UTEP wrap

From my understanding, all of the players who played in Sunday's win at UTEP are in L.A. so I don't think the Aggies will lose additional players this season.

Also for those of you who care, the Aggies are 8.5 point dogs at UCLA.

Here are some quotes as I clean out my notebook from the UTEP game:

Marvin Menzies on his reaction to the ejection in the first half
"I can't think of another adjective that would describe my level of surprise but it was heightened."

Menzies on what he did after leaving the floor
"I was on a text-a-thon mission with (wife) Tammy. We were going back and forth texting the score. I listened to the silent cheers. I could tell how we were doing by the lack of noise at times. I could tell when our guys went to the line. You could hear the crowd and then it got silent. We call that the silent cheers and when you go on the road, you play for silent cheers and I was a full participant in that tonight."

What he did at halftime
"I met with the staff and covered a few Xs and Os things and then just talked about the emotional piece and about going back out and playing with an even keel and not getting too wound up.

"I'm happy with the way the guys were at halftime and their demanor. It was a real positive step for us in the right direction."

Thoughts on the game
"I guess the key to winning here is to get kicked out of the game. It was Randy (Culpepper) last year and they won and I got kicked out this year.

"We have a lot of talent and that hasn't shown until tonight for the first time. But we hadn't been jelling and our chemistry hasn't been good on the floor. Off the floor, it's been great but there were too many guys trying to carry the team with Troy and Wendell out. It was a good opportunity to share the ball."

On starting Gibson on the bench and his play
"It was a matter of rotaion. I felt like we needed to have more of a defensive focus on Julyan Stone. What we wanted to do was apply more pressure on him consistently. I felt like Gib combined with Hernst could do a good job. Everybody was still in the mix. We have to continue to get those young guys better but that was the role for Gib tonight. Every game is different."

Jahmar Young, who said he was inspired after watching the 30 in 30 ESPN series piece on The U football program
On players reaction to Menzies' ejection
"We had to bring it together as a team. We can't look over at coach and had to run a lot of stuff on the fly because they were denying us. Coach Mick (Durham) would say one play and they took it right away so we jelled as a team on the fly."

On his play in the second half
"The team just trusted me and we knew if we got the big guys out, a big guy can't check me to therefore Hamidu did a good job spreading out on screens. Hernst did a great job of spacing away and Gib did a great job spacing away as well as Gordo so I could find those guys coming off a screen. If not, they had to foul me."

On the team's play, with 12 turnovers
"It's not to say that we don't turn it over because we play fast but knowing that we can play fast without turning it over is always a positive."