Tim Cameron

[topminer]

Is it just me...or wouldn't it make sense to work Tim Cameron into the rotation? Venegas has also shown tremendous improvement, despite playing limited minutes...

I know almost nothing about Barnes, as he seldom plays. Just my 2 cents, but I feel a legitimate 10-man rotation would best serve us for the long term and, hopefully, cut down on the revolving door of young players with a bright future.

 

[MineroFanatico]

Is it just me...or wouldn't it make sense to work Tim Cameron into the rotation? Venegas has also shown tremendous improvement, despite playing limited minutes...

I know almost nothing about Barnes, as he seldom plays. Just my 2 cents, but I feel a legitimate 10-man rotation would best serve us for the long term and, hopefully, cut down on the revolving door of young players with a bright future.

It's not just you. My personal answer to your question is, YES.

As far as Barnes is concerned, he has great potential. His body is collegge ready. Just needs to be patient and grow as a bb player. If he stays with it, he could end up being really good.

 

[USAFminersfan]

Those guys aren't playing because they won't be here next year. Floyd obviously sees more potential with the 10 (or whatever the number is) recruits he has coming in

 

[topminer]

Those guys aren't playing because they won't be here next year. Floyd obviously sees more potential with the 10 (or whatever the number is) recruits he has coming in

Back to my point about revolving doors...Venegas is a walk-on, so he is not taking a scholarship.

 

[Voice of the Mosquito]

Don't agree, practice is where a player develops abilities to play at this level, not during a game. PT is a reward for hard work in practice. Almost all freshman and JC players come to college with a prima dona attitude, more or less. The were top dog at the HS or JC level and many have overconfidence in their abilities. A coach cannot allow these younger players to believe they are college ready and believe they no longer need skills development because you can make them in-coachable. You can coach skills, make a player a better rebounder, shooter or be a better defensive player, but attitude is something very hard to coach and hard to change. A coach must walk a fine line, make a player work to improve weakness but at the same time not destroy his confidence or make him feel his lack of playing time is due to politics or anything other than his lack of ability. In some ways I think this happened to Terry Winn, he played a lot as a freshman might have developed a attitude and became a problem. We will never know but it happens a lot with young players.

 

[MineroFanatico]

I understand where you're coming from mosquito, and agree to a point. But...but, we only go 8 deep, 9 if we use Venegas. Come tourney time, we are gonna need some fresh legs. It would help for those fresh legs to have as much game time experience, one would think. I digress though, Obviously CTF has his reasons for minimizing their pt.

 

[topminer]

Don't agree, practice is where a player develops abilities to play at this level, not during a game. PT is a reward for hard work in practice. Almost all freshman and JC players come to college with a prima dona attitude, more or less. The were top dog at the HS or JC level and many have overconfidence in their abilities. A coach cannot allow these younger players to believe they are college ready and believe they no longer need skills development because you can make them in-coachable. You can coach skills, make a player a better rebounder, shooter or be a better defensive player, but attitude is something very hard to coach and hard to change. A coach must walk a fine line, make a player work to improve weakness but at the same time not destroy his confidence or make him feel his lack of playing time is due to politics or anything other than his lack of ability. In some ways I think this happened to Terry Winn, he played a lot as a freshman might have developed a attitude and became a problem. We will never know but it happens a lot with young players.

And I respectfully, yet wholeheartedly disagree with you on almost all of your points. Most importantly, you failed to address the issue of revolving doors. Perhaps you prefer to simplify the issue to a problem with "millennials."

 

[artistarts28]

CTF is looking like CUSA coach of the year, UTEP went from a joke to one of the most improbable turn arounds I've ever seen in the same season. Now fans are talking about rotations for the CUSA tournament when everything on this board was about FIRE CTF! Wow! CTF somehow kept the ship a float and now the finish line is nearing.

In Floyd We trust!
Miner Strong
GO MINERS!!!

 

[unihorn]

Don't agree, practice is where a player develops abilities to play at this level, not during a game. PT is a reward for hard work in practice. Almost all freshman and JC players come to college with a prima dona attitude, more or less. The were top dog at the HS or JC level and many have overconfidence in their abilities. A coach cannot allow these younger players to believe they are college ready and believe they no longer need skills development because you can make them in-coachable. You can coach skills, make a player a better rebounder, shooter or be a better defensive player, but attitude is something very hard to coach and hard to change. A coach must walk a fine line, make a player work to improve weakness but at the same time not destroy his confidence or make him feel his lack of playing time is due to politics or anything other than his lack of ability. In some ways I think this happened to Terry Winn, he played a lot as a freshman might have developed a attitude and became a problem. We will never know but it happens a lot with young players.

