Texas El Paso (3/2/14)

[emmitt01]

UTEP 74

NT 54

Final

Cue Andrew and the "Benford can't do EVERYTHING" posts, followed closely by "All we have to do is make a run in the conference tournament based on my wild-ass conjecture"

[UNTFan23]

We will beat UTEP. I can feel it.

Maybe in some alternate universe.

[foutsrouts]

And here I was dreaming of 17-13* and 8-8. I'm heartbroken.

[BillySee58]

Cue Andrew and the "Benford can't do EVERYTHING" posts, followed closely by "All we have to do is make a run in the conference tournament based on my wild-ass conjecture"

[Andrew]

Oh well there is always Thursday. You won't win any games if you shoot 16 for 66. I think UTEP might win it all (in conference). They will be out home, with a good crowd, and they have some big boys.

UTEP had mismatches almost across they hoard from the tip. Benford should have tried a larger lineup of course seeing Colman and Gaines on the floor at the same time might have not helped either. Number 41 for UTEP is very good for a freshmen, for 7-1 that kid is very coordinated. We got out played and shoot poorly plain and simple. It was tough to watch but I am sure tougher for everyone who was involved. Let's go get Tulsa on Thursday. If we lose to Tulsa and in the first round of the tourney then let's talk Benford seeing the door. Let's try to finish strong Thursday.

[golfingomez]

sounds like we just got our asses kicked by a better team...

[Andrew]

Cue Andrew and the "Benford can't do EVERYTHING" posts, followed closely by "All we have to do is make a run in the conference tournament based on my wild-ass conjecture"

We won't be make a conference run at all without a bye... I think it's UTEPS to loose but if not UNT I will be pulling for La Tech.

[BillySee58]

I think UTEP might win it all (in conference). They will be out home, with a good crowd, and they have some big boys.

And again with the justifying our loss by hyping up the other team. I'm glad you can always spew this after we lose to good teams, because that's what'll continue to happen while Benford is here.

Sure, we'll win some games against bottom-rung and some middle-of-the-pack CUSA teams, but lose to every team worth a darn. At least next year. In 2015-2016, after our 7 current juniors leave, who knows who we'll be able to beat with a roster made up completely of Benford signees. Likely at least half of which will be signed after the early signing period.

[Andrew]

And again with the justifying our loss by hyping up the other team. I'm glad you can always spew this after we lose to good teams, because that's what'll continue to happen while Benford is here.

Sure, we'll win some games against bottom-rung and some middle-of-the-pack CUSA teams, but lose to every team worth a darn. At least next year. In 2015-2016, after our 7 current juniors leave, who knows who we'll be able to beat with a roster made up completely of Benford signees. Likely at least half of which will be signed after the early signing period.

I had never seen them play. They are very large. Not trying to hype them but number 41 is a good pick up for UTEP all the way out of Canada. I have hyped 4 teams this year if your claiming this... Oklahoma (was top 25 ranked), BYU (a bubble team for the tournament), SFA (two losses I think and going to the dance), and UTEP for is very large. All four teams have a chance of going to the big dance... If all four two will you then get off my back? I never ran around going whoop we beat FIU and they were tough... Or whoop we lost to Idaho but man they are a great team...

[Andrew]

I just wish someone would have anything constructive to say like:

Benford lost from the beginning when he played a smaller line up. That makes sense and that is on the coaching, instead people just want to complain for the sake of complaining just for a lose. Try blaming Benford for that. That is his job and he did fail in that regard tonight. I think he tried to go small thinking we could get them in transition but we had few opportunities to get out and run because UTEP shot well and was also all over the boards. Was that difficult? That is one reason we lost and that is Benford's fault. But no just keeping blaming him for a lose without a reason... There is a good reason and I hope someone asks him about it on Monday. It forced us to play from behind from the beginning. Throw in our lack of shooting and that is why we lost. And most of that is on Benford for this game. Mo playing the 4 against a 6'10 guy is a bad idea. Especially when we do not get out in transition or press the ball. Which we did very little of tonight.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Andrew

[cdizzle86]

Constructive criticism stopped after Alabama Hunstville.

