After UTEP’s 64-55 victory over Tulsa, thus snapping the Golden Hurricane’s seven-game winning streak, fans were given a glimpse of what the future holds. Many college basketball experts felt Tulsa was a team on the rise and a dark house to win the CUSA tournament, but Coach Tim Floyd and his squad played as well as they have played all year preventing the Golden Hurricane the opportunity to take sole possession of first place in CUSA.
I will admit I was extremely worried about how the team would fare after the close UAB loss at the DON last weekend. As I mentioned my editorial last week I predicted the Miners would go 2-1 over this current three-game home stand with wins coming against UAB and Tulane, not Tulsa.
While the Tulsa win was not exactly shocking with the way UTEP has played at home overall, the surprise came from how the Miners had control of the game from the beginning which we had not seen since the Houston blowout win early in conference play. Tulsa would make a run and just when it seemed like the Miners were going to allow the Golden Hurricane back into the game, UTEP had answer.
It is evident that this team doesn’t not suffer from a lack of effort because as most Miner fans have seen this team plays hard every time they step foot on the court. Even during their recent four-game losing streak, UTEP was in every single game losing by a combined 16 points.
Might sound simple and easier said than done, but the lack of execution at critical moments of games has put the Miners in the position where they are fighting to get back to .500 as opposed to being considered the next Tulsa with an outside shot of playing spoiler in the CUSA tournament.
I know as much as UTEP fans want to have those four games back and replace the losses with wins we can’t get in our DeLorean and change the outcome of those games.
Most fans knew the score prior to the season and aside from some overly optimistic fans that are extremely disappointed with the results up to this point in the season, it was widely known this team would be inconsistent. However, fans should take some solace in knowing this team is continuing to fight until the very last game.
If UTEP would have lost to Tulsa no one would have been terribly disappointed or surprised based on the recent heartbreaking losses.
At the start of the season some current and former colleagues of Miner Illustrated were putting the over/under on UTEP wins right about 16 total wins for the season, some were a bit pessimistic thinking 15 would be a realistic number and a few including myself were thinking 17 might be attainable.
As the Miners sit at 11-13 with 6 games to play, 17 wins seems pretty unlikely with road games at Memphis and UCF unless they can make up a couple of wins in the CUSA tournament.
Could be a stretch with some tough games down the stretch, but if they can continue to play like they did against Tulsa things could get interesting.
It’s been a bumpy ride, but I have a feeling things are going to end on a high note.
Still plenty of season left.
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It was a great game but the key was as Puga said, intensity. The Miners were literally on fire, making Tulsa work hard for every shot. As the Bear used to say, “if you play strong defense you put yourself in a position to win any game.” GO MINERS!
Lang and Washburn were the defensive stars of the game! Great to see two freshman leading the way on defense because that sets the bar high for the incoming players next year. Sets a great example. I was also very pleased with the play of Campbell. Seems like he and Cooper are battling for playing time with Watts and McK Moore coming in next year. The future is definitely bright.