BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee (4-14, 1-4) vs UTEP (6-10, 1-4), 5PM, Saturday, January 19, 2019

[SpaceRaider]

JAN 19 (SAT) 5:00 PM
C-USA
VS UTEP
MURFREESBORO, TN
RADIO: 94.9/95.1 FM, 100.5/101.9 FM, 1450 AM

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TUNEIN

 

[SpaceRaider]

MT favored


http://www.vegasinsider.com/college...so-@-middle-tennessee-state.cfm/date/01-19-19

 

[SpaceRaider]

excerpt:

The UTEP Miners and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders will match up in college basketball action on Saturday.

UTEP limps in here at 6-10 on the season. The Miners are just 1-4 in their last five games, dropping to UTSA twice, North Texas and UAB with a win over Rice mixed into that span.

In the loss to the Blazers Thursday, UTEP’s top scorer was Evan Gilyard, with 25 points and a pair of rebounds. Nigel Hawkins provided 17 points for the Miners, and Efe Odigie doubled up on 10 points and 10 boards.

Over on the Middle Tennessee side, they’re currently 4-14 on the year. Following a lengthy skid of losses, the Blue Raiders finally got back in the win column Thursday versus UTSA.

In the win over the Roadrunners, Middle Tennessee was carried by big efforts from three players: Donovan Sims (24 points; six assists; five rebounds), Antonio Green (21 points; six rebounds) and James Hawthorne (20 points; seven rebounds).

The Miners are 5-2 ATS in their last seven Sunday games and 3-9 ATS in their last 12 road games. UTEP is 3-13 ATS in their last 16 versus CUSA and 0-5 ATS in their last five overall.

Meanwhile, the Raiders are 1-6 ATS in their last seven home games and 0-6 ATS in their last seven Saturday games. Middle Tennessee is 0-4 ATS in the last four following a straight-up win and 0-4 ATS in the last four following an ATS win.

There’s not a whole lot to get excited about when it comes to UTEP. They’ve got some decent scorers on their roster, but routinely fail to make it out of the 60-something-points range.

Middle Tennessee has flailed and flopped on the scoreboard many a night themselves, but looking at their scoring trends this year they seem to be able to put up more points on average than the Miners.....

 

[RandallThomason]

Line movement has been hard against us. I think we opened at -3. Now a straight up pick ‘em game.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[crposton]

I think tonight was our best overall game. Did not blow a big lead. They actually got down and battled back. CNM pulled all starters but Sims in first half and lit into them on the bench. Other than a scoring drought to begin the 2nd half you could tell ot worked. Gamble held his own down low against a much bigger UTEP team. They had some really big post players. Good win.

 

[crposton]

Oh and he put in two walk ons that one lady in front of me called “the scrubs” (which I did not like) and they cane out and played with determination that I really think lit a fire under our starters. Not an amazing game by any stretch, but still a good win.

 

[SpaceRaider]

It's a streak.

 

[Noogaraider1]

This is a massive moral and literally victory. The guys needed to get two in a row. Making it three with Rice would be incredible for the team and Nick

 

[SpaceRaider]

pretty decent turnout for a 4-14 team and the crowd was in to the game.

Refs, as usual, were awful. There were so many stoppages to review something, I thought they were over there at the monitor looking at netflix or something. Game time start was 5 and the game wasn't over until nearly 7:15.

Probably the best game by this team, considering their limitations.

 

[SpaceRaider]

rushed back to the car to listen to the coach's post game comments and it was like a bad cell connection and it continued through the whole interview. You would have thought someone would have stopped it and fixed it but NOOOO, it was pathetic.

 

[SpaceRaider]

https://www.wgnsradio.com/podcast-mt-mbb-vs-utep-1-19-19-cms-49193

 

[blueboro007]

For supposedly a Mass Comm powerhouse schooll our production qualities are very amateurish and of poor quality.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[Blue Raider Lightning]

Was there any explanation given on the late technical foul against Middle?

 

[abarnett]

Great to win 2in a row. One of the mos bizarre games I have ever witnessed anywhere. I would like an explanation on the middle technical go blue

 

[MTLynn]

I would like an explanation on the middle technical go blue

A ref ran into one of the Middle coaches.

 

[SpaceRaider]

A ref ran into one of the Middle coaches.

understand he got elbowed accidently by a coach gesturing to our players, that's apparently why he was getting attention behind the Middle bench at one point. As far as I'm concerned all three needed to be slapped upside the head...

 

[MTLynn]

https://www.wgnsradio.com/podcast-mt-mbb-vs-utep-1-19-19-cms-49193

The broadcast transmission at the end of the game was pathetic. Listening to the podcast is no different than listening live on the air tonight. Pitifully inferior and inadequate for 2019

 

[MTOleBlue]

Pathetic excuse for officials at the end of that game.

 

[crposton]

Kind of interesting the difference in posts between a win and a loss. So many more after a loss. I think it is sad. Same with politics and other aspects of life today. Why I do not trust online reviews. Far more likely for someone to comment on something when they have a negative view. I cold not wait to get home and post my view of what I thought was the best played game all year. I was hoping to see many more of the same comments. What I found was nothing but a few good words and then negative comments about the radio and refs (which were horrible). Why are we so quick to comment on the negative, but not the positive?

 

[BlueAlpha]

Kind of interesting the difference in posts between a win and a loss. So many more after a loss. I think it is sad. Same with politics and other aspects of life today. Why I do not trust online reviews. Far more likely for someone to comment on something when they have a negative view. I cold not wait to get home and post my view of what I thought was the best played game all year. I was hoping to see many more of the same comments. What I found was nothing but a few good words and then negative comments about the radio and refs (which were horrible). Why are we so quick to comment on the negative, but not the positive?

