Quick Utep Thoughts

[nattybry]

Look I bleed Orange, whether I'm in EP or n e where else I've lived. I sat through the rain of 55-0 blowouts to WAC opponents in the 80s and 90s and cried when Brett Favre beat us in the Independence Bowl as a 9 year old fan.
So I'm not happy with football or basketball and I think it has a lot to do with Still and am glad to see him go and see a new AD. I think Football will play inspired and squeeze out 2 wins under Price, then let's see if we can get a quality HC who can fix the Dumpster Fire Kugler left with low star recruits.
Basketball has dissapointed under Floyd and he's had more excuses than a Politician. With that said, I have hope this just may be the year we return to the NCAA, if not I hope Floyd is gone. Lastly I don't think any of the freshman start at PG right away, so curious what do you all think our starting line up will be to start the season?

 

[FeralFelidae]

Basketball has dissapointed under Floyd and he's had more excuses than a Politician. With that said, I have hope this just may be the year we return to the NCAA, if not I hope Floyd is gone. Lastly I don't think any of the freshman start at PG right away, so curious what do you all think our starting line up will be to start the season?

I don't think it's a good sign that UTEP lost to McGill twice and eked out a 5-point victory over a team that Nevada stomped by 49 points.

 

[axingfools1]

Look I bleed Orange, whether I'm in EP or n e where else I've lived. I sat through the rain of 55-0 blowouts to WAC opponents in the 80s and 90s and cried when Brett Favre beat us in the Independence Bowl as a 9 year old fan.
So I'm not happy with football or basketball and I think it has a lot to do with Still and am glad to see him go and see a new AD. I think Football will play inspired and squeeze out 2 wins under Price, then let's see if we can get a quality HC who can fix the Dumpster Fire Kugler left with low star recruits.
Basketball has dissapointed under Floyd and he's had more excuses than a Politician. With that said, I have hope this just may be the year we return to the NCAA, if not I hope Floyd is gone. Lastly I don't think any of the freshman start at PG right away, so curious what do you all think our starting line up will be to start the season?

Omega, Frazier, Wade, PT and Willms come conference time. The if is Flaggert at SF, but I think Wade gets a lot of time along with Touchet, Osborne and Jones. Smith will spell Thomas for short periods of time unless he is in foul trouble. McGee and Gilyard have not impressed too much yet..
Deep team though.

 

[JCorona]

Since we’re talking about basketball I’ll post this here. As of now seven Utep games will be televised.

http://conferenceusa.com/documents/2017/10/11//MBB_TV_Release.pdf?id=8544

 

[USAFminersfan]

I don't think it's a good sign that UTEP lost to McGill twice and eked out a 5-point victory over a team that Nevada stomped by 49 points.

My thoughts exactly. Any hope I might have had for the season was squashed due to that Costa Rica trip. Our starters played a ton of minutes and still got handled by a team few have ever heard of..

 

[nattybry]

Don't buy much into Costa Rica trip, but we'll see

 

[Haskins Fan]

The Costa Rica trip was just a tune up to check out the players.
I think that Floyd let them play so that he could evaluate them
and see what they needed to work on.
I am sure Coach Floyd is doing the fine tuning but they still
have to play like a team.

Go Miners...

 

[Lil_Train]

This has been mentioned a bunch of times previously, but I think the prospects of either Harris or Touchet at the point for any more than spot minutes, would be a huge challenge for the overall success of the team. Neither Touchet or Harris have played the point in their respective careers for anything more than backup duty. In fact, the experiment to move Omega to the point ended up failing pretty miserably when he was freshman. Last year, it was Barrett that played the backup role to Artis. Both of them are better at the off guard. Floyd took the risk of bringing in two freshman point guards. If that decision backfires, that would be a real challenge to overcome. Without seeing the games in Costa Rica, I imagine that was part of the challenge out there. Someone needs to run the team, bottom line. To me, that is still a huge question mark for a team with some major expectations.

 

[UTEPDefense]

Some of Floyd's teams have started slow and improved once we hit conference play(Last season is Ann example). Could the relatively poor performance in Costa Rica just be "par for the course" as a typical Floyd team starting slow?

Conversely, could the earlier start to this season(thanks to the Costa Rica trip) have the benefit of helping us get our slow start out of the way earlier than normal?

