What a rollercoaster of events to end Golding's first year at Utep. Legitimate hope in the Conference Tournament and what seemed to be a solid 1st year. Then a highly disappointing loss to S. Utah at home. Followed by hope that Boum, TV, and Kennedy may stay. Then Boum, TV and others started a mass exodus!!! Now there is doubt and uncertainty and it's unnervingly quite! Is no news good new or really really bad?
Cricket's can be heard around Utep Basketball!!!
- Thread starter nattybry
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Good and bad all around. No surprise for those that follow College Sports and the ascent of the Powerful vs the descent of the rest of us. UTEP has to shoot for a Gonzaga/Boise State kind of program template in order to survive. We aren't ever going to be admitted to the "Country Club" no matter how much we bitch and whine. We have to break the door down and force ourselves in. That said, how many Gonzaga's and Boise State's are there? How much money do they invest in their programs?
Golding’s recruiting feels like Doc Sadler 2.0. Great coaching, Xs and Os, game management but mediocre high school, portal, transfer recruits. I am worried about next year.
Their alumni for sure donate, even if it’s 50/month like a coworker of mine who went to Boise.
If I'm in ot mistaken Golding is the only one with a NCAA tournament win. No other former coach has a NCAA tournament win. Golding hasnt even been at the job one year. He posted a winning record and people here are complaining. No wonder coaches dont want to stay here. How did Haskins last 37 years here in El Paso???
You are so correct! And believe it or not message board, he beat UT with players he recruited and coached! We haven’t had a coach hired with his type of resume. He’s had two ncaa appearances and one win. This whole idea of he can’t recruit is ridiculous. Maybe he wants his style of players, which won’t be the glamorous high star players/recruits. I’ll take an ACU team that beat UT any day over a Terry highly recruited team.
What?!? Twice in two posts I agree with you. Take shelter everbuddy!!
I don't think this post condemned him or said he's failed already in any way. 🤔 There's been some bumps and we'll see how he responds. I said he did very this year and still think he still will ultimately. However things are definitely tenuous at the moment going into year 2 unless of course he pulls some rabbits out of is bag.
What do you mean? Billy “Girllispie” went to the Sweet 16 with Texas A&M.
I may be missing the point here, but CTF had several NCAA tournament victories prior to his time as UTEP head coach. His resume in college was better than all the other coaches hired after Haskins. Golding is obviously very close to Floyd. Speaking of Golding, I did see that Benjamin Bayela out of South Plains committed to East Carolina. I was hoping we would be able to get him. We could really use some good recruiting news beyond the two we have committed.
That's not what he said.
"No other former coach has a NCAA tournament win."
And why does that matter? Golding won a tourney game at not-UTEP, and so did Gillispie.
Yeah, I should have specified. I was agreeing with the 2nd half of Fili’s post referring to how Golding has a tourney win prior to being here, hasn’t even been here a full year, and the relative success of his first season, etc.
I’m not pumping sunshine but I’m still hopeful Golding has a plan in mind, one we may not know not a damn thing about. Maybe wishful thinking but it’s kinda all we’ve got right now.
I wasn’t on the forum much last weekend, so I’ve skipped over some things, but still no word either way on KK?
Gotcha. No word yet on KK yet. I did hear we would likely know by the end of the week.
Do you see any chance of us hanging on to him?
Wonder what the hold up is with his decision. Can’t imagine there is anything to gain by prolonging it.
The last I heard was last week, and the chances were not good of him staying. Things can change quickly though, so I am hoping that things turn in our favor. I had heard JB was staying, for instance, so I take any news with a grain of salt at this point.
I think KK will stay. He looks happy representing UTEP and EP. This is his team now (at least for another year).
Hopefully. A couple of things that come into play is first, what kind of team can Golding build around Kennedy to sell him on staying? Second, what kind of NIL deal, if any, can UTEP come up with? Like you mentioned, UTEP really needs to step up their game in that area not just for a guy like Kennedy, but for others as well.
I hope you’re right. Seems like the longer he lingers, the better chance he’ll stay.
People here are just not patient enough. Golding just posted a 20 win season on his first year at UTep,. He has had 4 winning seasons in a row, last 4 years his record is 91-37 and has four 20 win seasons in a row. And these guys are complaining ?? I cant believe it, these guys are ridiculous. They were just crying a couple a weeks ago because of the SMU rumors. lol
Well I know KK was hanging out with AJ at Showtyme Bar and Grill the other day. Maybe something his brewing.
But in the meantime Golding needs to trade in his recruiting donkey for a race horse and get good help in here ASAP!
2 wins vs D2
2 wins over USM - dead last in CUSA
2 wins over UTSA - 10-23 record
2 wins over Rice - 16-17 record
2 wins over ODU - 13-19 record
5 wins over garbage - Pacific, FAMU, McNeese St, NC Central, Western Illinois
1 win over UNM - 13-19 record
2 wins over FIU & FAU
2 wins over UNT & LaTech, who he also lost to.
2 good wins and the rest over trash and garbage. I think a large majority of coaches could have won 20 games against this schedule and with the players he did.
Look at Floyd's first year here and his four years prior to UTEP. We all patiently waited 7 years for something that never happened.
That's not the point.
College basketball has drastically changed since COVID hit. His success at ACU was attributed to the ability to recruit diamonds in the rough and keep them for more than a year or two. Early on he's showing that might not be the case anymore. Every year the team will be blown up and starting from scratch.
The good thing is this is not a unique problem to UTEP. Everyone in CUSA 4.0 will face the same situation. It's all about which coach gets the right players at the right time and combines it all together for a magical season.
Let's somehow get the Newton boys to come home, keep KK and score the Big Man from Utah Valley St. Fardaws Aimaq!!! I'm not asking for much, right Golding!?
Golding did not make the rule, he lives and works with it and embraces it.
Floyd recruited high risk/high reward players at UTEP. It blew up in his face. He didn't have Goldings presence of mind for the situation at hand: The player controls where he plays, not the coach and Floyd wanted total control. Terry brought in uber athletic players to The Don but couldn't coach worth a lick. He was a walking social media GQ of coach. Handsome, dapper with a quick wit. When the smart phones were not in front of him he really didn't have control, his offense was inefficient and instead of bringing the players together, they did the opposite and fought, on Christmas....go figure?
Golding now has to deal with the portal and players wanting to go pro and Miner fans are frustrated because there is no news, right now?
We saw what Williams did to the college basketball scene; he made everyone wait....wait....wait....and wait some more. That's the new reality. There is only so much a mid major coach can do.
Imo I think the high risk high reward type of recruit bodes better in the current era of basketball. There's no time to develop talent. We need players that are d1 ready now and give us a productive year or 2. Of course at the helm we need a good basketball iq coach that brings the team together.
Floyd at the beginning, yes. Terry, no. That doesn’t mean that Golding did anything special. Super weak schedule.
I agree. Also, i would prioritize grad transfers dropping from P5 schools looking for immediate playing time; see Alfred Hollins. A grad transfer with two years of eligibility is e even more valuable; see Kennedy. The challenge is that some of these guys won't be available until summer, which makes it even tougher to build a roster. Again, there were several impact guys available late last summer, so Golding needs to step up and hit on some of these guys.
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I mean, I gotta give him a a solid B based on this and keeping Terry’s players (outside of BW) but let’s see what year two brings.
Meh is the best we've had in a long time.
Doesn't make it any more exciting for me if we are going to fall off. I'm not saying that will happen, but it's not looking great. Winning on the road is a good sign though.
Anyone remember losing to Lamar in Floyd's last game or to Norfolk State with Terry?
