the Miners give us a lot of thrills during the season.
The Miners were often rebounded and out-free thrown but seldom out-fought. They
were in the thick of the Conference USA title chase from start to finish and
came within a field goal of winning the C-USA Tournament championship.
How can you not give them an A for that?
TIM FLOYD should get a top grade for coaching, too. He took a bunch of players,
made them better and turned them into a cohesive force. We can only dream of how
far the Miners would have gone if at least one of the two outstanding big post
men from last season had returned. The lack of rebounding showed throughout. Can you believe a guard, 6-7 Julian Stone, was the top rebounder in many of the games? Floyd did an outstanding job
of teaching 6-7 junior Gabe McCulley the art of snaring balls off the boards and
he became a rebounding force the latter part of the season, too. But it still
wasn’t like having a really big guy under there.
BASKETBALL players and teams don’t look good when they can’t make free throws —
and it hurts. It was never more evident than in the tournament title game
against Memphis. It was crushing to see the Miners miss them during the final
minutes. Just one would have tied the game. Two would have won it. The Miners
were the better team otherwise. The only complaint I heard about the coaching is that the Miners went into the four-corner strategy against Memphis too soon and it took the steam out of the
players. Maybe, but when you’re ahead it’s a good strategy as a rule – if you
have the players to execute it. The Miners didn’t. The four-corner reminds me of the prevent defense in football. Some joke that all the prevent-defense does is prevent a team from winning.
SO NOW we look to next season. Floyd, happily, will be back. So will McCulley.
Floyd is known as one of the best recruiters in the country and we’ll see what
he has in store for us next year. It may take him a year or two or three to come
up with a champion but I wouldn’t bet against him. And it’ll be great to see him prowling the sidelines at the Don Haskins Center again. For me, this season was like a dream come true. I remember Floyd’s days
as an assistant coach under Don Haskins in the 1980s. He gave his whole heart to
the sport even then. My favorite photo of him is of him kneeling and pleading
with officials in 1986. It appeared on page 99 of the book “Haskins: The Bear
Facts.” I took it out of my files to show it to you again as part of this column.
LET ME ADD a few words about assistant basketball coach Phil Johnson. One of the
highlights of the season for me was listening to him being interviewed on Jon
Teicher’s radio show after a game. I’ve heard a lot of coaches do analysis but I’ve never heard a man speak with more depth about what happened during a game. He tells you why a certain play
was called, why a player did what he did, why a change was made and many more
intimate and intricate details of the game and does it all in a clear, strong
voice. He made driving home after UTEP games an even bigger treat.