Lamar added to MBB schedule

[MinerInWisconsin]

The D1 Docket‏@TheD1Docket 51m51 minutes ago
UTEP will host Lamar on November 27th as part of non-conference schedule.

Lamar had a winning team last year, beat UTSA, SE La, NW St, all teams that beat UTEP last season. They made the CIT and have most of their team back. Normally I would think UTEP would win this one easily but after last year, no telling.

UTEP now has 10 OOC opponents and I believe 12 will be all that's allowed other than a couple of exhibition games. UNM, NMSU, Wash St, Lamar and 2 Sun Bowl tourney plus NMSU on the road and 3 games in the Puerto Rico tourney.

 

[unihorn]

The D1 Docket‏@TheD1Docket 51m51 minutes ago
UTEP will host Lamar on November 27th as part of non-conference schedule.

Lamar had a winning team last year, beat UTSA, SE La, NW St, all teams that beat UTEP last season. They made the CIT and have most of their team back. Normally I would think UTEP would win this one easily but after last year, no telling.

UTEP now has 10 OOC opponents and I believe 12 will be all that's allowed other than a couple of exhibition games. UNM, NMSU, Wash St, Lamar and 2 Sun Bowl tourney plus NMSU on the road and 3 games in the Puerto Rico tourney.

Of those, who do we get at home? Lamar, NMSU 1x, UNM (I think), and ... ?

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

Of those, who do we get at home? Lamar, NMSU 1x, UNM (I think), and ... ?

Washington St, UNM, NMSU, Lamar and the 2 Sun Bowl tourney games are home games. NMSU on the road and 3 neutral site games in Puerto Rico with a field consisting of UTEP, Boise St, Florida St, Illinois St, Iowa St, South Carolina, Tulsa and Western Michigan.

 

[JCorona]

With those two games remaining do we schedule buy games at the Don or hit the road? If we don't go on the road that means we only have one road ooc game.

 

[unihorn]

Washington St, UNM, NMSU, Lamar and the 2 Sun Bowl tourney games are home games. NMSU on the road and 3 neutral site games in Puerto Rico with a field consisting of UTEP, Boise St, Florida St, Illinois St, Iowa St, South Carolina, Tulsa and Western Michigan.

Well, that's an improvement over last season's home slate.

 

[axingfools1]

I would like to see UNLV, SDSU and Texas Tech home and home. Any other Pac 12 team would be awesome too.

 

[miner1liner]

I would like to see UNLV, SDSU and Texas Tech home and home. Any other Pac 12 team would be awesome too.

Looks good and I'd like to renew the SMU thing as well. They can play now. They couldn't back in the CUSA days.

 

[Miner95]

Would love to see those teams play UTEP and I agree with both you ax and 1liner but just not sure if any self respecting program is going to be willing to come into the Don to play an RPI killing game away. Its a lose lose. Our powers that be, that are UTEP men's basketball, need to get their collective heads out of their arses and right this sinking ship so those teams will be chomping at the bit to play a home and home.

Until then I think we need to take on the early 2000 Fresno State football mentality and play anyone anywhere anytime. Would rather get blasted by Kansas at their place, and all the experience that comes with, than get blasted to AD (any direction) Louisiana at home.

Now back on topic, no knock on Lamar, I really don't know enough about them to comment, other than this current model of rebuilding this program is not working.

 

[axingfools1]

Lamar is not who I want to see and the miners need to whip that ass. I would look for some higher level games next year. I am expecting a better season with no bullshit and an RPI under 75. I think CTF knows this is it. If that doesn't happen then there's no way teams are coming in here. Its a lose lose like 95 said! Otherwise we start over.

 

[Cube Jack]

I would like to see UNLV, SDSU and Texas Tech home and home. Any other Pac 12 team would be awesome too.

I'd like to see Duke, UCLA, the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, the LA Lakers, the Western University Dolphins, the Hickory Huskers and the Washington Generals. It's about as likely.

