I understand your disappointment and frustration, but this is not really what I intended in this thread. I was looking for a list of guys that had good careers at UTEP, but, based on your early expectations, you thought they could have done more. KK only had two years here, and only played well offensively for half a season. The disappointing thing about Kenedy isn't that he never became the player that you thought he would be, but that he left.
Good Miner Basketball career, but ...
- Thread starter MinerManiac
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Kelvin Jones was a rim runner. Not over-hyped in my mind. Paul Thomas was over-hyped.
Eddie Williams. Total bust. Haskins gave the last scholi to him (according to publication and fans on here) and not Gary Payton who went on to Oregon State.
Kaden Archie comes to mind. We kept hearing that when he became eligible he would be our best player, and that was on a team that included Bryson Williams. When he finally hit the floor, we'll, he was far from our best player.
Matt Willms was a guy that Floyd said would be an all conference and possibly NBA type player. He wasn't.
Back in the Barbee days, the gem of a recruiting class that included Randy Culpepper, Julyan Stone, Claude Britton, and Gabe McCulley was supposed to be Manual Cass. He played a total of 13 unremarkable games before being kicked off the team. He never played another game of Div 1 ball.
Going way back, we all heard rumors about how great Eddie Williams was going to be coming out of Louisiana. How he had some ridiculous vertical leap. He seemed to show a little promise early on, but fizzled out. The worst thing about it - after accepting his commitment we didn't have any scholarships left when Gary Payton wanted to play with his buddy Greg Foster, and Haskins, unlike Floyd decades later, wouldn't pull scholarships.
Rus Bradburd recruited a star big man, 6'8" Jerry Jones, from Chicago, for the recruiting class of '85. He was going to be our next great frontcourt player. Oh, and he also recruited a little guard from the same region, some guy by the name of Tim Hardaway. But Jones was supposed to be the star of that class.
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Is that dude that went to Kansas, came back to UTEP. Started talking poop during a pre game practice at Wyoming (allegedly to some fans in the gym checking out Miner practice) Haskins cut him and sent him back to El Paso on a one way ticket?
That's a different Jerry Jones. The one Maniac is talking about transferred to Southern Illinois after UTEP, and had a pretty good college career there.
Not sure if falls into this category since he never played a game at UTEP, but I know he did spend a summer in El Paso
. He was hyped as being better than Hardaway, and was highly touted out of LA Crenshaw High school. His name was John Staggers, and his recruitment was a primary reason for UTEP being placed on three years probation in the 1990s.
UTEP Penalized for Staggers Recruitment : College basketball: Miners get three years of NCAA probation for violations in dealings with former Crenshaw star, and other infractions.
The improper recruitment of former Crenshaw High School basketball star John Staggers was cited by the NCAA Tuesday in a report placing the University of Texas El Paso on three years of probation.
www.latimes.com
More on Staggers
You guys have a hell of a memory when it comes to UTEP BB. I’m impressed. I can’t go back as far as you guys but McKenzie Moore comes to mind for me. He was shaping up to be one of our top scoring options before he was dismissed the gambling probe. He’s still playing abroad.
The guy you're talking about 2step was named Jerry Johnson (I always have to look it up because I get the two of them confused). Jones was a 4, Johnson a 3. Johnson started his career at Kansas then transferred to UTEP. Somewhere along the way he injured himself pretty badly, everyone at UTEP in the mid to late 80s saw him walking around campus with the big halo on his head, anxiously awaiting the day when the transfer from Kansas would heal and make it back onto the court. When he did make it onto the court in the '88-'89 season he had to knock off a little rust, but was averaging about 10 ppg when he was kicked off of the team.
Can you imagine what could have been if not for Eddie Williams' scholarship, Staggers' academic deficiencies, and Johnson's attitude? We would have had a team consisting of Hardaway, Payton, Staggers, Johnson, Davis, and Foster. Wow! Alas, it never happened.
That's right Maniac. It was Jerry Johnson who was the transfer from Kansas. I think TD knew him.
Jalen Ragland comes to mind as being way overhyped. Supposedly he could hit 17-18 3s out of 20 at practice without a hand in his face.
He was about the worst damn shooter in game time situations. I think his overall FG percentage hovered just above 25%.
He was 6’ 7” and never averaged even a rebound per game in a season. Turrible!
He was about the worst damn shooter in game time situations. I think his overall FG percentage hovered just above 25%.
He was 6’ 7” and never averaged even a rebound per game in a season. Turrible!
Damn it, yes, it was Manual Cass, and I thought that I had put it in there until I read your post. Thanks for pointing that out, axing. I'm going to fix it now.
One thing that frustrates me is that when MacKenzie Moore and the scrub backup PG (sorry, I don't remember his name and am too lazy to look it up right now) were first suspended from the team, the staff didn't initially realize the Ragland was part of the investigation. He ended up starting the next game, and played very well, scoring in the 18-20 point range while hitting something like 3 for 6 from 3. I was hoping that maybe he had turned a corner, which might be a bright spot given the cloud hanging over the team. Unfortunately it ended out that he was also involved in the gambling scandal, and was kicked off with the other two players. We'll never know if that game would have gone down as a bright blip in an otherwise disappointing career, or if he indeed was about to turn a corner.
Mark McCall went on to play for the Globetrotters.
Rico Nelson became a CEO in Denver.
Last I heard, Luster Goodwin was a High School Principal.
Nick Enzwieler has had a great career as a Financial advisor.
Guys I see around town, Omar Thomas, Victor Luces, Brandon Wolfram, Omar Duran, Matt Wilms, Quinten Gates, Leonard Owens.
Rico Nelson became a CEO in Denver.
Last I heard, Luster Goodwin was a High School Principal.
Nick Enzwieler has had a great career as a Financial advisor.
Guys I see around town, Omar Thomas, Victor Luces, Brandon Wolfram, Omar Duran, Matt Wilms, Quinten Gates, Leonard Owens.
Another one that came to mind was Stanley Branch. If I recall correctly he had some big schools offer him and he came to UTEP and lasted one year. My only memories of him were being a pioneer: a 6-8 forward jacking up 3s, but they were bad shots and the crowd would groan.
Main thing I remember about Eddie Williams was him dominating a lot of the pickup games at Memorial Gym years before the Rec Center was built
Always loved to dunk on the average students.
Always loved to dunk on the average students.
That was Jerry Johnson, the transfer from Kansas.
Great example. He was ranked as a top 100 player on some recruiting sites, and we were all excited to see him in a Miner uniform. He was an athletic, if kind of skinny, 6'8", but had horrible basketball skills. Like you said, watching him shoot threes was excruciating. He lasted one season, and never contributed much.
"Branch is going to be recruited on a high division one level because of his skills and size. Branch has the ability to play the three slot because he has a sweet touch plus he is quick enough to defend that position." https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/stanley-branch-impressive-2004-forward
