DEN
Miners => Den => Topic started by: kyyote on January 17, 2023, 09:38:25 AM
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I purchased espn+ and cusa tv and have been able to watch the games. Even with that ability, it has not been easy to get a handle on this team. Well, for me. One thing I think I feel pretty good about is how I think Don Haskins would feel about the defense. I think he would think he was watching his team play defense. He might even be just a touch envious. Most of the time. The team hits the boards, too. And still get back on defense.
Offensively, I see Golding putting the players in position to hit open easy shots. I think there are natural shooters and there are athletes. I was very athletic, quick hands and feet, but my shooting was in the general area. My across the street neighbor was my age. There were about 20 kids on the block and the school playground and courts were on the other side of my back fence. Paul became the qb, ace pitcher, and star point guard on the NorCal Tournament Champion team. I was a better defender than him, but he could shoot. And handle the ball. I think many of our players are great athletes but lack the shooter's touch. The foul shooting may be an indication of it.
Think back to all of the teams Haskins had. He always had some shooters to provide the offense outside of the paint. Now, I ask myself if there is the outside shooting to provide offensive balance and to hit the easy open shots. Hardy, maybe? Givance is a great ball handler, but his shooting is kind of crazy. He hits threes like a bomber but only sometimes so you can't rely on his offense. It comes and goes. In general, the offense doesn't have the punch to pull away from teams. That is why missed free throws are so damaging.
Thinking about it, it seems to me that the team is probably just about a perfectly created team in Joe Goldings image. I think he probably wouldn't be an attack guy, but would wear your ass out trying to kick his.
Final thought. Onyema was raw. Golding has worked on his defense and it shows. I think that had to happen first. I think he will become an offensive force with time. I hope he stays at home and becomes a local hero, ala Aaron Jones.
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I have the subscriptions but I have not been watching, in some cases because I had other things going on, and some just out of general frustration with UTEP athletics. So I don't really have an opinion of my own.
But what you just said brings me to something I've been thinking about. We always compare coaches to the Great One, The Bear. But he had bad years, even some losing seasons. So no matter how great the coach, he can only do so much with the players on his roster. I think we all know Haskins wasn't much on recruiting after those first few seasons, and his teams depended a lot on his assistants recruiting. BUT... he always got more out of his players than any other coach would have, except maybe a few of the other legends of coaching.
So my question is this. It looks like Golding's recruiting is substandard so far. But is he getting the most he can out of them? Looks like we'll probably be a middle of the pack team. Is this a middle of the pack roster?
And that brings me to another thought. I think in football we are not the worst team in conference anymore. We are roughly just above lower 25%. But our recruiting is annually one of the worst in college football. I have blamed a lot on Dimel's incomprehensible strategies, and I'm not ready to give that up yet. But I am wondering if just maybe he's getting his players to overachieve and periodically that just catches up with them. Under this theory, we are roughly a NMSU/UNM level team in terms of talent, but Dimel is able to get them to play good enough to beat Boise some weeks and other weeks they fall to their natural level. Even if true, I don't think that means his game plans and adjustments aren't awful at times. I think both could be true
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As I recall, Haskins' teams were not the best free throw shooters. They might have been better free throw shooters than this team but, in the clutch, they came through.
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Haskins never had to replace ten players from one year to the next. I won't say a word about recruiting based on a half season. Especially in 2023. So far, he did very well with Givance, and Hardy without any question. I think Givance would have been a beloved star on Haskins' teams. But this is a build year. lol Not a rebuild. In car terms it would have a chassis. No engine or drive train. no seats. I am having to judge Golding based on a crazy standard never dealt with before. So far they are a very closely playing group defensively. He has got them to play with effort. He has established an order and shown he can do the x's and o's things. This team 10-8 and could be 14 and 4, easy. No, what I mean by easy is that games ended in ties, they were that close. If this team had one dead-eyed shooter, they would be dangerous! The free throws thing is a drag because it is so danged silly hurting us.
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After FAU.
We lost 59 to 67.
