If Anyone Cares

[utep2step]

Used to never miss a game. Think I've watched about a game and a half this year. I actually wasn't even doing anything last night, and still decided to skip it.

Just feels like we've become an equivalent to an FIU type program these days. Nothing worth going out of my way to watch...

Sunday morning in my warm bed coaching, these things stand out from this FIU series:

A) I'm still bewildered by the lack of an effective press breaker.

B) It's official to me, this is Boum's team, period. I thought Williams would lead this team but he appears, then dissappear, repeat.

C) If Agnew was 5 inches taller, he would be our next Hunter and All CUSA candidate. Boum will get his 18 to 22 per game but he needs support. Agnew will determine post conference play.

D) Bienemy is physically in El Paso but his mind is somewhere else.

E) Kennedy needs to let the game come to him. Too much dribbling by him. Assists are just as good as points.

F) This is from the post game radio show but one or two UTEP fans stated there was a lot of talking by FIU, particularly Daye, and due to limited capacity you could hear it from the stands which may be why the swing mid second half to UTEP. The mugging on Agnew by Daye was the culmination of all that back n forth between these players.

 

[TxRdKiller]

Used to never miss a game. Think I've watched about a game and a half this year. I actually wasn't even doing anything last night, and still decided to skip it.

Just feels like we've become an equivalent to an FIU type program these days. Nothing worth going out of my way to watch...

Same here. I had hope after the ASU win but that quickly diminished and I came back to the reality that we are a 6-7 conference wins type team. Rodney Terry is a horrible coach.

I didn't bother with this weekend's games. I chose to watch a movie and binge on HGTV streaming app shows with my wife instead. Both nights. I mean, WTF do I care about a team from Florida playing against our lousy team? I'll tell you: Nothing.

 

[MinerDave]

For some reason, I still care. And if your still on this board, you do too.

 

[Lil_Train]

Sunday morning in my warm bed coaching, these things stand out from this FIU series:

A) I'm still bewildered by the lack of an effective press breaker.

B) It's official to me, this is Boum's team, period. I thought Williams would lead this team but he appears, then dissappear, repeat.

C) If Agnew was 5 inches taller, he would be our next Hunter and All CUSA candidate. Boum will get his 18 to 22 per game but he needs support. Agnew will determine post conference play.

D) Bienemy is physically in El Paso but his mind is somewhere else.

E) Kennedy needs to let the game come to him. Too much dribbling by him. Assists are just as good as points.

F) This is from the post game radio show but one or two UTEP fans stated there was a lot of talking by FIU, particularly Daye, and due to limited capacity you could hear it from the stands which may be why the swing mid second half to UTEP. The mugging on Agnew by Daye was the culmination of all that back n forth between these players.

A couple of additional thoughts both in the category of pet peeves:

1. On multiple occasions, both Kennedy and Boum chose to not pass the ball to open teammates with better shot opportunities; i.e. 3 on 1 opportunities. Selfish play should result in immediate bench time, yet Terry continues to look the other way.

2. Poor free throw shooting by guards, in particular, is unacceptable at this level. Kennedy is shooting 44%, while Bieniemy is at around 62%. While these percentages are not the reason alone for the lousy season, it is indicative of players that are not building block type players.

 

[DBminer]

A couple of additional thoughts both in the category of pet peeves:

1. On multiple occasions, both Kennedy and Boum chose to not pass the ball to open teammates with better shot opportunities; i.e. 3 on 1 opportunities. Selfish play should result in immediate bench time, yet Terry continues to look the other way.

2. Poor free throw shooting by guards, in particular, is unacceptable at this level. Kennedy is shooting 44%, while Bieniemy is at around 62%. While these percentages are not the reason alone for the lousy season, it is indicative of players that are not building block type players.

but those percentages area big reason for season... we don’t have players that can shoot ... if we had 3 shooters on this team I think we are top 3 in this conference.... if Kennedy and Agnew had our forwards shooting precision we would be a top team that’s all we are missing .... and for a coach who loves to live by the three we have two legitimate shooters and one on the bench in Hess... that’s not anywhere close to being good enough

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

Same here. I had hope after the ASU win but that quickly diminished and I came back to the reality that we are a 6-7 conference wins type team. Rodney Terry is a horrible coach.

I didn't bother with this weekend's games. I chose to watch a movie and bing on HGTV streaming app shows with my wife instead. Both nights. I mean, WTF do I care about a team from Florida playing against our lousy team? I'll tell you: Nothing.

