Just curious as to your fans' thoughts. Hosting is a great opportunity. You have a great coach and some really good players. I'm looking at this as what I perceive (correct me if I am wrong) as a short-benched team having to play two games in 24-hours (should you take care of ECU/UTSA) and play us. On the road in a tough environment at your house is a tough draw, but with our deep rotation and constant defensive pressure, I'm hoping home court is evened out by bench strength.

If any local papers are doing UTEP or tournament previews, please post. Good luck in hosting. Hope it's a good tournament draw with exciting games.

I think the only issue is, whether Cooper can go... He has done well for the most part... Miners have a good solid rotation for bigs, I wouldn't be shocked to see the Miners win it all. Yet, I wouldn't be shocked to see ECU/UTSA knock them out either... It depends on how bad they want this... They are young, and should have the drive to play back to back type games.

No lack of depth is not what concerns me, it's having to play four games in a row to win which would be a tiring thing to do. UTEP seemed to be doing so well after winning 7 games in a row that I thought for sure they would finish in the top four to receive that double bye in the tournament. But UTEP ends up finishing just one damn place behind to not receive that double bye. What happened? That buzzer beater from FAU put UTEP in this position. Add to that Isaac Hamilton chose to turn his back on Tim Floyd and UTEP fans added with UTEP losing three players to that gambling scandal. It seems to me that in the end UTEP and UTEP fans got screwed out in the end. Some blame that FAU buzzer beater but I believe had Isaac Hamilton came UTEP would be at the top of the standings perhaps having won the regular season with the #1 seed in the tournament. We can only imagine what could have been.

(03-08-2014 01:59 PM)shyminer Wrote:  I think the only issue is, whether Cooper can go... He has done well for the most part... Miners have a good solid rotation for bigs, I wouldn't be shocked to see the Miners win it all. Yet, I wouldn't be shocked to see ECU/UTSA knock them out either... It depends on how bad they want this... They are young, and should have the drive to play back to back type games.

You hit the nail right on the head Shy, Cooper is the key to UTEP winning any of the games left. It sucks because I am not a fan of his and to depend on this streaky kid is hair pulling frustration. Having watched the UTEP losses , specifically USM and Tulsa, Cooper had two wretched games (2/9,2/5)and they basically had 4 guys in the paint. Floyd is a great coach, having said that, we still tried to go to the paint where it was sometimes 1 vs 3, 1 vs 4 often times it was maddening. This is where our rebounding is nullified since we cant make layups. Dissapointed Floyd could not figure out USM press, we never had a problem with it before that game.I know Washburn and Flaggert can occasionaly hit an outside jumper but for the most part we depend way to much on buckets in the paint. I would rather UTEP at least try to hit a few outside shots and try to get the defense to spread out, something, anything except the dump down low all the time. If Cooper/Washburn hit outside shots, even 5 for 10 stats we can beat almost anybody.

I wasnt a fan of Streeter either because of his streaky play but at least he could drive past players and go to the line. Next year we will have the gaurds to break presses and most importanly bring the outside shot allowing our bigs to dominate the paint. We need to get very lucky to win 2 and have a lottery type chance to win this thing. Im hoping for the best, but a big HELL NO to any tournament except NIT. We dont play mickey mouse tournaments , much less brag about them.

El Paso Times Tourney Preview:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/sports/ci_253...tournament

Agree with all Miner fans above.

My biggest concern is whether our lone PG has the legs to play back-to-back-to-back-to-back games.

if UTEP doesn't make it all the way, then I gotta put on some Black n Gold gear on. My wish list to take the autobid is:

UTEP- Obvious Reasons
USM- Their fans deserve it, and they have the team to make a run in the NCAA
UAB/Marshall/Rice- These teams relate to UTEP
Charlotte/ODU- My new favorite new comer programs which I envision rivalries with
UNT/UTSA- Texas schools
Anyone else.....

Yup, the games that we have struggled with are the games where smaller guards have gotten the best of our big guys.

You could say we do lack depth at the guard position. Our 6-7, 6-8 wingmen are very good. But if we are going to make a run, they are going to have to play stellar.

When our 6-2 PG CJ Cooper is connecting from the 3point line, and when 6-7 Julian Washburn is hitting 3's from the outside as well, we become a very dangerous team because of our strong inside game.

BUT, I've noticed that we have lost games when CJ and the rest of the guys are not hitting from the outside. We become one-dimensional.

We are a great defensive team, but we have struggled against the quicker smaller guards, ex: FAU, Tulsa, So Miss.

So yes, our lack of guards on the bench can be an issue, but if we are to be successful in the tourney, our big guys are gonna have to play good smothering D against the quicker guards of CUSA. And we are gonna have to shoot well from beyond the arc.

In a nutshell. Yes. Very much so.

(03-08-2014 05:40 PM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  UTEP- Obvious Reasons
USM- Their fans deserve it, and they have the team to make a run in the NCAA
UAB/Marshall/Rice- These teams relate to UTEP
Charlotte/ODU- My new favorite new comer programs which I envision rivalries with
UNT/UTSA- Texas schools
Anyone else.....

Hey just take care of USM for us, then you can lay an egg in game three. That way you can almost guarantee "Anyone else..." wins the whole thing (MTSU, LaTech, Tulsa)