UNM game thoughts

[SisyphusMiner]

Defense wins another game where offense was struggling.

Lathon -- Offense just stagnates when he's not in there.
Boum -- Can handle the ball OK offensively, but can't generate offense from point.  Again, needs to slow down and let the game happen naturally.
Williams -- the man
Efe -- Most efficient player in terms of production / minute
Vila -- Just seems off.  Had 4 rebounds and 3 assists.  But when he's off, the offense is off
Edwards -- Seems to be the emotional heart of this team.  A couple really really bad plays every game.  Not enough to be the difference, but would be nice if he could eliminate them.
Stroud -- I thought he played well defensively and I am starting to think maybe he should be taking minutes from Boum.  Seemed like he passed up some shots he should have taken.
Hawkins -- Doesn't do anything too stupid, but also doesn't generate much.  Not sure why he gets more minutes than Stroud.

Takeaways:
MUST figure out what to do when Lathon isn't in there.  We just can't continue to stagnate when he's sitting.  Can Boum step it up a notch without getting out of control?  He's borderline out of control all the time anyway.

Need to figure out what to do about Vila's spot when he's struggling.  Would like to put Efe in the paint and move Williams to Vila's role, but I don't think we can afford to have them both out there at the same time due to fouls.  I don't think we can move Vila to the paint, and don't know if we can put that many minutes on Verhoeven?  Can Archie fill that role?  We'd be playing with a pretty small lineup at that point.

Defense will win us some games we shouldn't win on paper.  Offense may lose us some games...

Final note -- This guy for Albuquerque is a good sports writer.  El Paso sports writers should take note:  https://www.abqjournal.com/1393580/emptying-the-notebook-lobos-lose-at-utep.html

[SisyphusMiner]

I just watched Terry's post game show and he talked about Boum a bit:

We haven't seen his real capabilities yet.
He has to learn to initiate offense from point.
UNM went into a zone and Boum hasn't played against a zone at point as a Miner and didn't really know how to attack.
He says at some point in the season Boum will be automatic from 3 when he's open.

So he seems really high on Boum.

[Alaska Miner]

Great game, last night!
I will say that even though the crowd was smaller than the Aggie game, it definitely seemed LOUDER.
I truly hope El Paso takes note, and starts packing the Don.  This team is something special.  We haven't seen this in a while.

As for the negative, I know that all of us in the stands (at least where I was) were getting extremely frustrated at the lack of working the ball in under the basket, and how content the Miners were to just fire away threes.  Really no excuse for that, especially at home in a close game, but perhaps playing against a zone defense was the issue.  Not sure, but in any event, that needs to get fixed... because their defense may not always save them.

Overall, WHAT A GAME! That was definitely a memorable one!
I am super stoked about the possibilities for this team, if they get their offense a little more buttoned-down.  But I LOOOOVE the defense they play!
Just as the sports writer mentioned above said, the Miners are so far, the State of New Mexico basketball champs this year! LOL
If you haven't been to the Don for a game, get out there!!  Let's keep this enthusiasm the rest of this season!!
Go MINERS!!!

[Minermojo]

That was a great job of assessing the game and the players Sisy, you definitely get into coaching. I've always said that the coach with common sense will become a good one. Common sense is very important and if you insist on doing things that aren't working then you don't have it. Coach Dismal is a good example of that. I'm surprised actually that he played someone else at QB other than the two that suck. At least it shows that finally he's getting his head out but that's FB and I'm getting out of subject.

Good job Sisy.

[SisyphusMiner]

Thank you.  If I didn't like getting engineers salary I would have loved to coach high school basketball.

One other thing I noticed was that I thought the game was poorly officiated.  In particular, a lot of calls came from refs that were not the ones in position to make the call.  So the baseline ref would decline to call a foul and a ref from the other side of the court would blow the whistle.