FAU is ranked 54th in Scoring Offense, scoring 77.4 ppg. We held them to ten points below their average. We average 69.6 ppg, so they held us to ten points below our average. Defensively, we did our job. Offensively either we didn't, or their defense did. But we shot 30.8% from the field and 18.8% 3/16 from three point land. I would have to tip my hat to FAU. Their offense didn't beat us. Their defense did. Especially their perimeter defense. But having said that, we played them tough.
I think this team is well coached, and dangerous. This team can win every game it plays from here on out. But it has no room for error because of shooting. It is a lunch bucket team that works hard to get its job done and can outwork your team. Most of the time. That is my assessment of the team today. Golding has taken his unknown collection of players and put together a team that is competitive in this conference. I ask myself how competitive? As competitive as the last five years? The answer is yes. Has he done it with as much talent as Terry had? I think it is hard to tell. Boum was a special player. I am trying to think back over the past few years about talented players and it seems to me that I can list names of great UTEP players like rolling off a log, but try naming the recent greats. So, having gotten that far, talented stars are no longer how I think about the recruiting and coaching. Stars no longer even exist at our level. They have already moved up past us. It is down to luck and coaching players into a team. Golding is a good coach. He has them playing about as well as they are capable of. This is UTEP. WE are in a one bid league and about to be in the lowest of the conference in the land, barely able to put together a group of teams to form a conference. Golding is definitely capable of coaching at this level. At this level, what does a coach have to do? Manage a team and not just suck. Recruiting is nonsense. At UTEP what is expected from the administration. Don't suck. That is it. Don't be an embarrassment. Ask yourself if you believe the administration even is trying to win conference championships or is it just going through the motions? The administration at UTEP was set by Lady Dianna and those there today are placeholders. Names to put on cards to place on dinner and conference tables.
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Don't ignore the reality that the regular season is essentially meaningless so long as we make the conference tourney. The question is whether this team is capable of winning the conference tourney. Even if FAU stays in the top 25 I bet they don't get an at large if they don't win the tourney.
Winning in the regular season may help with butts in seats and recruiting (but only incrementally). Beating a big team in the tourney would theoretically help recruiting, but would also likely mean Golding would get hired to a cartel team putting us back at square 1 with Senter hiring, and any recruiting advantage gone with Golding. Sad.
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Reality 2023.
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What's interesting about conference NET rankings is that going by future conference membership and ranking them by current NET rankings, the MWC, AAC, CUSA, A10, SBC, MVC, MAC are ranked in that order. That includes Kennesaw St (130), SHSU (50), Liberty (51) and Jacksonville St (307). UTEP is 167. To have future CUSA ranked ahead of the A10 and MVC is surprising. This was put together by a WKU fan on the realignment board.
Edit: UTEP now 173 but UNT is 60 and since it's a road game for UTEP, it is a quad 1 game for the Miners. A nice jump in the NET rankings if the Miners get the win.
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watched a few minutes of the game on ESPN. I usually attend UNT in person, but I totally didn't make the connection. I am really disengaged this year. Kinda glad I didn't. Although I do love me some good defense, this is the worst shooting team I have ever seen. unbelievably bad. Golding better figure out how to recruit or how to coach offense or something because the program can't survive this in combo with Dimel football. My gosh, at some point you do have to score more points than the other guy to win.
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Sis, I was looking to see just how bad our shooting is and was shocked to find that we are actually pretty good. We are actually ranked 137th in shooting percentage at 45.3%. AND that is being ranked 348 of 352 and 27.8% from beyond the arc. Our leading scorer, Hardy had 4 points.
I think we have to tip our hats to UNT. They were ranked and are ranked #3 in scoring defense. They shut us down. We shoot 45% but against them we were at 36% and a ridiculous 2/13 or 13% from three-point range.
We played them tough. They played us tougher.
