basketball

[Chanson]

Last night against Rice was an odd game for the Miners. While we won, it was very ugly. That Pierre kid looked like he should have been playing for a Pro Team. It wasn't until the last 10min that the Miners decided to protect the perimeter. I will say this, that defense the Miners put forth in those last 10-15min was incredible. Rice depends on the Pick n Roll & the Miners were quick with transitions & pressuring the shooter. I just wish they could have figured it out sooner.

Golding- Did OK. He made changes just in time to secure a win, but should have recognized it starting the 2nd half. He'll need to make adjustment a lot quicker against N TX.
Verho- Rice's 7' had a dbl/dbl & gave him big problems. Barley contributing on O.
Onyema- so athletic & did more with less time. Had 2 monster dunks & a block or 2. Still learning. I like this kid a lot.
Maring- Yikes
Sibley- Still has confidence issues & seems confused at times. Golding coaching him a lot.  I need to keep reminding myself he is just a FR
Hollins- Great minutes used. He did the little things that counted (D, scoring, ast, Reb, etc.)
Kennedy- So glad he is back. This kid is out best rounded player.
Agnew- played hard as always, but needs to control his wrecklessness. Needs to stay under 10min a game.
Saterfield- D is getting better, but needs to shoot more. Needs to be much quicker & study how to get open by the likes of Curry, Reg Miller, etc.
Boum- needed to turn it on in late 1st half. He was defended well, because Rice has really quick guards. Was our savior once again.
JB- Great job. Kept the team together & was the difference maker.

Miners got outrebounded again, but won because of higher FG%, steals, & 5 blocks. This was a game where we could have used a decent Forward. Rice won in the paint, while out taller guards had the edge o there smaller quick guards. If Miners had forwards that could drive & hit from mid range, it would have been a 15pt win differential.

[SisyphusMiner]

Thanks for this.  There was no video and I only got to listen to about half.  I will also miss the Sat game

[Chanson]

WOW!! The best Miner win of the season happened to be the last game of the regular season. What an effort. Miners were tied 0-0 & never tied or fell behind the rest of the game. In other words, it was a beat down. IMO, Kennedy was the missing link.
Golding- Refused to be outcoached. Had a great plan against the Pick n Roll & the 3. By the time UNT figured out how to slow UTEP down, it was too late. Fouling a bad FT team was a fantastic strategy.
JB- Once again held the team together. 8pts, 5rebs, & 4ast. He also controlled against the best defensive team in CUSA (IMO)
Boum- Took over in the end as always. Played killer D all day. Strategy is get Boum going w/10min to go. Other team is tired & has no choice but to foul. 22pts & tied for most Miner Rebs with JB at 5.
Agnew- Played 5min & was only in for D. He plays best in these situations. Any more than 10min & his wrecklessness is too much.
Saterfield- play 1min & did nothing. UNT would have chewed him up.
Kennedy- Bravo young man. 17pts & 4rebs. Was a beast on D & looked like the best player on the floor. Shut down the perimeter.
Hollins- Had some key rebounds, but UNT seemed too much for him. Had 1pt. Ugh
Sibley- Took him a while to settle down, but UNTs mistake was to play him small. Well...he got 11pts out of it & he's not known to do dbl figures.
Onyema- played hard & had 1 monster dunks. Played about 10min & he gets better every time he plays.
TV- I thought he played OK. Had 9pts & 3rebs, but Bell had his number even though he is a smaller player. Needs to clean up his game on O & take care of the freaking rock.

Because of this huge win, no one wants to play UTEP.
On to Old Dominion. Personally, I hope all the teams leaving CUSA lose. We shall see.

[kyyote]

A sweet little peck on UNT's cheek.  Bless your little hearts, and don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you.  So much for UNT's at large bid.  Now we just need to win the damned cusa tournament to set the stage for a new group.

[SisyphusMiner]

Seems like we are peaking at the right time
Who is the final four in CUSA tournament do you think?

[ATL-Miner]

What a great win! It's been exciting watching this team grow as the season has gone on. Something we haven't seen here in years. Gotta love Golding and what he's done to get so many players involved and coaching them up to get the most out of them. Couldn't be happier for these players who stuck it out thru the Terry years and actually get a good coach to work with them. All these guys seem to have improved over the year and that's what you want is to get better during the season.

Our margin of error is still pretty small for us to win and a few need to shore up their game. Tydus still makes too many turnovers and not enough rebounds. But he did hit a couple of clutch free throws down the stretch. Sibley is gaining confidence. Hollins has made some significant contributions. Guys still need to fill their roles for us to win. Having Keonte back has been a huge lift for everyone. Let's hope they come out Weds and get a win.   

[Chanson]

So...I was at a dinner with a client all night & couldn't check scores until I got in my car just a few moments ago. I am so pumped TV had his best game & was 1 rebound away from a dbl/dbl.
Sis or anyone who saw the game, please give a breakdown of the game, coaching, & players.
WE FREAKING WON.

[SisyphusMiner]

I did not get to attend, but I did watch the whole thing.  I hope to attend tonight

Golding put together a good game plan and the team executed.  In a surprising move, he started Z, who responded with an alley oop dunk to score our first points.  This set the tone.  We were never behind, I believe. 