No interest is seeing last place FIU versus a school that just gave an undeserved extension to coach we don’t really like. Win some more games and maybe I will start giving them my sole attention during their games.

 

[FeralFelidae]

but those percentages area big reason for season... we don’t have players that can shoot ... if we had 3 shooters on this team I think we are top 3 in this conference.... if Kennedy and Agnew had our forwards shooting precision we would be a top team that’s all we are missing .... and for a coach who loves to live by the three we have two legitimate shooters and one on the bench in Hess... that’s not anywhere close to being good enough

We are too bad on defense this season to be top 3 in the conference, even with another shooter.

 

[Voice of the Mosquito]

I get that this team needs Boum's scoring but to me he tends to take too many bad shots and misses open team mates. If he has to take 20 shots in a game to make his 16 points we usually get beat. Williams is a mystery, he doesn't have the quickness or attitude going to the basket he did last year. I know we are not going to him as much as last year and teams have learned to defense him better, but he still is not performing at last years level. I know Vila has a lot of shortcomings as a player, but one thing he did was feed Willams from the wing a lot last year. We are trying to feed him the ball over the top from the high post but we haven't been able to execute that as of yet. Both nights I saw the Miners run a good out of bounds play from under the basket but again we couldn't put the ball in the basket as Williams missed a bunny. I think these examples of the Miners trying to get Williams more involved. Have to go 3/4 in the last four games for this team to have a decent chance to make the conference tourney.

 

[axingfools1]

I know we are beating a dead horse here, but Terry really needs to swallow his pride and bring in an offensive minded coach to be his OC. Terry won't survive using his style. No coach can expect his players to shoot well and execute perfectly every night (especially with no real plan). I will say it again that I believe we have some really good players, but they are not being utilized properly and they are not being held accountable.

Terry desperately needs an anchor defender that can protect the rim and defensive rebound. Somebody to play off of BW or his stretch 4s. I like Tydus, but he does not live up to the bill. This should be his #1 goal in recruiting or grooming right now. This would drastically improve our options on defense.

As for Boum, he has a big blade but it gets dull quick. He needs some bench time to sharpen his mind and get a better perspective on the game. Boum has a lot of room to improve but his coaches have to recognize it and make it come to fruition.

 

[Lil_Train]

I know we are beating a dead horse here, but Terry really needs to swallow his pride and bring in an offensive minded coach to be his OC. Terry won't survive using his style. No coach can expect his players to shoot well and execute perfectly every night (especially with no real plan). I will say it again that I believe we have some really good players, but they are not being utilized properly and they are not being held accountable.

Terry desperately needs an anchor defender that can protect the rim and defensive rebound. Somebody to play off of BW or his stretch 4s. I like Tydus, but he does not live up to the bill. This should be his #1 goal in recruiting or grooming right now. This would drastically improve our options on defense.

As for Boum, he has a big blade but it gets dull quick. He needs some bench time to sharpen his mind and get a better perspective on the game. Boum has a lot of room to improve but his coaches have to recognize it and make it come to fruition.

Agree on nearly everything. Even a guy like Carrigan from FIU would have greatly improved the defensive outlook. I also like Verhoeven, but not as a guy who plays 30+ minutes. He is a good 7th man on a decent team. Also, it is tough when you have two/three guys that are so limited offensively playing major minutes. It is easy to double Williams when you don't have to worry about 3/5th of the team to score. Talent wise, I see two good players, surrounded by guys that should be role players. Bieniemy made a good decision transferring to a school with no other options at the point. That said, he is far better than what we saw last year, which was a disaster.

 

[FeralFelidae]

That said, he is far better than what we saw last year, which was a disaster.

Lathon would still be the best passer we have this season and ball-handler. We know about his shooting slump last season (but that Marshall game...), but he always brought hustle, grabbed his share of boards, and played solid defense. When I responded in another post that UTEP needs a Swiss Army knife (instead of a switchblade), I think that's what we lost with Lathon. I do think his family troubles and the bad blood from Hawkins, with them both playing tag-team with the transfer portal, contributed to his shooting slump. With Hawkins effectively benched, I think that took some pressure off Lathon at the end of the season and we saw some great performances from him (aside from Marshall, he had a double-double against Southern Miss with six steals and six assists).

