UTEP (12/28/17)

[CMJ]

Sorry fellas....haven't been able to tune in till now.  Game going down to the wire.

[Sig381]

Feel like for the first time all the calls are going our way 

[CMJ]

North Texas 63 ------ UTEP 62

 

Final

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

Good first conference win. Might be a down year for UTEP, but I'll take it.

[CMJ]

We nearly lost that at the buzzer.  I really don't know how it all went before this so I'll have to read the recaps.  However, any win in El Paso is good as far as I am concerned.

[Greendylan]

Remember how long it took last season to get our first conference win?

[Harry]

Great win!

[GrandGreen]

Frazier almost won it for them.   Smart with a mere 29.  Any victory is good in El Paso. 

[CMJ]

Smart is gonna be legendary if he keeps this up.

[Cooley]

Roosevelt Smart, Roosevelt Smart, Roosevelt Smart. Temara was hot early. Nothing from the bench. Bad UTEP team.

[Green Lantern]

Great way to start conference play! They said on the broadcast we hadn’t won in El Paso since 1951. Had lost 9 in a row going into this one. GMG!

Edited December 29, 2017 by Green Lantern

[CaribbeanGreen]

UTEP has been playing well since Floyd left and were a 2 point home favorite. I'll happily take this! #GMG

[TreeFiddy]

UNT Basketball slowly be like: 

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

The game @ UTSA looking to be a good one. 

[EagleMBA]

A one-point win...on the road...at altitude...I'll take it every time!

Now on to low-altitude San Antonio and get ready to give nUTSAck the "TreeFiddy treatment"!

[meangreenJW]

This team is finding ways to win. Still rough in spots but making progress every game. Impressive.

[BillySee58]

Way to get a win on the road when we didn't seem to play that well outside of Smart. 3 of our next 4 road games (UTSA, Rice, La Tech, Southern Miss) are very winnable, so glad to see us showing we can pull them out on the road. Taking care of these road games against beatable teams early on would be huge for building momentum. As was this game.

[Matt from A700]

A Benford-coached team does not pull out a close victory like this on the road in conference play.

[Shark84]

McCasland said after the game that once we start hitting free throws this team will really take off. Got to get Duffy and Miller contributing. Only 6 bench points tonight. Already matched last year's 8 wins. GMG! 

[meangreenJW]

Phil Johnson should get like 1/3 of a win. Because those 2 technicals he got may have cost his team the game.

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

2 hours ago, Cooley said:

Roosevelt Smart, Roosevelt Smart, Roosevelt Smart. Temara was hot early. Nothing from the bench. Bad UTEP team.

Concerned about the bench but good thing about college basketball is the games are short and these guys are young. You can afford to keep your key players out there for a while. Seems like one of Bedford's problem was over utilizing the bench. I remember JJ teams when bench players didn't see much action. 

[GrandGreen]

Best thing about this game was it was a win, although as close as possible, accomplished with less than average performances by most of the team.  

Smart made up for his lackluster game against Georgetown in an amazing way.   Temara continues to impress.   However, I thought Lawson, Woolridge, Duffy and Simmons all had sub-par games.   The team excluding Temara and Smart was 8-29 shooting and that has to improve.   Also again other than Smart, free throw shooting was abysmal. 

UTEP may not be a great team, but they definitely have some athletes and a lot of size.   NT did a good job on Frazier, those threes he made in the last minutes were just great low percentage shoots.  

[MeanGreen_MBA]

8 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Best thing about this game was it was a win, although as close as possible, accomplished with less than average performances by most of the team.  

Smart made up for his lackluster game against Georgetown in an amazing way.   Temara continues to impress.   However, I thought Lawson, Woolridge, Duffy and Simmons all had sub-par games.   The team excluding Temara and Smart was 8-29 shooting and that has to improve.   Also again other than Smart, free throw shooting was abysmal. 

UTEP may not be a great team, but they definitely have some athletes and a lot of size.   NT did a good job on Frazier, those threes he made in the last minutes were just great low percentage shoots.  

I like we can still win without playing our best.  We would have folded in the past.  Sign of a team that will not give up

[VideoEagle]

I don't care the UTEP is having a down year - we won in El Paso for the first time in a really, REALLY long time. We got our first conference win in our first game as opposed to weeks later as we have the last few years. 

McCasland is getting MUCH better results. Now, don't expect miracles*, but finishing a few games over .500 is very likely this year. 

 

* Oldtimers will recognize that phrase!

[Shark84]

13 hours ago, meangreenJW said:

Phil Johnson should get like 1/3 of a win. Because those 2 technicals he got may have cost his team the game.

We definitely got a break. He shouldn't have gotten tossed. He was correct, the shot clock shouldn't have reset after the block. Must have said the magic words!