Pretty much everyone played within themselves.  We defended better than usual for most of the game. Late, we got tired I guess and started allowing dribble penetration -- usual suspects defensively.  It certainly helped that ODU couldn't hit the ocean from a rowboat but I do think our D had something to do with that.  most shots were contested, not a lot of wide open 3s.

TV played with confidence, and it was really nice to see.  Offensively, defensively, rebounds, he had a solid game.
Boum was efficient but turnover prone as always. Box score shows 2 TO but it was at least 4.
JB was JB.  Just quietly and efficiently runs the team.  7 assists, 0 turnovers.
Kennedy played very well.  His addition has been the difference maker for us
Hollins had an off game.
Agnew didn't play much but contributed defensively.

Z is so athletic and has the mindset that the paint belongs to him and why are you in his house?  I think he contributed more than his stat line shows.  As he continues to learn and progress he could be a great one for us

[Chanson]

It was a valiant effort. MTSU was long, fast, & didn't allow any lanes for driving or passing. I think the Miners put too much of a beating on them to advance.
Great season to the end. Golding builds his kids to fight & endure. Our future looks bright.

[SisyphusMiner]

I was at this one.  The arena was nice.  It's the Cowboys practice facility converted to allow two courts separated by a curtain.  All seating on one side.  Really no bad seats.

Lots of Miner fans, and a pretty decent MTSU turnout as well.

We came out flat, passive and tentative.  Lots of standing around, no movement.  Lots of one on five.  Basically, lots of CRT offense.  Our defense was good, sometimes very good. 

MTSU came out with a game plan to take Boum out of the game and it worked.  Our guys never gave up, they fought back.  At the end of the game it sure looked to me like Kennedy got fouled.

Officiating was awful as always.  Same thing I always complain about -- one minute they are calling a ticky tack foul, next minute some guy gets mugged and no call.  There's just no consistency.  For the last 5 minutes of the game our plan was for Boum Bienemy and Kennedy to drive and draw fouls and they totally swallowed their whistles.  I thought coach was gonna get teed up at the end of regulation.

Bienemy -- not a great game for him, but not horrible either.  He's a pretty consistent player.  Got beat sometimes.
Boum -- Really an awful game for him.  2 FTs all night.  1-6 from 3.  pretty poor defensively.  Basically did nothing the whole first half
Kennedy -- also shot poor but mostly played good D and teams leading rebounder.
Verhoeven -- Decent night but he's gotta stop dribbling so much in the paint.  If you can't get it in a couple dribbles it's time to pass.
Sibley -- hit a nice three and played good defense but didn't get rebounds.
Z -- decent defense, did not contribute in any other meaningful way
Hollins -- maybe needed more minutes?
Agnew -- totally out of control, didn't play great D either


Will be interesting to see who returns and who leaves.  For us to win with Golding's D, we have to have guards that can stay between their guy and the basket to prevent drives.  MTSU has them and Golding would have killed us with those guards.

I suppose with the extra year of eligibility the question for these guys is whether moving up or down helps them, or in the case of guys that have graduated, do they just go play overseas?

What do I hope happens?

Bienemy -- please come back. we need you
Boum -- TBH I'm kinda meh.
Kennedy -- Want to see more Kennedy
Verho -- Solid contributor, need his maturity inside. Saw him coaching up Z by the way
Z -- Think he has a great future if he keeps at it.
Sibley -- Look out next year.  Really want to see him as he develops.

Satterfield -- can shoot but that's it.  Does coach think he can learn to play within an offense and a defense?
Agnew -- would be best served by moving down

With the rest, I haven't seen enough to really have a strong opinion whether they have what it takes.  Obviously you have guys on the roster that are mainly there for practice purposes.




 

[Chanson]

Couldn't have said it any better, Sis.
We couldn't hit any shots. Every Miner had their worst offensive game. MTSU had something to do with that. If there sharp shooter was playing, it would not have been close.
I would love to see all the starters come back, but that is not realistic.
To tell you the truth, no matter who leaves, the blueprint of this program is much stronger than any kid. CRTs only blueprint was to bring in talent. I'm glad he realized early that he would be best as an Assistant & a recruiter than a head coach.
The kids I really want to develop Herr are Onyema, Sibley, & Saterfield. Those 3 have a high ceiling. The kids at high risk of leaving are Boum, JB, & Kennedy. The tough one to lose would be JB, however, that position is the one there are lots of options for. The tough one to replace is the scoring talent & speed of Boum. If he goes, the strategy of the program must be tweeked on O. I'm really not all that worried. What I am worried about is if Golding can bring in some rebounders. I think this team would have been dancing if we had an OK rebounding system to go with our defense.

What ever happens, I know Golding will give us a good product.

[SisyphusMiner]

KROD  has a nice post-mortem

https://krod.com/grading-the-2021-22-utep-basketball-season-miners-achieve-milestones-in-year-one-under-golding/

[Chanson]

I'd have to agree with that article. In addition, I feel if players are going to stay, they will play some post tournament. If a few kids list in the portal, then Golding would rather use that time to recruit. Good to know where we stand early on.

[SisyphusMiner]

LA Tech beat UNT 42-36

I had to double check I wasn't picking up some old football score

[SisyphusMiner]

Once again KROD has a nice article summing up best and worst case scenarios for transfer.

They seem to be of the opinion that Bienemy is staying in either scenario.

https://krod.com/exploring-the-best-and-worst-scenarios-for-utep-mens-basketball/