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You can?t win being at 348th in the country from 3. You just can?t
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I feel like the Grand Canyon, I hear an echo, I'm always repeating myself. What's wrong with these coaches, ours included, is that you don't look at how many points a player makes, you look at their shooting percentage. A player could be a "gimme the ball, I'll shoot" so if he takes the majority of the shots of course he'll have a great game. I had a cousin who played basketball and his ego prevented him from passing the ball, he always wanted to be the hero and would wound up with the most points. Of course, he was the one that took the most shots, it doesn't take a rocket scientist. Accuracy is the name of the game and if a player doesn't fall in love with the ball and occasionally takes a shot/s and makes them that's the one to look for, not the ball hog.
Jeepers, like I've said most coaches are Xs and Os guys but are lacking big time in common sense.
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Man, we suck something fierce. Golding shit the bed this year. He couldn't get 1 glue player and no real high IQ player. All scrappers on the team isn't going to cut it at this level. At 1 point you need a good talent on the team.
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Programs rise and fall. We've discussed the changes in the landscape that have made it hard, but other teams have adapted. I was a big supporter of the Golding hire, but it appears he does not know how to operate in the current environment. If I may apply a Bible verse here, I Chronicles 12:32 describes a particular group of men out of all the soldiers that were preparing for a war "...from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do...". Other school have men who understand the times and know what to do. We do not, but we need it if we are ever going to be competitive again in any sport.
Just to raise your blood pressure, let's consider where this team is relative to other teams of the last 40 years.
If this team played any UTEP team from the 80s, what would be the final score?
What about a Gillispie squad? Or a Barbee squad? Or a Sadler squad? Floyde's worst team was better than this.
Hell lets look at Rabs. These guys might have beat his last team (Wolfram gone), but I'm not confident of that.
I now think that Kyyote was right. Hire a flashy NBA player as head coach. Hell, hire a famous entertainer. Hire Kanye, Drake, who cares ( I don't even know if those guys would be a draw, but you get the idea). The only thing that matters anymore is recruiting an amazing new squad each and every year. You don't have a team together long enough to teach them an offense or to develop them. Just get the best pickup team you can and hope they can hold the court against all comers.
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The blue-bloods schools haven't figured it out. They relied on recruits. A steady stream of the top talent and the talent waited and learned. Winning begot winning.
Then the portal was opened. You could throw you name in the hat, and it cost nothing to see what would happen. Non-blue-bloods, middle of the road schools in conferences with tv appearances could offer stars in waiting immediate recognition and play, and a chance to play on an all-star team. The players gave up nothing and got a better deal. It destroyed the benches of the blue-bloods. It became who could assemble the best all-star team, and it filtered down to the bottom levels. But the one thing that was constant was " It became who could assemble the best all-star team". They did and have done it, but the up and down shifting is still the way it is and blue-bloods are traditionalists but not stupid.
Notice that the players perspective is playing time at the highest exposure. Then, it is who with, because winning is a must. Let me say that again. Winners want to win, with other winners. So, it doesn't matter what the school has done in the past. That shit is out. Dead. Your Carolina Blue, don't man a thing to Gonzaga kids. No longer even notch-worthy. So. what do we have to offer. We are near the absolute bottom of the list in attractions. Ask yourself if we are even trying, or are we just checking off the box that we are division one. I honestly believe that Golding has his kids playing as hard as they can. I see him coaching them into open shots that they just can't make. I truly believe that he knows how to coach. I think he got the best players he could get. The one thing that could change where we are and where we are going fast, and that is down, is a huge splash. Hire TIM HARDAWAY! It would instantly put UTEP back on the relevant map! He would be our own Deon Sanders. He would be gone in two or three years, and then bring in the next biggest attraction name to coach.
For those of us who went to packed houses in The Bear's house, seeing a few hundred die-hard fans watch Charlotte beat Hell out of us on our court is just heart breaking. I really am glad that Don Haskins isn't alive to see what has been allowed to happen. And the truth is, I don't know that he would have been able to do much better.
The game on the court is still basketball, but the game outside of the lines has changed completely. You bring in Tim to bring in the talented kids. His all-star team. They win. They leave. He brings in more top talent to be on his talented team to win. They move on and by now we had better have the next coach ready, because Hardaway will move up. I think we could get him. Pay him 2 million. What is ten dollars times 5 thousand? Because I believe he would be worth that right off the bat. His name would attract opportunities for us to play in big tournaments for money and recognition. Winning would bring fans back. Tim Hardaway if played and marketed right would be a happening every week!
