O.T. Tim Hardaway.
- Thread starter Dmanminer
- Start date
Tim and his UTEP “two step” cross over move was a thing of beauty.
The “what could’ve have been” story older hard core basketball Miner fans remember…
I remember reading Gary Payton wanted to be Miner so bad, but was not recruited by UTEP. Imagine a UTEP team with both Hardaway and Payton. They would have been the best backcourt in college basketball. We also had had some great players during the Hardaway years.
The way that I heard it was that Haskins wanted Payton to come, but by the time Payton decided to commit Eddie Williams had already signed his NLI, and Haskins didn't want to pull Williams' scholarship. Obviously a Hardaway/Payton backcourt would have been the best backcourt in the country.
Another intriguing "what could have been" involves LA playground legend John Staggers. If the kid had only opened a book. Apparently, in practice, battles on the court between him and Hardaway were incredible. But the attempts UTEP made to get him eligible not only didn't work, it served as the catalyst to the NCAA investigations that ended up killing the team for most of the 90s.
Yeah those 4 points and 2 assists really popped out.
Well, perhaps playing 28 games, at a 15mpg clip, as a true Freshman for a team that was Top 20 for most of the season, got as high as #14, and won 27 games, opened up some eyes on teams that passed up on him originally.
Well too bad for them. Fortunately he stayed where he committed and the rest is history.
Definitely. If I remember correctly, Hardaway really started gaining attention after his Chicago summer league performance after his freshman year, where I think he was MVP. There were some solid pro level guys there, and that was Hardaway's early coming out party. UTEP basketball was also well regarded at the time.
In today's pay for play environment, it would be very tough for a school like UTEP to hang onto a player like Hardaway, even with his underwhelming freshman stats. In my opinion, Hardaway as a sophomore was already better than Jeep as a senior; and I thought Jeep was outstanding. He is one of my all time favorite players.
Yep. Those were the good old days!
Damn my parents for me not being alive yet.
Sheesh, we can’t even hang onto a player like Keonte Kennedy these days. No way we’d hang onto a player like TH…let alone get him in the first place.
Man, I miss those good ole days. The luxury of comparing a Jeep Jackson to a Tim Hardaway are but are but a distant memory. Now we’re comparing the likes of Givance to Bienemy or Bonke Maring to Kevin Kalu.
Train, it is extremely rare that I disagree with anything you say regarding basketball, you might be the most knowledgeable person on this board when it comes to UTEP hoops. I will have to disagree with you on this one, however. While the sophomore Hardaway was outstanding, Jeep, who made 1st Team All WAC, despite only averaging around 12 ppg, was amazing that season. He was the heart and soul of that team and always made the big play when we needed it (everyone remembers OT at Arizona in the NCAA Tournament).
Now I will say that as a junior Hardaway had surpassed his former late (RIP) teammate, but in my opinion the senior Jeep was better than the sophomore Hardaway.
I definitely see your side Maniac. Jeep was everything you mentioned without a doubt. For me, in Hardaway, I saw glimpses of things I had never seen on the court in that sophomore season. Of course, his crossover comes to mind first, but he was also so good at running the team that year. They are both such special players. To this day, I still remember thinking, "Jeep is so good, but Hardaway is just a little better skillwise". But that may be because I wanted to be like Tim. 😀
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I too agree, Jeep was the heart and soul of the team.
Especially since back then freshmen rarely played much under Haskins. They waited their turn for the most part. Today freshmen expect to start right out of high school
These are the type of events the AD should have implemented since he arrived. Other universities do this and have had great success in generating donations to their respective universities. I hope UTEP continues this on a regular basis and the events keep growing.
There's only one thing that's going to motivate me to give money again...WINNING.
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