[UNTFan23]

I just wish someone would have anything constructive to say like:

Benford lost from the beginning when he played a smaller line up. That makes sense and that is on the coaching, instead people just want to complain for the sake of complaining just for a lose. Try blaming Benford for that. That is his job and he did fail in that regard tonight. I think he tried to go small thinking we could get them in transition but we had few opportunities to get out and run because UTEP shot well and was also all over the boards. Was that difficult? That is one reason we lost and that is Benford fault. But no just keeping blaming for a lose without a reason... There is a good reason and I hope someone ask him about it on Monday. It forced us to play behind from the start. Throw in our lack of shooting and that is why we lost. And most of that is on Benford for this game. Mo playing the 4 against a 6'10 guy is a bad idea. Especially when we do not get out in transition or press the ball. Which we did very little of tonight.

Benford has to go small because the bigs have struggled all season long. That is Plan B. There is no Plan C.

[BillySee58]

I had never seen them play. They are very large. Not trying to hype them but number 41 is a good pick up for UTEP all the way out of Canada. I have hyped 4 teams this year if your claiming this... Oklahoma (was top 25 ranked), BYU (a bubble team for the tournament), SFA (two losses I think and going to the dance), and UTEP for is very large. All four teams have a chance of going to the big dance... If all four two will you then get off my back? I never ran around going whoop we beat FIU and they were tough... Or whoop we lost to Idaho but man they are a great team...

Again, basically the only teams we've played worth a darn. Tulsa, La Tech, and Southern Miss also being solid teams we've played. A&M was as well, which was impressive, but anyone who watched that knows they were anything but a good team that day.

But my point is, we'll just have to keep justifying these losses. Because we aren't even close against these teams. We have a very tough time scoring, and our top 3 leading scorers are JJ guys. I hate bringing up any kind of JJ vs. Benford subject, but I am very scared of how we will fare and scare points against these teams in two years once our team is made up completely of Benford players.

Benford gets criticized for not bringing in quality posts, but I'm also scared of his inability to bring in much scoring help.

[Andrew]

Benford has to go small because the bigs have struggled all season long. That is Plan B. There is no Plan C.

There we go now we are having a basketball discussion! That makes sense and yes they have. They have shown small bursts of improvement but as a whole they have been very poor outside of Voss. They have improved but not to the level of 41 today who is a freshmen. We would have scored less if we had gone big but I do think UTEP would have scored less as well.

[golfingomez]

I just wish someone would have anything constructive to say

basketball season is almost over, meaning we are one season closer to the end of Benford's contract

[Ben Gooding]

Our bigs are pretty bad. Ball handling is pretty poor by guards and ball movement is bad bc ball handling is bad. We don't know if we want to be a pick n roll team or a post up team. On offense there is literally no identity. Defense is overmatched in every game bc there is little on the court chemistry among the players and our bigs don't play well and/or get outplayed every game. Voss is the best "big" we have and he's what? 6'6" maybe 6'7"? And the crowd we have to offer is pathetic. They MIGHT have won a couple more home games if they had a crowd to play through. I know crowds can't knock down shots, but they can deter a team off their path and make things difficult for them. If Benford isn't fired he needs to work with these bigs a ton and for sure bring in another big. And find an identity on offense. It's pitiful. 1 game left and he still doesn't know who he wants to start or what kind of offensive philosophy he wants to implement.

[Andrew]

Our bigs are pretty bad. Ball handling is pretty poor by guards and ball movement is bad bc ball handling is bad. We don't know if we want to be a pick n roll team or a post up team. On offense there is literally no identity. Defense is overmatched in every game bc there is little on the court chemistry among the players and our bigs don't play well and/or get outplayed every game. Voss is the best "big" we have and he's what? 6'6" maybe 6'7"? And the crowd we have to offer is pathetic. They MIGHT have won a couple more home games if they had a crowd to play through. I know crowds can't knock down shots, but they can deter a team off their path and make things difficult for them. If Benford isn't fired he needs to work with these bigs a ton and for sure bring in another big. And find an identity on offense. It's pitiful. 1 game left and he still doesn't know who he wants to start or what kind of offensive philosophy he wants to implement.