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You've got the right idea Ky, but I don't think Tim would be as attrative NOW as in days gone. Most players don't even know who he is. Get someone of this basketball era who's played pro and knows the ropes and one who people at least know him. I don't follow pro basketball, I think it stinks but I'm sure those who do watch pro basketball know a few players who would be a draw for the future players and the fans. Yes, I'm in the Deion bandwagon, he brought players for a few seasons and now he's gone so what? I'm sure there would be other pro players who would want to put their toe into the cold water pool to check out their coaching talents.
Maybe thinking of pro players who would make a good coach would make a good thread. I don't know too many just the ones that constantly come out in commercials so I'm out.
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I also am not sure about whether Hardaway is a well enough name amongst the college age kids. He did retire 20 years ago. But then I don't hang with any ballers that age, so I don't know.
It's obvious that recruiting is hard. Haskins hated it, and after the 60s didn't really do it much and looked for hungry assistants that would. And the teams fortunes rose and fell on the strength of their recruiting. It was never too bad because he could get more out of a player than any coach alive. But it mattered. Now it may be the only thing that matters. And money. NIL money matters. Get enough of that and we'll get the players we want.
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Hardaway?s son is a current NBA player. But I don?t care, you tell me who would create the big splash to land the best players. But right now we are in free fall. We are being ditched again and we have no plans or excuse for it. We are headed for the cellar of college basketball?s equivalent of a partapotty of a conference. And the band played on.
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That's a great point about his son. I'm on board now. When we hired Golding I was still hurting from Kug and didn't want to hire yet another alumni. But let's give it a shot
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We're not in a horrible basketball conference, ranked in the net as 10th out of 32. But we suck for sure. Golding will be here for at least a 3rd season so what kind of a season does he have to have next year to hang on to his job?
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We ae in a one bid conference that is losing four of our top teams. We will cobble together a conference and see if it holds at 10 out of 32. It may. My point is that we are headed in the wrong direction even if we are holding our place in line. We need to make dramatic moves to show a commitment to elevating the program. We never have, and my good sense says we aren't about to change after the forty years I have witnessed personally.
He will be given an extension after this year. He is doing fine.
UTEP is fine.
Did you know that UTEP is one of 129(I think) and one of four in C-USA Top Tier Research Institutions in the country?
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UTEP athletics have not been fine for a long time despite having among the best paid basketball coaches in the G5 schools, or mid-majors. I think if Golding had a true outside threat or 2, this team would be doing much better.
If tv appearances would help recruiting then the new cusa media contract should help because no more cusatv, many more bb games carried on linear tv and the rest all available on espn+ or espn3. Football has more linear tv as well, even though mid-week games all of Oct. Those games will have a lot less competition for viewers but inconvenient for ticket holders.
Some folks say UTEP needs to spend more on athletics but where will that money come from? El Paso is not loaded. We do have a few rich folks that UTEP has depended on but how often can you go to the same well?
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I agree about a shooter or two would make a huge difference. If ifs and buts...
I have absolutely no doubt that Golding can coach.
I tried to look up coaches' salaries and was able to get 2019 numbers.
Here are a few for comparison;
UTSA 325k
WKU 650k
FAU 390k
FIU 300k
Fresno St 535k
LAT 150k
MTU 575k
NMSU 290k
UNT 500k
UAB 400k
UTEP 700k
Golding actually gets like 400 with 300k in speaking money for doing his radio show. Terry was making 725k
So yes, we are paying top dollar for Joe Golding. I know he knows how to coach. There are high school coaches that know how to coach. But I said that I cannot judge his recruiting based on a single year of crazy portal basketball. I personally think he is a fine man. I don't know that he is a basketball talent magnet. You tell me if he is the best coach for the money or if Senter hired someone based on one game? I don't know. I think Joe Golding is tickled pink.