 

[axingfools1]

I'd like to see Duke, UCLA, the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, the LA Lakers, the Western University Dolphins, the Hickory Huskers and the Washington Generals. It's about as likely.

Not really... but UTEP and C-USA should shoot to be on par or better than the traditional top teams in the MWC. Texas Tech and UTEP have played many times so not sure what your point is. I'm just making suggestions of what I think the staff should do to help scheduling and what some fans might want to see.

 

[JCorona]

Not really... but UTEP and C-USA should shoot to be on par or better than the traditional top teams in the MWC. Texas Tech and UTEP have played many times so not sure what your point is. I'm just making suggestions of what I think the staff should do to help scheduling and what some fans might want to see.

I agree with you. UNLV and Texas Tech have played home and away with UTEP recently. We've had a top 5 team in Arizona that made an elite 8 run visit the Don. A few years ago Oregon lost at the Don the same year they made a sweet 16 run. It's not unreasonable to ask for SDSU and some PAC 12 teams to schedule home and away with UTEP.

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

According to the UNM release today the Lobos will play the Miners on Saturday, Dec 2nd.

 

[nattybry]

Play on the road against a good RPI school in a tough environment it's a win either way.

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

Play on the road against a good RPI school in a tough environment it's a win either way.

This one is in El Paso.

 

[unihorn]

This one is in El Paso.

That'll be a good home game.

 

[axingfools1]

It will be cool to see the Lobos back in the Don after so many years, but this should practically be a beatdown by the miners. UNM was decimated by player defections after the coaching change (unlike NMSU last year). They will have some decent players but not enough to match UTEP. Same goes with NMSU. I know some of you are skeptical but there is absolutely no reason either school should beat us this year (even with the rivalries). Time to turn the tide back in our favor.

 

[Minerforlife]

It will be cool to see the Lobos back in the Don after so many years, but this should practically be a beatdown by the miners. UNM was decimated by player defections after the coaching change (unlike NMSU last year). They will have some decent players but not enough to match UTEP. Same goes with NMSU. I know some of you are skeptical but there is absolutely no reason either school should beat us this year (even with the rivalries). Time to turn the tide back in our favor.

I hope you're right but we will be very young. Expecting early greatness out of seven new comers is a bit unrealistic. A great example is Paul Thomas. He was ranked higher than any of are current freshman. The first year he was bad. Last year he took a huge step. This year he may be the face of the program. Thomas is one of the few examples of good player development under Floyd. These guys are going to take their lumps early. The important thing will be retention. If all these guys are on the roster a year from now we will be in pretty good shape. That's has not happened in the Floyd's first seven years.

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

I hope you're right but we will be very young. Expecting early greatness out of seven new comers is a bit unrealistic. A great example is Paul Thomas. He was ranked higher than any of are current freshman. The first year he was bad. Last year he took a huge step. This year he may be the face of the program. Thomas is one of the few examples of good player development under Floyd. These guys are going to take their lumps early. The important thing will be retention. If all these guys are on the roster a year from now we will be in pretty good shape. That's has not happened in the Floyd's first seven years.

This team took a lot of lumps early last year and that should in no way be repeated this year. There are 4 starters back with Wilms, Thomas, Flaggert and Harris plus backups Jones and Touchet. Add Williams, a JC forward that is expected to take a starting role. The real question is can one of the freshmen PG's step in and play at the college level. If this team doesn't at least have 8 or 9 wins going into conference play then Floyd would have done his worst coaching job ever. UNM and NMSU, as axingfools1 said, have had a lot of turnover this past year and the Miners should be favored to win those matchups. We do have a lot of youth that will be worked into playing time but overall, the Miners are not really young anymore.

 

[jdubb66]

I've seen a couple of Williams JC games on youtube the last couple of weeks. He was playing a little bit out of position on his JC team. He played the high post and SF positions there and was a little outsized although he held his own. He'll play SF here. He rebounds well and is athletic but seems to disappear sometimes. I'd like him to have a little more intensity and look for his shot a little more. He plays well and gets inside, draws a lot of fouls but is not a good foul shooter. He needs to be at 75% or better to really be a force at the line. He's no threat to replace Thomas, and Flaggert shoots better from the outside. He is a good defensive guy so just depends on what Floyd needs game to game. Flaggert is a little flat footed on D sometimes and gets left behind. So if Williams is going to start, it will be because of defense I think.