Working with the bigs is a must. Not sure if we need another big. Not sure what Combs will be/do next season. Gaines and Colman need to join the little jumpers and do some jump rope over the summer regardless of who the coach is next season.

[BillySee58]

Working with the bigs is a must. Not sure if we need another big. Not sure what Combs will be/do next season. Gaines and Colman need to join the little jumpers and do some jump rope over the summer regardless of who the coach is next season.

I'm excited about Combs, but he is 6'6" and very skinny. Not sure how much he'll be able to help against skilled big men like UTEP has.

[Andrew]

I'm excited about Combs, but he is 6'6" and very skinny. Not sure how much he'll be able to help against skilled big men like UTEP has.

Maybe we red shirt him and give him a year to grow. Needs some muscle for sure.

[BillySee58]

Maybe we red shirt him and give him a year to grow. Needs some muscle for sure.

No, redshirt isn't the answer IMO. Put some muscle on the kid, sure. But he's a slender kid. That's just the body God gave him.

Plus, we need all our non seniors playing and getting experience for 2015-2016. After the mass exodus of 7 seniors, including CJ, J Will, and all of our current posts.

Not to mention, we need some grade disparity in our roster. 7 guys in one grade classification is incredibly tough to recover from, once they leave. Unless you're a school like Kentucky and you can bring in 7 studs. Redshirting Combs and making him a freshman in 2015-2016 when we'll likely have about 4 other freshmen will create another cluster of players who will leave the team at once.

[Andrew]

No, redshirt isn't the answer IMO. Put some muscle on the kid, sure. But he's a slender kid. That's just the body God gave him.

Plus, we need all our non seniors playing and getting experience for 2015-2016. After the mass exodus of 7 seniors, including CJ, J Will, and all of our current posts.

Not to mention, we need some grade disparity in our roster. 7 guys in one grade classification is incredibly tough to recover from, once they leave. Unless you're a school like Kentucky and you can bring in 7 studs. Redshirting Combs and making him a freshman in 2015-2016 when we'll likely have about 4 other freshmen will create another cluster of players who will leave the team at once.

True but that is another body to sub in and out next season. I, hoping to see CJ, TJ, and Jordan get solid minutes (32-25) a night. More bodies on the bench means more subs under this regime. Edited March 3, 2014 by Andrew

[BillySee58]

More bodies on the bench means more subs under this regime.

This kind of scares me.

Yeah, I honestly think our team can be decent next year. We need guys to be able to pick up the slack when J Will isn't scoring a lot or in the game. We also need TJ to pick up where Alzee left off. We sorely need him to be our #2 option next year.

But again, that's not what I'm scared about. It's when all those guys leave at once.

[Army of Dad]

Oh, I'm here. Fels like a UTEP home game. Why didn't you grab that pass? :-)

I did here Benfird impart his coaching wisdom by yelling "box out" when UTEP was lining up for a free throw. Kinda like I do with the 3rd and 4th graders I coach....

Now you know why I don't play in the GMG basketball games.

[Andrew]

I don't follow. People bash Benford for his players failing to box out.... Then they bash him for telling his players to box out... That makes zero sense (referring to NT90s post above).

Edited March 3, 2014 by Andrew

[Andrew]

This kind of scares me.

Yeah, I honestly think our team can be decent next year. We need guys to be able to pick up the slack when J Will isn't scoring a lot or in the game. We also need TJ to pick up where Alzee left off. We sorely need him to be our #2 option next year.

But again, that's not what I'm scared about. It's when all those guys leave at once.

I think everyone is a bit worried about that.