I also looked at student fees. UTSA-240 a semester, UNT 16.25/hr capped at 15 hrs, FAU 19.25/hr, WKU 218/sem, and UTEP 240/sem BUT it unlike the others listed also pays for lots of other stuff.
?fee to fund student-related services such as intramural activities; student government, disabled student organizations, career services, cheerleaders, student publications, health services, intercollegiate athletics and others as recommended by the Student Service Fee Committee.?
El Paso has built very nice new homes in every direction, west, northeast, and the eastside as far as El Paso can go almost and they aren't huts. El Paso has enough money for the students to pay the same as everyone else. Or are we going to say that we are too poor to play at this level? Bullshit!
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As I was telling my DIL that OUR people want Bueno, Bonito y Barato that's how El Pasoans think. Translated it's Good, Beautiful and Cheap. Mind you they will shell out good money on some things like the Monster Truck Shows at the Sun Bowl but will hesitate on spending their money on college sports. It's sad but it's what it is, regardless of income.
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I agree that Golding can coach his ars off. He should have 4yrs no question. He has not proven that he can recruit. He's like the opposite of Terry. I give him the rest of this year and 2 others to make it right. I will call for his head after that if, he can't get us to the NCAA Tournament. An NCAA showing should give him another 4yrs in my book.
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I am a cranky old man and I am tired of giving people time to fix things. To right the ship my ass. I want hires that turn things around the minute they get here. Four more years of being a cellar dweller may finish UTEP basketball off for good. We are down to being able to play games in memorial gym.
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I am a cranky old man and I am tired of giving people time to fix things. To right the ship my ass. I want hires that turn things around the minute they get here. Four more years of being a cellar dweller may finish UTEP basketball off for good. We are down to being able to play games in memorial gym.
I would love to see UTEP get it's basketball program back to the big dance and frequently. Love to see the Don hopping again. Would love to see 40k plus crowds in the Sun Bowl to watch a winning UTEP team. I don't have a magic wand to make all that happen but the UTEP admin can do it if they get the right people in place.
My hope is Golding will recruit the right pieces for next year to win big and that Dimel has already recruited so well that he surprises us all with a conference championship and a bowl win this coming season.
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If those players from Enemas U. that entered the portal and are good players and Golding didn't try to recruit them then there's a problem there. They're there for the asking and if like I said, good enough to improve our BB program and Golding doesn't do squat it just shows he's not that great at what he likes to do, talk at a hundred mile per hour clip.
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I don?t know if you know what was happening at nmsu but those players were involved if they just knew what happened and didn?t scream bloody murder. Nope. We don?t need them. Or the coach. Nmsu will now bring that stink to our conference. Just the kind of way to start a newly revamped conference.
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I don?t know if you know what was happening at nmsu but those players were involved if they just knew what happened and didn?t scream bloody murder. Nope. We don?t need them. Or the coach. Nmsu will now bring that stink to our conference. Just the kind of way to start a newly revamped conference.
There could be a lot of factors for those players who didn't speak out and that kept their mouths shut if they knew. It's not that easy especially for young people to snitch at each other even though they might be against what was occurring. I'm sure that foreign player was so happy to have gotten a US school scholie that he didn't want to rock the boat and then have everyone against him. It would have been really stressful playing in a team that hated your guts for being a rat. I don't know about the other ones that are leaving but I imagine it was almost the same thing for them.
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If you are a freshman I would not hold it against them. They have just left home and out of their comfort zone. An upperclassman should at a minimum tell coaches. But then maybe some did. Their coaching staff has issues.
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The players may be Boy Scouts. I don?t care. This doesn?t mean that UTEP has to be their place to redeem themselves. We need to stay clean.
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I watched nearly all of the UNT game. Coaching is fine. McCasland is a very good coach and Golding went toe to toe with him. I go back to what i said a while back. If we could shoot threes anything like an acceptable 33% we'd be near the top of the conference. You simply cannot win the modern game with an average 27% and your top players barely cracking 30% from 3.
