UTEP Mens Basketball Recruiting

[Chanson]

I'm starting this thread to list the comings/goings of the 2022/2023 roster.
Going:
Hollins- only had 1yr of eligibility.
Jamal Bieniemy. He built some good things here & I'm proud of him. I hope he represents his school well. I have a feeling Kennedy will be looking for a bigger opportunity at a Cartel school. We shall see. Anyway, we are down a productive PG. I'm sure Golding has prepared & being aggressive to find his replacement.
Coming:
Evans- 4☆ 6'5" SG
Dos Angos- 2☆ 6'7" SF
Hamilton- 2☆ 6'10" C

From the way Golding is recruiting & the way he plays, he doesn't have much use for a true PF. He is depending on length & speed. I'm also guessing he'll make room for good players. Maring, White, Giffa, & a few others may need to give up those schollies.
Also, lots of talk about getting the Newton brother's back to El Paso on Kappy's show. I'm not sure if it's just a pipe dream, but if Golding can pull that off, I would have to say he is just as good at recruiting as Terry was & we already know he is a better coach.
Let's see what Golding has in store for us.

[SisyphusMiner]

Cam appeared to have the ability to bring the ball up without turning it over, which was an upgrade over Giffa.  But a serious downgrade from JB.  Gotta bring in an experienced PG from JC or transfer

Hope Evans can shoot lights out and can create.

Sure wish we could pick up something better than a 2 star big.  As much as I like Z and Sibley's upside, I feel like the paint is still weak for us.

[Chanson]

Agree. I also think Golding needs to let Onyema & Kalu loose on the floor. I think we will be OK with those 3. The most important is the PG position. No one on our team should Start that position. We need 2 PG JUCO's.

[Chanson]

I was looking at some of the kids Golding has made offers to. He is looking at quick, ball handling scorers.
Golding got in trouble with the last 2 losses. The only kid who stepped up to score was Boum. He had no one else in those moments. JB & Kennedy were MIA on offense in the last 5min of each game.
In other words, he places more value in protecting the perimeter than the paint. I think it's smart. Playing a superior interior team can be fouled. A team can't afford to have high fouks on shooters. He's playing the odds.
Me like-ee.

[kyyote]

"Btw, did anyone read Goldings comments after the second to last game played?  He was pissed at players on the team, using the word "entitled" and he was going to find players who wanted to play.

I remember wondering where players were.  I think he may have been doing an even better job of herding cats than we even thought. "-me

I have yet to find his comments, but Bieniemy didn't disappear for the last five minutes of the game.  He didn't play.  A few days later I find out he is going pro.  Agnew started and played 33 minutes in his absence.  He had maybe his best game;
                             

min    fg     3       ft     reb   tot   pf      asst  to    blk   stl       pts Agnew,Christian   *   33   5-8   1-3   2-2   1-3   4   3   2   0   0   0   13

JB didn't play against WI, either.  Agnew started and played 25 minutes.

The last game JB played in was the OT game against MTU.

I thought at the time that it was Golding giving Agnew a chance to show his wares for transfer portal reasons, maybe.  But, I now know that there was a reason JB didn't play, Golding complaining, Agnew playing, and JB turning pro. 

As for Agnew, I think I feel him.  He is ok, but he is now playing against better players.  The only way to make up for it is to play harder.  That is great and all, but it doesn't give you skills you don't have and it means that you play a little out of control.  Good players eat up players who they can get out of control.  Having said that, Agnew played well enough in those two last games that I don't think we will be just in bad shape with Agnew there, maybe with Goldings tutelage over the summer. 

JB is gone, Agnew replaced him the last two games.  Questions answered.  The question is will Boum return to become a UTEP Hall of Fame player with his name up there in the rafters, or will he take a leap.  Maybe the question is, does he have to.  Has he done enough to have the attention of those in the know at the right levels for him to finish a season at the very top of his conference and they know what they need to know.  They have seen what BW did when he "stepped up" at Tech.  He dominated.  They know what they need to know.

[SisyphusMiner]

Funny, if Golding is building a team around highly active "tweeners", that would actually be the model that worked for Floyd at New Orleans and Iowa State.

On JB -- BW used to take not only plays off, but entire games off.  I thought he played "entitled".  He would turn up the intensity for a game he cared about like Kansas or Arizona, or a rival, then go back to not really trying all that hard.  At Tech he has put in full effort night after night and it shows.

I don't know if JB quite as obviously takes plays or games off, but there are times when his D is atrocious and it costs us.  Agnew at least puts 110% on the court every moment.

After seeing KK get hurt in the S Utah game, SB gotta be asking himself if there's value in another college season.

[SisyphusMiner]

With Golding apparently staying, and Tim Hardaway getting into the HOF, if Hardaway is genuinely interested in eventually becoming our HC, he would be a great hire as an assistant so he can learn how it all works.  We already have Earl Boykins, I know.

