basketball

[Chanson]

Golding is heavy on JUCO kids. I've been thinking about this new Era of the Portal & it might be in our best interest to not recruit Highschool. Think about it. Why pick up a 2☆ or 3☆ & train them for someone else's team. The portal offers kids that are already trained to play beyond High School. All our kids with the exception of Onyema are from the portal.

[SisyphusMiner]

I don't think I really understand the rules.

Kids that went to a D1 school can enter the transfer portal once, but can't transfer out from their new schools?
Juco kids that sign with a D1 can't transfer out?

Graduate transfer is unchanged from what it used to be?

[Minermojo]

Good point Chanson and I agree 100% with you. It's totally unfair to the school (usually a G5) that trains an athlete and then taking that pedigree to a Cartel. Screw the Cartel just leave us the bench warmers for us to take. That's usually the way it works right. Many bench warmers are better than the first stringers in a G5 school. Now, that I think of it it works both ways, or am I wrong to assume that?

[Chanson]

This game is brutal. S. Utah is hitting 56% FG. Unreal. 8min mark. Doesn't look good

[Chanson]

5min left. I'm leaving. Miners can't defend today.

[SisyphusMiner]

Well, we end with 20 wins.  Now we move to off-season drama of who's staying, leaving, and coming.  This could be an entirely different team next year.

I don't want us to have to start over, but these guys don't know how to run an offense, and get brutally beaten on back door cuts all the time.  At times you could see Golding O and D, and at times you saw Terry ball.   I'm looking forward to seeing 100% Golding ball and see how it looks.

Golding gets a B+ I think.  He took the Terry squad that went 12-12, only without Bryson Williams, and won 20.  Only reason I'm not giving him an A is he couldn't get consistency from these guys.  Not one guy was a consistent high level contributor.  Closest maybe Bienemy.

We really need Bienemy back, although I guess Kennedy could play point.  I'll be honest, I'm a bit down on Boum.  I think the team defers to him too much, and he scores on volume.  I love TV's heart, and we're better with him in, but he can't score or rebound, and that's kind of a problem.  Love Agnew's heart, and he had his best game of the year last night.  But he is a turnover prone role player.

So, I think of the guards we really need to keep Bienemy and I'd like to keep Kennedy.  I'd like to keep Onyema and Sibley for the future.  I'd be OK with keeping Kalu if Golding thinks he can develop and learn.  Beyond that, I'd just as soon start seeing Golding build a Golding team and see what happens.  If it's even possible to build more than a 1 year team anymore.

[Chanson]

Yup. Not very many set plays. For the faults KY mentioned, I would give Golding an A-. However, he lost to NMSU twice. That brings it down to a B+.
I think there are only 3 players that can get picked up by a good Cartel team. Kennedy, Boum, & JB. All others who want to go won't get into a program as nice as UTEP.
I agree with KY in that JB is the key. We really need him to lead this team next season & to train the newbie PG.
Boum is being pulled by overseas pro opportunities. I know he has a great relationship with Golding. This one is 50/50 in my book. He is a good option when No one else can produce.
Kennedy may be gone. I will miss his hustle & defending. I think he can develop into a good scorer, but he was inconsistent with that this year. With Golding calling the shots on D, I think we will be fine if Kennedy goes.
TV is a good defender. He had a couple of games where he scored some, but not enough.
I would be happy if the core of JB, Sibley, & Onyema stayed. Keeping Boum would be a bonus.
So get out there, Joe, & recruit your ass off.

[SisyphusMiner]

I loved that one play where Onyema got the ball in the paint, double teamed, and just powered up for the dunk.  We have been missing that for a long time, and I think it's a glimpse of his future.  Lots and lots of upside there in my opinion.  Sibley also has tremendous upside and could be a better 4 than BW by the time he's done if he can gain some confidence and some muscle.  Really excited about these two.

[Minermojo]

If we can get some good players that ARE CONSISTENT that will be the key to a successful season next year. I was very frustrated at how sometimes these kids could play lights out (by beating some of the best teams in Cusa) and then getting beat by the likes of Marshall. It was frustrating to see that they couldn't make some really easy shots like their layups and it seemed like they always got beaten in rebounding. If Midas can get those players I mentioned then he can develop them into his team.

I give him a strong B and his team a C because of how badly inconsistent they were. I can only imagine where they could have gone if in every game they played the same, not the bad same but the surprising same where it seemed that they just couldn't miss a shot.

[kyyote]

I think it is hard to imagine what kinds of problems and frustration CG was going through trying to find a team amongst the players at the same time he was dealing with a merry go round of illness and injury. Every day had to have begun with asking who was available. When we had two scorers in Boum and JB the team was scrappy. When Kennedy came back and added the third scorer we were downright dangerous. Not having all three killed us against SU.

[Chanson]

A buddy told me Golding is part of a short list for SMU position. Not sure what buy out is, but if he takes it, we lose kids to the portal & any recruiting that went on. It would really put UTEP in a hole. $2mil for the job. How does one not take that kind of money?

[SisyphusMiner]

Yeah, I'd be disappointed but I wouldn't begrudge him.  And yes, we'd be in a lot of trouble.

[SisyphusMiner]

If he leaves, then I still have the same criteria as last time.  Replacement has to have been a head coach at college level.  There is too much that a college head coach needs to handle for anyone to be learning at UTEP. 

[kyyote]

"Lesson 4.  If a coach leaves because he has been bought by a cartel member, the team should be in great shape and the new coach should be able to sustain at least and build upon the success.  There should be no backsliding."-me

Golding makes 700k/year and buyout is 1.5 million.  We found Golding for 700k.  We can't really do anything but take the money-a finder's fee basically.  We need to do two things with the 1.5 million.  One, we have to find another coach-preferably one that can make us money just like Golding did.  Secondly, we need to make the profit pay off for us and not squander it. 

We could look for another diamond in the rough.  I haven't really looked too hard, but I think Abilene Christian is pretty danged good this year, again.  I think that Golding may have taught me something about head basketball coaches.  Same as a guy named Haskins a long time ago.  Great old coaches get beat by great young coaches.  But that doesn't put that profit to work.  Don't forget that we are in a battle for our conference affiliation survival.  We need to double the salary we paid Golding.  It is free money we didn't have and we can't lose by spending it.  However, the minute we sign the 1.25million dollar coach it shows a commitment to improve.  The extra 250k can go to assistant coaches that come with the higher paid step-up coach.

[Chanson]

Doesn't look like Golding will be leaving us at this time. He won't be here forever, so we need to support this guy while he is here.
I'll be doing my best to keep track of who is coming & going.