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Great game against N TX. The free-throws kept us in the game. My question is, how do U lose in overtime with 2 of their players having fouled out? I feel Gilding kept his players in too long & didn't sub properly. Which comes down to being outcoached.
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I kind of agree but not sure that was really an option. You saw what happened when he put Lemus in. And when he put Ham in.
For sure when you play that intense of D you have to do lots of subbing. If I remember 40 minutes of Hell correctly Richardson was subbing constantly. But I don?t know that?s an option for us. We aren?t deep.
It came down to UNT hit edam near every shot in OT and we couldn?t score. We shot 20% from 3.
I won?t argue with you that McCasland is a better coach. He?s excellent and I wish we had him. But UNT would have lost badly if they had shot 20% from 3. We get looks but I think our legs are tired.
So I guess I?m saying it?s not the Xs and Os it?s the awful recruiting that doomed this season
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Im glad we agree that recruiting was an issue this year. Golding brought in much needed grit, but failed with basketball IQ & shooting.
Where we see it different is the depth. Golding recruited deep with grit & defense is what all the Miners are good at. Our legs got tired towards the end of regulation which allowed N.TX to come back. Fouling would have been a better option than allowing them to get hot. If the players can't close, it is up to the coach to close. Floyd would have won that game with these players. We are 11th out of 1e teams in the conference. That is embarrassing. The year is over & Golding has more work to do now than he he did when he took the job. I hope he overcomes, because I really like this guy.
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I was just typing a followup when you posted. We are ranked # 348 in FT percentage and #352 in 3 point percentage. Out of 352 teams. There is no strategy that can overcome this.
Pound it inside, they foul and we miss FTs. Drive and draw a foul and we miss FTs. Shoot 3s and we miss.
Most of our 3's are open shots. All of our FTs are. It's a miracle we have the record we do. Maybe Golding is a good coach and maybe he's not, but he doesn't have anyone that can hit shots and at some point you have to score.
It's a lot like watching Dimel ball. Play good D, slow it down, keep it close. But when your best QB throws it in the dirt or over the WRs head about half the time, it's tough to overcome that with coaching. Dimel needs to recruit a QB that can play his style and score. Golding needs to recruit guards that can play tough D but still score.
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Like I've said before and I'll repeat again, don't recruit players who score a lot, recruit players based on their percentage of shots made, not shot taken. Also, I stated that we need a woman coach who can teach these kids the fundamentals of free throw shooting.
Jeepers, no one listens to me...and I have supervisory experience in a life and death scenario occupation. Like Jeb said, please clap. LOL
No seriously, like I've also stated before, coaching is not all Xs and Os, it common sense too. If you don't have it you'll lose.
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Women are better free throw shooters. But I'm not sure that's something that a woman can teach to a man. I honestly think it's a gender difference. I believe women are just better at things that take muscle memory and focus vs athleticism.
I've actually seen success sometimes telling a player to shoot free throws lefty. It forces them to slow down, concentrate, and really pay attention to form.
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Women are better free throw shooters. But I'm not sure that's something that a woman can teach to a man. I honestly think it's a gender difference. I believe women are just better at things that take muscle memory and focus vs athleticism.
I've actually seen success sometimes telling a player to shoot free throws lefty. It forces them to slow down, concentrate, and really pay attention to form.
I'm willing to accept that as an alternative but will coaches listen? Esa es la pregunta, "that's the question"?
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OK, after last night I am beginning to have some concerns about coaching. 20 point lead midway through 2nd half and it's a nailbiter at the end? Unprepared for the press even though that's something this opponent is known for?
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Then again, maybe it's just that we don't have a point guard.
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An interesting article in the Austin American Statesman quoted Coach Reese, Hall of Fame Swimming Coach, who won multiple swimming national championships. It was something to the effect that you can't tire out your team in practice just before a competition and expect them to be sharp and ready on game day. This is the advice he gave to Rodney Terry recently. I wonder if the Miners getting tired at the end of games and allowing the other teams to catch up are affected by this. Is Golding holding too hard a practice the days before games?