But if Tim was an assistant here for a few years I would be oK with elevating him when Golding left.

BTW, where do y'all think JB fits into the ranks of PGs post-Hardaway?  Not better than Prince, Fili, or Stone I would say.  Maybe 4th after them unless I'm forgetting someone?

[Minermojo]

It would be a loooonnnngggg shot if Hardaway would want to come coach at UTEP. It's been obvious all these years that he doesn't hold any allegiance to his old alma mater...not even to coach especially as an assistant, because you know...egos.

[SisyphusMiner]

Rumor was he very much wanted the HC job when we offered it to Golding.  If he wants it bad enough, he can be assistant.  If he doesn't want to be assistant then we move on.

[Chanson]

He was an asst coach for the Detroit Pistons. I don't think he should take any HC position at any school until he learns how to recruit.
Anyway, it looks like TV & Maring are transfering. I thank them both for there time at UTEP. I like this move, because it allows Golding to fill the big man position in his image.

[Minermojo]

I agree Chans, those two were okay players but not the kind that builds championship teams. There will be two new scholarship openings.

[kyyote]

I felt like Hamilton at 6?10? was a clue two weeks ago. I figured TV and Maring would be gone. So, Hollins and TV are gone from the front line. Let?s take a look at on hand replacements. Onyema and Sibley step up. Offensively I think we end up ahead. Defensively I think maybe we lose a little but maybe not. TV and Hollins were at their best but youngins are getting better. Losing JB is like going back to a year before when he couldn?t find his shot. It means we are down a gun. Agnew will replace him. I think an off-season under Golding will help Agnew tremendously and help him play more controlled chaos than his crazy train wildness. So far, when you throw in a sharpshooter from sdsu maybe, things start looking just fine. I hope we can hold what we have and Golding can pull a diamond out of somewhere.

[SisyphusMiner]

God forbid Agnew is our PG.

Is Kennedy gone.  He could play PG

[kyyote]

Agnew started and played 33 and 25 minutes in place of JB the final two games. He played probably the best I saw him play this season. He played a more controlled game and was much more in the normal flow of the game. Would I rather have seen JB playing? Yes. But Agnew actually looked fine in the two games. I was shocked!  I will admit it, but he looked like the player he had been before UTEP.

UTEP 80

##   Player   GS   MIN   FG   3PT   FT   ORB-DRB   REB   PF   A   TO   BLK   STL   PTS 03   Kennedy,Keonte   *   35   8-15   4-9   2-3   2-13   15   1   1   4   2   2   22 00   Boum,Souley   *   39   7-13   2-5   4-4   0-12   12   1   10   3   1   1   20 12   Sibley,Jamari   *   27   5-9   1-4   0-0   1-5   6   3   2   1   1   0   11 01   Verhoeven,Tydus*   24   4-7   0-0   2-4   0-1   1   2   0   0   1   0   10 02   Agnew,Christian   *   25   2-4   0-1   1-1   1-2   3   3   4   2   0   0   5 00   Boum,Souley   *   36   8-19   5-11   4-5   1-0   1   2   3   0   1   3   25 03   Kennedy,Keonte   *   35   6-19   1-7   2-2   4-4   8   0   2   1   0   1   15 02   Agnew,Christian   *   33   5-8   1-3   2-2   1-3   4   3   2   0   0   0   13 15   Hollins,Alfred   *   16   2-3   0-1   0-0   0-1   1   0   0   0   0   1   4 01   Verhoeven,Tydus*   26   0-4   0-0   2-2   1-4   5   0   2   3   1   2   2

I think Kennedy was so much better slashing and rebounding and allowing Agnew to calm the Hell down and facilitate.  I don't know.  Notice that Agnew was 7/12 from the field and 1/4 from 3 pt land in 58 minutes on the floor.  Who would have believed it?  And 7 rebounds and 18 points!  Six assists and 2 turn overs.

JB's lines for the last two games he played;
Bieniemy,Jamal   *   35   4-11   2-6   3-4   0-5   5   0   7   0   1   0   13
Bieniemy,Jamal   *   43   6-17   1-6   0-0   0-2   2   4   3   4   0   1   13

The last game was the OT game.  Compare Agnew's 58 minutes to JB's 78 minutes.  Agnew 7/12 and 10/28 for JB in fg's.  Agnew 1/4 and JB 3/12 from beyond the arc.  Agnew 7 rebounds and 18 pts, JB 7 rebounds 26 points.  Six assists and two to's to JB's 10 assists and 4 turn overs.  The more I look at it the better I feel about it, actually.

[SisyphusMiner]

not saying Agnew is bad when he's in control, but he's not a PG.

I'm concerned about Hamilton's ability to defend.  CJG has his bigs flare out really high on the ballhandler on picks and then they have to sprint back to cover their man on the roll.  This is the main thing Maring couldn't seem to figure out.  Hamilton does not appear to be more mobile than Maring.