I'm guessing you probably don't agree with me, but I really would have wanted to see what Lathon would do for us this season with Hawkins out of the picture.

 

[Lil_Train]

Lathon would still be the best passer we have this season and ball-handler. We know about his shooting slump last season (but that Marshall game...), but he always brought hustle, grabbed his share of boards, and played solid defense. When I responded in another post that UTEP needs a Swiss Army knife (instead of a switchblade), I think that's what we lost with Lathon. I do think his family troubles and the bad blood from Hawkins, with them both playing tag-team with the transfer portal, contributed to his shooting slump. With Hawkins effectively benched, I think that took some pressure off Lathon at the end of the season and we saw some great performances from him (aside from Marshall, he had a double-double against Southern Miss with six steals and six assists).

I'm guessing you probably don't agree with me, but I really would have wanted to see what Lathon would do for us this season with Hawkins out of the picture.

I actually liked Lathon as well for many of the same reasons you stated. Unfortunately last year his on the court play, for whatever reason, was well below what is needed from that position. His shooting was a big issue without a doubt, but the turnovers were the killer. I blame Terry for trying to play him at a spot that he was not comfortable playing. It is very difficult to "learn on the job" and become a good D1 point. I think Lathon can be a good contributor at Milwaukee. I thought he could be the same at UTEP if he had been utilized properly, and improved his shot.

 

[FeralFelidae]

I actually liked Lathon as well for many of the same reasons you stated. Unfortunately last year his on the court play, for whatever reason, was well below what is needed from that position. His shooting was a big issue without a doubt, but the turnovers were the killer. I blame Terry for trying to play him at a spot that he was not comfortable playing. It is very difficult to "learn on the job" and become a good D1 point. I think Lathon can be a good contributor at Milwaukee. I thought he could be the same at UTEP if he had been utilized properly, and improved his shot.

He didn't have all that many turnovers. Averaged 3.1 assists to 1.7 turnovers last season. You're remembering one very bad game against Hawaii and extrapolating it to the rest of the season, when he really protected the ball quite well overall. I'd sure rather have Lathon handling the ball at the end of the game than Boum with that disaster against Southern Miss.

 

[Lil_Train]

He didn't have all that many turnovers. Averaged 3.1 assists to 1.7 turnovers last season. You're remembering one very bad game against Hawaii and extrapolating it to the rest of the season, when he really protected the ball quite well overall. I'd sure rather have Lathon handling the ball at the end of the game than Boum with that disaster against Southern Miss.

I am basing my opinion on more than one game. We can say we'd rather have Stroud than Kennedy, but that's not going to change where we are at now. While I don't think Bieniemy is more than an average point guard, I do think he is better than Lathon was last year. At the same time, I do think if Lathon can continue to develop, his potential is higher than Bieniemy because he is a better athlete. As far as Boum goes, he definitely has his faults, but he is one of the few two way players we have on the team.

 

[axingfools1]

He didn't have all that many turnovers. Averaged 3.1 assists to 1.7 turnovers last season. You're remembering one very bad game against Hawaii and extrapolating it to the rest of the season, when he really protected the ball quite well overall. I'd sure rather have Lathon handling the ball at the end of the game than Boum with that disaster against Southern Miss.

I liked Lathon too but I thought he was way too inconsistent. A 2:1 assist to TO ratio is average. Lathon was great one game and poor other games. Had he played like he did against Tech, Marquette and Marshall then he was NBA caliber.

Overall I think it comes down to overrecruiting and malpositioning of some players. It has hurt us at PG, SF and center.

 

[FeralFelidae]

A 2:1 assist to TO ratio is average.

It's also a far cry from "the turnovers were the killer."

I think Lathon has a very high ceiling, and there were a combination of off-the-court issues that held him (and the whole team) back last season. I would have liked to see what he would have brought this season, without Hawkins breathing down his neck and bullying him.

 

[Lil_Train]

It's also a far cry from "the turnovers were the killer."

I think Lathon has a very high ceiling, and there were a combination of off-the-court issues that held him (and the whole team) back last season. I would have liked to see what he would have brought this season, without Hawkins breathing down his neck and bullying him.

You make a fair point. I would have liked to see what he could do under better circumstances as well. I also had high aspirations for him after his freshman year when Magee played a lot at the point. It's not good when you lose the guy who was being built as the face of the program. That said, I hope he comes back from his red shirt year and tears it up next year.