If Winn got a big head by playing too much, it still comes back to Floyd not having a deeper bench.

 

[topminer]

CTF is looking like CUSA coach of the year, UTEP went from a joke to one of the most improbable turn arounds I've ever seen in the same season. Now fans are talking about rotations for the CUSA tournament when everything on this board was about FIRE CTF! Wow! CTF somehow kept the ship a float and now the finish line is nearing.

In Floyd We trust!
Miner Strong
GO MINERS!!!

For the record, Artist, I was not pleased with the 12 game losing streak, but I never joined the "Fire Floyd" bandwagon. I am pleased with this year's turnaround, but I am not letting my excitement turn to euphoria just yet. I am concerned with the long term success of the program as well as the continued success of the team for the remainder of the season.

Going back to my original point, I would like to see a 10-man rotation like most big time programs implement. I also feel that this approach may stop some of the bleeding created with the constant turnover of players.

 

[MineroFanatico]

CTF is looking like CUSA coach of the year, UTEP went from a joke to one of the most improbable turn arounds I've ever seen in the same season. Now fans are talking about rotations for the CUSA tournament when everything on this board was about FIRE CTF! Wow! CTF somehow kept the ship a float and now the finish line is nearing.

In Floyd We trust!
Miner Strong
GO MINERS!!!

Dude...results speak for themselves. This fan base is NO different than any other. Can you blame people for having the concerns with CTF that they had, when 6 years had passed without a BIG tourney experience, and the way this season started?

I still don't hail Floyd as the anointed one, but I am impressed with the HUGE turnaround. He obviously has a lot to do with that turn around. I will give him that...and keep it at that for now.

Also, not sure I get the association of talking rotations and "FIRE CTF". I think we'd talk rotations no matter who was coach. It's a legitimate concern come conference tourney time.

 

[UTEPfan1966]

#firefloyd

Just so you know, unless we win the conference tournament, he STILL needs to go. Yes, the turnaround is awesome, and sure he has a lot to do with it (it sure is fun reading positive stuff for a change) ......but it was FLOYD that caused the train wreck. It was FLOYD who hasn't gotten us to the big dance. It was FLOYD acting a fool and embarrassing UTEP, fans, students, alumni, and staff when he publicly fights with other coaches, players, and media.

Honestly, a few weeks ago I decided Cameron and Barnes were gone. We hit a tailspin and they still never saw minutes. If Floyd had ANY thoughts of keeping these kids, why wouldn't he put them in for experience or even to motivate the upper classmen to do better?

Agreed, some kids come to college with chips on their shoulders, but running them off instead of working with them to teach them is wrong. IMHO of course. And again....that is FLOYD'S fault....

therefore, I still say....

#firefloyd
#makeutepbasketballgreatagain

 

[artistarts28]

Maybe some people take things differently but not insisting that the fire Floyd thing at start of season was an over reaction. I'm just pointing out its nice to come on this board and there being positive discussions on rotation. We're all Miner fans who want to see UTEP back in the big dance. I get frustrated as much as the next guy when Miners struggle. The realization is it's not how you start the race it's how you finish that matters because this conference is a one bid league. The race isn't over but man it feels good to see these Miners battle through adversity.

Miner Strong!

 

[topminer]

Maybe some people take things differently but not insisting that the fire Floyd thing at start of season was an over reaction. I'm just pointing out its nice to come on this board and there being positive discussions on rotation. We're all Miner fans who want to see UTEP back in the big dance. I get frustrated as much as the next guy when Miners struggle. The realization is it's not how you start the race it's how you finish that matters because this conference is a one bid league. The race isn't over but man it feels good to see these Miners battle through adversity.

Miner Strong!

...and how you continue as a team once the season ultimately comes to an end.

 

[MineroFanatico]

Maybe some people take things differently but not insisting that the fire Floyd thing at start of season was an over reaction. I'm just pointing out its nice to come on this board and there being positive discussions on rotation. We're all Miner fans who want to see UTEP back in the big dance. I get frustrated as much as the next guy when Miners struggle. The realization is it's not how you start the race it's how you finish that matters because this conference is a one bid league. The race isn't over but man it feels good to see these Miners battle through adversity.

Miner Strong!

Gotcha. I misunderstood you in your previous post. I agree.

 

[allminer]

...and how you continue as a team once the season ultimately comes to an end.