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I think it has a lot to do with it. I think he has them burning up those legs playing defense. But shooting is done with the legs. I think it is one reason we shoot so bad from long range and free throws.
The defense should generate fast break points. But if it isn?t a throw down jam we get bogged down in the paint-because we can?t hit open shots from the outside. And our defensive intensity has a lot to do with that. Free throws to seal the game on dead legs.
Haskins played defense to get layups and offense designed to wear out the other team?s defense and give his players time to save his player?s legs. Golding doesn?t seem to understand balance. He is so much into defensive intensity.
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I think you can do it you just need a lot more depth to keep legs fresh. You have to sub guys out every couple minutes. Even if PT is 2:1 in favor of your starters you gotta let their legs recover.
Without that depth of bench we may be beating ourselves.
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So I have been to all the home games. We all agree that this team has the most hustle than teams of the past.
That being said, we need to keep the intensity & develop some kind of offense. No sense in picking kids apart like I normally do. Coach knows he needs to bring some scoring to the table. I love our coach & he knows exactly what is needed. He'll be here for a while since he needs to keep his family in our schools. He won't be getting calls from anyone, because he just can't put up a winning season. Yes he won last year with Terry's recruits. We'll see what he can put together next year.
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Thus ends another dissatisfying year for men's sports.
I will only pick on one player specifically, and that is Givance. He's not a good point guard. He's way too sloppy and his A/TO ratio is not good at 1.4:1. He is the best 3P shooter on the team. He's listed as a senior but I'm not sure what that means anymore. We need a better point guard as priority #1. If Golding doesn't see that or can't get one, that's a real problem.
Turnovers were just as big an issue for us as shooting IMO. We averaged 15.8 per game while our smothering defense generated 16.8 per game. All that exhausting hustle creating turnovers doesn't do a lot of good if you are generating your own almost as fast.
I take it back, also Solomon. He had the 2nd most turnovers in spite of not being a PG. Unfortunate because I kind of like him. Both Givance and Solomon generated nearly one turnover per 10 minutes of play.
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I just hope that he could see this board so that he (Golding) could learn. LOL
Kidding aside I would like for him to look at shooting percentages and not total points. Yesterday in the news there was this kid from a NM school that went 8 for 8 in his shooting. He doesn't have a very nice delivery but if he was 100% then that's what really matters. I hope that Golding saw the sports news last night. We need a shooter or better yet shooters because if we only have one that one will be double teamed throughout the game.
Percentages Golding, percentage is the key.
This reminded me of the Butler team that beat the Miners in Denver who were supposed to go high in the dance. We could NEVER get close to them throughout the game because EVERY BUTLER PLAYER COULD SHOOT LIGHTS OUT! So needless to say we got beat in the first game. That's the year that Butler went really high in the tourney and it was because they were great shooters. I believe that they came in second but I'm not sure.
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Yes, Butler lost in the championship game. We could have made a deep run ourselves
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I just hope that he could see this board so that he (Golding) could learn. LOL
Kidding aside I would like for him to look at shooting percentages and not total points. Yesterday in the news there was this kid from a NM school that went 8 for 8 in his shooting. He doesn't have a very nice delivery but if he was 100% then that's what really matters. I hope that Golding saw the sports news last night. We need a shooter or better yet shooters because if we only have one that one will be double teamed throughout the game.
Percentages Golding, percentage is the key.
This reminded me of the Butler team that beat the Miners in Denver who were supposed to go high in the dance. We could NEVER get close to them throughout the game because EVERY BUTLER PLAYER COULD SHOOT LIGHTS OUT! So needless to say we got beat in the first game. That's the year that Butler went really high in the tourney and it was because they were great shooters. I believe that they came in second but I'm not sure.
To your point about needing shooters, Golding agrees with you. He was quoted by Broaddus of espn600 that "we need shooters." He should have been well aware of that before this season started and better have a few on board before next season. Bad 3pt and FT shooting cost the Miners 5 or 6 games. Maybe more.