Interestingly, he played a perimeter position in HS and seemed more involved in the flow of the game.

 

[miner1liner]

Something that has been a problem for several years is our collective inability to shoot free throws and three's. Just looking at Wade, Osborne and Williams (didn't check the other Newbies) they are all just 60+% ft and not great from three either. Seems like we are always cellar dwellers in those CUSA stats. Needs to improve!!
Omega, Touchet and Flaggert were all acceptable, but only Omega gets to the line and shoots the three often enough to matter.
I still feel that the future lies with the success of the frosh PGs. Everything else is massive improvement from last year.

 

[MineroFanatico]

Something that has been a problem for several years is our collective inability to shoot free throws and three's. Just looking at Wade, Osborne and Williams (didn't check the other Newbies) they are all just 60+% ft and not great from three either. Seems like we are always cellar dwellers in those CUSA stats. Needs to improve!!
Omega, Touchet and Flaggert were all acceptable, but only Omega gets to the line and shoots the three often enough to matter.
I still feel that the future lies with the success of the frosh PGs. Everything else is massive improvement from last year.

Feel the same way. Just pure speculation on my part, but always wonder if these guys are just so damn uptight due to fear of failure(?) Failure=Pissing Floyd off.

 

[Lil_Train]

On a positive note, both Gilyard and Magee are solid at the free throw line, which is what you need from primary ball handlers. As much as Artis brought to the team last year, he really struggled at times from the line; especially at crunch time.

 

[axingfools1]

On a positive note, both Gilyard and Magee are solid at the free throw line, which is what you need from primary ball handlers. As much as Artis brought to the team last year, he really struggled at times from the line; especially at crunch time.

Yes he certainly did. That was a huge downfall for him as it contributed to the UNM and ODU losses. He did help win a lot of games, but the best of both worlds wouldn't hurt.

 

[miner1liner]

On a positive note, both Gilyard and Magee are solid at the free throw line, which is what you need from primary ball handlers. As much as Artis brought to the team last year, he really struggled at times from the line; especially at crunch time.

Ok Lil...Where do you get your stuff? I found Magee to be at 71% FT, 54%FG and 35% 3pFG...not bad. What about Gilyard?

 

[Lil_Train]

I had read early in the season that Gilyard was shooting around 80%. I'm hoping that he maintained that throughout the year, but I didn't find any stats either. Actually, I thought Magee was a little better as well. Hopefully, Thomas, Willms, Jones improve as well.

 

[axingfools1]

Something that has been a problem for several years is our collective inability to shoot free throws and three's. Just looking at Wade, Osborne and Williams (didn't check the other Newbies) they are all just 60+% ft and not great from three either. Seems like we are always cellar dwellers in those CUSA stats. Needs to improve!!
Omega, Touchet and Flaggert were all acceptable, but only Omega gets to the line and shoots the three often enough to matter.
I still feel that the future lies with the success of the frosh PGs. Everything else is massive improvement from last year.

Seems that way but Omega and Flaggert both shoot about 40% from 3 and about 75% from the line. Touchet is hitting about 35% from 3 and 90% from the line. IMO Touchet will hit some big shots from 3 land this year and next. Watch for him to break out as a 6th man if Gilyard or McGee can take over the point.

 

[jdubb66]

Seems that way but Omega and Flaggert both shoot about 40% from 3 and about 75% from the line. Touchet is hitting about 35% from 3 and 90% from the line. IMO Touchet will hit some big shots from 3 land this year and next. Watch for him to break out as a 6th man if Gilyard or McGee can take over the point.

I totally agree on Touchet. He is much more athletic than people give him credit for. He's lost the baby fat and I'm looking for him to break out and really be something special the next two years.