I have a confession to make, after last Wednesday’s 16-point loss to Marshall in the conference opener; I must admit I was worried this team might have a letdown versus Houston this past Saturday night in the Don Haskins Center.  Throw in the absence of sophomore shooting guard Michael Perez thanks to an ankle injury and a loss was looking more and more like a possibility.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Miners lost to Houston in a close game or even if they would have defeated the Cougars in a tightly contest battle, which it started to resemble as UTEP was clinging to a two-point lead heading into the second half.

Then came the second half and to my surprise and without the offensive services of Perez, the Miners continued their hot shooting (61% for the game) as Julian Washburn, Gabriel McCulley and John Bohannon carried the offense scoring 55 of the team’s 70 points in a blowout win versus Houston.

We all know the defense was a big reason for the second half domination of the Cougars as the Miners held Houston to a mere 19 points (shooting 27%) in the final 20 minutes, but the offensive explosion in the second half was something I didn’t see coming from a team that has struggled to score all season.

I am more than aware that Houston isn’t one of the top teams in Conference USA and similar to the Miners they are a young team. However, the Cougars have been in a lot of close games so far this year with their biggest loss being a 5-point setback to Oklahoma back in mid-December.  May not seem like a big-time win for most of the so-called experts, but you have to give credit to UTEP for a rather impressive beat down of a conference foe that historically plays the Miners tough in El Paso.

It is still early in the conference season and by no means am I saying that UTEP is on their way to a title run, I just hope people aren’t discounting this win. For all the growing pains this team has and will continue to endure this year this was a confidence-building win.   It may be a bit premature to say this was a statement game, but this was a nice preview of what to expect down the road from Coach Tim Floyd and his coaching staff.

While the performances by Washburn, McCulley and Bohannon were major reasons for the Miner win, watching four freshmen on the court on numerous occasions during the Houston game shows that Floyd is showing more and more trust in his young squad.  Every minute Cedrick Lang, Jalen Ragland, C.J. Cooper and D’Von Campbell log on the floor gives them much needed game experience for not only this season, but for the years to come.

I am secretly hoping, like most of the overly optimistic Miner fans, that the Houston win will catapult UTEP to new heights and put them in the upper tier of the conference, but I will temper my expectations for a few more weeks to see how the team responds as conference play starts to heat up.

With so much youth on this team there is so much uncertainty as to what team we will see from game to game.  I don’t expect to see too many Marshall-type performances from here on out, but on the flip side I also don’t see too many more Houston-type performances either as the season rolls along.  Heck, in a way not knowing how this season will turn out makes things a little scary as a fan, but pretty exciting all in the same breath.

One thing is certain; this team is heading in the right direction with the best coach for the job and players willing to put in the work.

The future is looking bright.

Josh Puga can be reached at show@minerillustrated.com or you can follow him on Twitter at @jpuga1966.