Which I mentioned in another thread...maybe, just maybe, and hopefully we can go through an off season into a new one without drama finally. Although I guess it will be somewhat unavoidable as some moves are going to have to be made in order to fit the newcomers, assuming they all make it. Great thread gentlemen. I wonder why?

 

[miner1liner]

I think all of you will agree that since Artist is the only departure, our guard status has plenty of positive possibilities next season with choices to be made from Harris, Touchet, Barrett, Flaggert, Cameron, Barnes, Osborne, Gilyard and Magee. That's nine! So...add the inside guys Willms, Jones, Thomas, Smith, Brewer, Wade, St. Pierre and Williams which comes to another eight (did I forget anyone?) and the question now becomes more than why Cameron isn't playing. We'll have so many questions next year, we won't know what questions to ask first! We now have a roster of thirteen and 7 or 8 play. Next year per my count we have seventeen from which to pick thirteen, from which to pick who plays and who doesn't. The only question that we have an answer to at this point is who the coach will be. Is this Russian Roulette, potluck dinner, Smorgasbord, blind man's bluff or maybe pin the tail on the donkey?
Sorry for the the epistle. It was a slow night.

 

[Lil_Train]

Chiming in on the limited playing time for Tim Cameron and Chris Barnes. I too think the team would benefit by extending the bench in anticipation of CUSA tourney play, if this could be accomplished without negatively impacting our chance to win games. The thing is, this team has so little margin for error that affording playing time to inexperienced freshmen could very well be the difference between winning or losing. I firmly believe if either Cameron or Barnes had shown enough during practice to be able to contribute more than the other guys getting minutes, the staff would play them in a heartbeat.

Now, with respect to Venegas getting minutes ahead of either Cameron or Barnes, we need to remember that Venegas is an interior player. Other than Willms,Jones, and Thomas, the team is really limited in terms of interior players. When Thomas got into foul trouble the last game, as he has done very frequently this year, the staff looked to Venegas to provide a few limited minutes.

On the other hand, there are several guards playing in front of both Cameron and Barnes; including Flaggert, Touchet, and even Barrett. While I have been a frequent detractor of both Flaggert and Touchet, the staff has repeatedly mentioned that they are more comfortable playing both of them because they don't think they will make as many mistakes as the inexperienced Cameron and Barnes. Both Cameron and Barnes are indeed much better athletes than Flaggert and Touchet, but they have not been able to prove they deserve playing time during practice. Realistically, based on the guys signed for next year, it may be really tough for either of these kids to be on the team next year. I must say that every time I see video of Cameron on the bench, he is enthusiastically cheering on his teammates; and is the perfect type of glue guy that every team needs.

 

[utep2step]

CTF is looking like CUSA coach of the year, UTEP went from a joke to one of the most improbable turn arounds I've ever seen in the same season. Now fans are talking about rotations for the CUSA tournament when everything on this board was about FIRE CTF! Wow! CTF somehow kept the ship a float and now the finish line is nearing.

In Floyd We trust!
Miner Strong
GO MINERS!!!

Kermit Davis needs to get that award. He frontloaded the schedule and won. Consistency should be a measuring stick and MTSU displayed that.

 

[miner1liner]

I noticed the same enthusiasm from Cameron. That's a real positive to me.

 

[Haskins Fan]

Well, I have never doubted Coach Floyd. Yes, I have been frustrated for a couple of years but you can't blame him for everything.
In reference to the PT we can't afford to slip away. I only see 7 or 8 on the rotation. I noticed that we make a lot of mistakes when
we play the bench, I think that they feel the pressure.
Next year will be another story I believe that two of the committed guys won't make it, could be grades or something might come up.
I am keeping my fingers crossed cause it seems like we are finally making the turning the corner.
We are going to miss Artist.

GO Miners...

 

[UTEPMiners8106]

I'm not a coach but don't teams shorten the bench as the season goes on?

 

[MineroFanatico]

I'm not a coach but don't teams shorten the bench as the season goes on?

They do. However, 3 or 4 games in just as many days is tough to do without going deep into the bench.

Look back to 3 years ago when the conf tourney was in EP. By the time we played SoMiss, we had no gas in the tank. We only went 7 deep for most of the season because it was the year of gamble-gate. Come tournament time, we had no legs. Good to have a bench for back-to-back-to-back-to-back games.

 

[utep2step]

.
....We are going to miss Artist.

GO Miners...

Like a hobo misses a ham sandwich.