 

[USAFminersfan]

This has been mentioned a bunch of times previously, but I think the prospects of either Harris or Touchet at the point for any more than spot minutes, would be a huge challenge for the overall success of the team. Neither Touchet or Harris have played the point in their respective careers for anything more than backup duty. In fact, the experiment to move Omega to the point ended up failing pretty miserably when he was freshman. Last year, it was Barrett that played the backup role to Artis. Both of them are better at the off guard. Floyd took the risk of bringing in two freshman point guards. If that decision backfires, that would be a real challenge to overcome. Without seeing the games in Costa Rica, I imagine that was part of the challenge out there. Someone needs to run the team, bottom line. To me, that is still a huge question mark for a team with some major expectations.

It's precisely the problem. Sure, we have depth on the inside, but that doesn't get you far without at least one quality pg to run the offense.

I just don't see how two freshman at that position can be expected to transition right into D1 bball without there being significant growing pains.

The only teams who typically acquire D1 ready PG's like that are the usuals (Duke, kentucky, etc)

 

[Lil_Train]

It's precisely the problem. Sure, we have depth on the inside, but that doesn't get you far without at least one quality pg to run the offense.

I just don't see how two freshman at that position can be expected to transition right into D1 bball without there being significant growing pains.

The only teams who typically acquire D1 ready PG's like that are the usuals (Duke, kentucky, etc)

Exactly. In Costa Rica, like you mentioned, our starters actually played heavy minutes, and we still struggled against marginal teams. The only significant player missing from the squad was Artis. That is a huge loss considering the makeup of this years team. One of the main goals of the CR trip was to get the young PGs tons of playing time. Unfortunately, the plan was derailed due to the injury to Gilyard. Magee played decently, but we will need more out of that position. Experiencing more growing pains early on from another Floyd team is not something I am looking forward to. I do think bringing in another experienced guy like Frazier will help mask the young point guards, especially on the offensive end. I want to see the Gilyard that Corey Evans (Rivals Scout) raved about.

 

[MineroFanatico]

Exactly. In Costa Rica, like you mentioned, our starters actually played heavy minutes, and we still struggled against marginal teams. The only significant player missing from the squad was Artis. That is a huge loss considering the makeup of this years' team. One of the main goals of the CR trip was to get the young PGs tons of playing time. Unfortunately, the plan was derailed due to the injury to Gilyard. Magee played decently, but we will need more out of that position. Experiencing more growing pains early on from another Floyd team is not something I am looking forward to. I do think bringing in another experienced guy like Frazier will help mask the young point guards, especially on the offensive end. I want to see the Gilyard that Corey Evans (Rivals Scout) raved about.

Maybe that shoulder has really minimized his capability. I hope, cuz I'm with you and USAF and pretty much everybody else...we gotta have more than a serviceable PG, who can hold his own.

 

[MineroFanatico]

It's precisely the problem. Sure, we have depth on the inside, but that doesn't get you far without at least one quality pg to run the offense.

I just don't see how two freshman at that position can be expected to transition right into D1 bball without there being significant growing pains.

The only teams who typically acquire D1 ready PG's like that are the usuals (Duke, kentucky, etc)

Or UAB, or MTSU, or...

I get what you're saying, and agree with you for the most part. But while the PGs that CUSA attracts couldn't go play for Duke or Kentucky, the quality of player only has to be commensurate with the league they play in. So hypothetically speaking, we should be nearly as able to pull in a PG that can affect the game as much as a kid can the ACC. The two schools above have demonstrated that recently to fairly recently. Hopefully BY conference, when it matters, one of our two can really step it up. For some reason, and hopefully not to my own disappointment, I still got hope!

 

[Space acer]

I don’t see a great year from utep. I see another mediocre year from them. Until floyd gets replaced it is going to be the same story every year. Hopefully I’m wrong

 

[nattybry]

I'm cautiously excited, but won't be surprised to be disappointed lol

 

[utep2step]

This is it for Floyd. It's make or break time. But this pretty much sums up the Costa Rica junket...

 

[minermx07]

Some of Floyd's teams have started slow and improved once we hit conference play(Last season is Ann example). Could the relatively poor performance in Costa Rica just be "par for the course" as a typical Floyd team starting slow?

Conversely, could the earlier start to this season(thanks to the Costa Rica trip) have the benefit of helping us get our slow start out of the way earlier than normal?

"Par the course" is the problem. The slow starts where we lose to some Div 2 team or a team with an RPI around 300. Then when the pitchforks come out, UTEP will beat a top team in CUSA, but don't get too excited, they'll follow it up by losing to one of the bottom teams in the league. In the end, UTEP will be totally average.