Saturday, November 16, 2013

UTEP: Three keys unlocked

Three point defense: UTEP was 4-10 from 3-point range. While 40 percent is a respectable number, i thought the Aggies did a decent job making it hard for the Miners out there. Justin Crosgile came off the bench though and hit both of his attempts. Julian Washburn is more of a slasher but he was 1-2. CJ Cooper was 1-3 and Jalen Ragland was 0-2. NMSU also made four triples. Aggies need to continue to find the shooters next week.

Turnovers: The Aggies had 17 for the second straight game, four from point guard KC Ross-Miller. I will say that Ross Miller has improved across the board and has a little toughness to him, but 17 turnovers in El Paso could be too many to recover from.

Execution: NMSU was clearly a team that was playing its fourth game of the season and UTEP wasn't ready to go. The Aggies scored 30 points in the paint, added another 32 points at the foul line, out rebounded UTEP by 14, shot 57 percent from the field and 72 percent in the second half. Daniel Mullings couldn't be stopped from getting into the lane, finishing with 26 points on 9-14 shooting.

"I think some parts of the game, they tried a triangle and 2 or box and 1 or Washburn was face guarding me," Mullings said. "We have a couple plays built to beat that, just by moving the ball on the perimeter with three guards, I was able to find a couple seams to drive in, not only to score but when I drove, they collapsed on me and I looked for shooters on the wings."

This is pretty much what Mullings did all night.

Photo by Robin Zielinski
"What you take away from it is that we were pitiful defensively," UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. "I think we just thought we would go out and outscore them."

Floyd had a lot to say regarding the way the game was called after the teams combined for 81 free throws.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking like a sweet 16 team! Stay on it.

Anonymous said...

It was a good win for the Aggies as they seemed to be more prepared to play than the Miners. I believe the early fouls against the Miners were largely based on them not being ready to play. They will be ready Saturday and I hope the Aggies don't suffer a letdown and improve some more. Floyd makes a big deal about the new rules in basketball and how fans don't want to see a FT shooting contest. He may be right but why does he sound like this is a surprise. Until they change the rules, players and coaches have to adjust, Until that occurs teams with depth and the abilty to make FTs will win games. My hope is for consistency on the part of officials. Don't pick and choose when to enforce the new rules - that makes a good official bad and a mediocre official terrible. What I have seen in the past few years in the college basketball game has been closer to an organized mugging of offensive players by the defenses and inconsistent officiating. That is not basketball.

Anonymous said...

Just looked at the schedule for upcoming games. Hardly any real challengers except for a couple.
Jason - whats the method behind this madness from Boston and MM?

Anonymous said...

Moving on, I am most curious about how we do against our next opponent. Northern Colorado doesn't seem to be the patsy one might think...take a look at who they beat in their season opener....

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/2458/northern-colorado-bears

Anonymous said...

anon 10:42, I'm not certain what schedule you looked at but Northern Colorado, UTEP, Colo State, UNM, Gonzaga, and Arizona and maybe even Drake seem to be pretty tough opponents and we play them in the next month.

Jason Groves said...

I think what Anon 1042 may be referring to is the home schedule? Other than rivalry games and apparently Northern Colorado, the Aggies home schedule this year doesn't inspire much to get excited about for your average fan. But every game can't be a UTEP or UNM and overall this is probably the Aggies best schedule since Marvin Menzies has been here.