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I'm a bit concerned that he seems surprised at that needing shooters thing. Leaving me to ask if he knew that he needed shooters but misjudged the players he recruited, or was he surprised to find that he needs players who can shoot at this level-that defensive hustle and steals without being able to take advantage of them isn't enough. I figure it almost has to be the first. It isn't like he only had two or three scholarships opened up. He swung and missed 10 times without finding or looking for a shooter. Julyan Stone shot about like Givance, but he played NBA level defense and handled the ball quite well. And he had Culpepper to do the shooting for both of them.
The season is over and I ask myself about the progress of the individual players. Sibley reverted. I don't even know how that happens. Onyema improved in controlling himself on defense but I am not that sure I saw what I want offensively. Solomon gained confidence as the season wore on. Hardy looked like he would have been riding the bench at S. Miss and about the same for the nmsu kid. I stand by what I said before. Golding has the players playing as hard as they can play for him. But, we are what we are, and he is the coach who had the luxury of fielding his team. It may get better next year. May.
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It's funny and ironic that sometimes the people (coaches) that should see what the layman sees they don't. I would love for him to honestly tell us what he saw was missing or will he just makes excuses for the players and most importantly "him". He needs to see the game as the spectator does and honestly there are spectators that know the game well because they study it or have played it at different levels and could teach him a thing or two. Some things that are so obvious that they're staring him in the face and he still misses it, you know like when you're looking for some contraption or product and it's right in front of your face and you still don't see it.
He's like the typical politician that only sees HIS viewpoint and screw anyone else.
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Golding had 10 players leave. Crazy year with the portal. But I now question it a little bit. Did they want to go or were they told that was best for them. Some of them made sense. Boum and Verhoeven got a chance to show their wares. But I tried to decide if the team got better or worse. Take Kalu, Sibley, and Onyema out of the mix as they were already there. You tell me.
Future
So, this is the team. I am very interested to see if everyone stays or goes. Keeping in mind that our schools are now feeder schools to the big 5, perhaps the measure of the team is if anyone else wants the players. Did anyone show that they should make the jump? That leaves me wondering if Golding runs them all off and tries again, or does he believe that if they all return, they will be better enough to win. I would ask you if you believe we have the talent on hand but just needed a year in order to win the conference championship, or will next year be another year of competing so that we can say we compete. It is unanimous. Everyone agrees that we need basketball players that can shoot-and make their shots. As far as I can figure, Givance was the only senior and that doesn't mean he leaves. So, do we even have openings for shooter(s)?
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At a minimum we need a news starting PG and SG.
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Givance was a Senior. Four point gpa working on his masters. Four years at Evansville. I think he has used up his eligibility, although I don't know what is what since covid.
Will be Seniors
Hardy G
Dos Anjos F
Zachary G
McKinney G
Solomon F
Juniors
Lemus G
Sibley F
Kalu F
Levesque G
Onyema F
Frazier F
Hamilon F
Soph
Holmes G
RS Fresh
Sumlin G
The Transfer Portal is starting to pickup in numbers daily. I haven't seen any of these guys names yet and after the mass exodus last year I now think it was a clean slate set for Golding. I think he has Givance's replacement in Sumlin. Supposedly, Elijah Jones, a hs kid who committed to ECU transferred to UTEP at the beginning of Jan. But I don't know about that one.
Anyway, I think this is the team, basically for next year. But I am just guessing and my guess may not be as good as anybody else's.
As soon as I post this I find that KROD reported 2 days ago that Sibley has entered. They say there may be as many as five openings.
They also mentoned a bunch of possible players that might be ok and they are all being recruited by teams we used to consider lower level teams.
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McKinney was out in the middle of the season. Golding gave him his walking papers, because he was always giving attitude. What do you expect from a NM St Transfer. High maintenance, little shit.
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y'all saw that Onyema is transferring? I think the Golding experiment is over. I'm ready to try Hardaway
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I?m not sure we could get him at this point. We may now be below his starting level. But if we could it might be able to show that we want to compete and not just play. I?m afraid that would go against what ever we are trying to do at UTEP.