March he was raving about McSwiggan. Also, I don't buy his spin for next season: replacing Romine with Silva is just swapping one project for another, and at least McSwiggan had a year of practice with his teammates, the four guards that we have signed will all be true freshmen. Also, I don't think that K. Jones will be the answer to all of our inside woes: we are essentially swapping him and Vint, and while we all hope that he is stronger defensively and on the boards than Hooper, it is doubtful that he will show the offensive game that the latter displayed this past season. It seems to me that, unless we add a surprise stud at the 4 or 5 spot (and it's getting really late to be able to do so), we will continue to struggle inside, and we're not likely to be near as strong nor as deep in the backcourt next year. I see a real ugly season ahead.
A lot has been said about Floyd and recruiting. Many wonder why we haven't yet signed a quality big man, as, like I've said, Silva appears to be a project, and the rest of the class consists of guards. I have to imagine that Floyd has tried, hard, to find and sign a quality big. It's not like he's clueless as to our needs next year. I appears that he has simply failed to do so. He seems to have completely lost the magic he once had as a recruiter.
Can we please stop blaming conference affiliation for Floyd's recruiting woes? As I've said before, if the issue was a lack of out of conference wins against top teams, the conference affiliation issue would at least be worthy of discussion. But we finished in sixth place in CUSA this year. Can anyone tell me UAB's conference affiliation when they recruited their roster? What about Middle Tennessee? LA Tech? ODU? Marshall? While I am hoping and praying that we do someday get an MWC invite, the conference excuse for Floyd's recruiting issues is a cop out.
I agree with much of what ProjectO said, but do disagree with him on some of his player evaluations. As has been pointed out, Caldwell was a walk-on, not a scholarship player. Even then, he had a bigger impact on this team than several of the scholarship players did last season. His defense, hustle, and ability to make a timely offensive rebound despite being only 6'3" helped us win some games last year
Also, count me in as one of those who thinks that ProjectO was way too hard on Bohannon, who was, BTW, Barbee's recruit. Bo's tendency to get in Floyd's doghouse did hurt the team, as did the way he cowered when playing against a physical center. However, Bo had fantastic post skills, the best we've had on this team since Caracter, and he really stepped up after we lost the three guards to gambling in his senior season. In fact, he played really well that season, winning a couple of CUSA Player of the Week honors, and was a huge reason why we were still in a CUSA regular season title hunt late into that conference season. Also, during that stretch, he even held his own against physical big men. It's true that he never really won anything while he was here, but basketball continues to be a team game, and he was never on a great team. Oh, and as to the comments on John Tofi, I completely agree: I loved that guy, and he is vastly underrated.
I do agree with ProjectO that, when tabulating the number of Floyd's recruits that left early, you need to add in Hunter and Moore. As to the argument that no one's holds Calipari's early departures against him, there is a huge difference: Calipari's early departures are typically drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. Vince went undrafted, and I highly doubt that Moore's name will be called this year.
Completing my thoughts on ProjectO's post, Stefon Jackson and Randy Culpepper belong on the list of great UTEP basketball players. DJ's inclusion needs no explanation, and, while Culpepper's shot selection frequently drove me crazy, he did earn first team all conference honors twice, and is one of only two Miners to have scored over 2,000 career points. Two more that I thought had the potential to be on that list were Julian Washburn and Vince Hunter. Unfortunately Julian's offensive game never progressed after his freshman season, and Vince didn't stick around long enough to develop a strong post and mid-range game. These two have to settle for being very good, but not great, players.
I will shortly go to my poll from last season and change my vote. I had initially put that Floyd needed a CUSA title and/or an NCAA Tournament appearance by the end of next season or he should be fired. This was when I still had some hope for next season. With Moore gone, Omega still in the doghouse, McSwiggan gone, and relying on only the arrival of K. Jones and a hopefully healthy and vastly improved Willms for frontcourt help, I see no way that next season won't prove to be worse than this past one. I will post my mea culpas if I'm wrong.