Post of the year right there! Would be hard pressed to find a message board with more glass half empty people than this one. Why i don’t bother to post much. Came up from ATL 2 weeks ago for the FIU game. Was really impressed with how hard they played. Down 7 with 40 some seconds to go, guys locked in to each other and what the coaches were telling them. Told some guys i’ve known since the 70’s that we will be just fine in the long run.

 

[dukewayne]

That's a win streak right there boys! Yes, the Blue Raiders have so much more growth and improvement to tackle, but it sure is a lot better growing and improving when winning some games vs riding a long losing streak.

It seems that recently more than a few were already writing this team off as dead and not winning any more games. Hopefully, a couple of back to back wins will give cause for some to give this team a chance to continue to demonstrate improvement.

For the last 2-3 weeks, I've been seeing this team slowly, gradually, putting CNM's system into the game. For Nov and most of Dec, the team just looked lost without a clue as to what to do. It was sort of understandable with virtually a whole new team and the amount of freshman playing. Plus, it seems the team was just overwhelmed starting the season with little time to develop before playing murderer's row of elite and excellent teams. In Dec, the team seemed to have a little more time to practice and work on improving as a team. Gradually, it started to work. I thought FAU may have been the game they got that win, but turnovers were still too much of a problem. Credit CNM and the players for making some good progress in taking care of the ball better since that frustrating FAU loss. It was an excellent boost to see in the box score after UTEP that MT actually had more assists than turnovers for the game.

Congrats to CNM, the asst coaches, and all the players! It seems fair to say most teams on a big losing streak would just mail it in for the rest of the season with no growth or improvement. Despite the long losing streak of 13 games, it was fairly obvious that the team never gave up and quit. CNM and the players have continued to work and pull together to build a team. Hopefully that trend can continue this season to develop that core of players who will return next season to hopefully launch next year's team into some good success.

Now hopefully the Blue Raiders can get that road win on the ledger.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

The broadcast transmission at the end of the game was pathetic. Listening to the podcast is no different than listening live on the air tonight. Pitifully inferior and inadequate for 2019

I just listened to the last few minutes of the game and it was almost impossible listen to. That should never be a problem, especially at home.

 

[Noogaraider1]

I have to wonder if we didnt have the 4th hardest OOC what our record would be.

 

[abarnett]

I’ve had confidence in CNM long term but was not seeing anything positive for,this year. Too many turnovers horrible shooting poor shot selection inexperienced team few assists not a good recipe for success. The practice time during the holiday obviously was very important. Improvement started with league play assists went up and turnovers down The still aren’t very good shooters from field or the ft line hope that improves plenty of positives to talk about and they do play hard.

 

[MTLynn]

I noticed Gamble scoring on different moves. The guys are getting more comfortable and playing better individually and together.

I'm hoping that we will see Massenburg develop.

 

[kingaling42]

Kind of interesting the difference in posts between a win and a loss. So many more after a loss. I think it is sad. Same with politics and other aspects of life today. Why I do not trust online reviews. Far more likely for someone to comment on something when they have a negative view. I cold not wait to get home and post my view of what I thought was the best played game all year. I was hoping to see many more of the same comments. What I found was nothing but a few good words and then negative comments about the radio and refs (which were horrible). Why are we so quick to comment on the negative, but not the positive?

Winning and improvement does not meet everyone’s agenda when the nay-sayers post.. can you imagine if Wiley (who is noticeably absent during good performances except to start a topic about UConn sports right after the game ended) was a WKU fan, getting all that talent I recruiting but not knowing how to use it.. or the folks that say Marshall’s style of play doesn’t work in CUSA-yet they’re 5-0 thus far..

As for the positive- the last couple weeks I’ve seen this team really run some good stuff offensively in wins and losses.. that’s been MIA early on.. the ball is moving, guys are executing sets, and ball security has improved.. that energy that they’ve played with all year is fostering chemistry and with execution the players confidence has increased.. all good things.

 

[MTsumner92]

I liked the coach talking about team chemistry. I think that has been the biggest problem to overcome due to 5 new starters for this season. Understanding your fellow players tendencies is huge and makes a big difference in how you pass it to them. They are now starting to understand each others tendencies and I believe that is helping the TO's go down. Great to see that and I think if we can continue to improve then we will get into the conference tourney which would be huge seeing how we started out.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

This is progress. I honestly think Nick will have success here. We’ve gotta give him more time - Lando.

 

[bluefutcpa]

I remember the coach indicated when the season started that the starting five didn’t get a ton of practice together so to injuries, late enrollment etc... it’s good to see better chemistry. I was at the game last night and really enjoyed watching gamble play. That was the most aggressive I’ve seen him play since he’s been at MT. I was shocked at how massive UTEPs center was...I can’t remeber his name.

 

[sWiley]

Wins are great and I don’t want to poo poo on anything but some perspective would be nice. We just beat a 6-10 team who might be more inexperienced than we are by 3 points at home. Winning is nice and sure it’s better than losing but how about some perspective. We were actually favored despite our god awful ATS record this year so that should tell you a lot about UTEP.

Perspective

 

[kingaling42]

Wins are great and I don’t want to poo poo on anything but some perspective would be nice. We just beat a 6-10 team who might be more inexperienced than we are by 3 points at home. Winning is nice and sure it’s better than losing but how about some perspective. We were actually favored despite our god awful ATS record this year so that should tell you a lot about UTEP.

Perspective

I think everyone posting positive stuff has proper perspective.. I don’t see anyone promising a National or CUSA Championship because of winning back-to-back games.. we’ve just noted our observations of this team and how some things have progressed.

For someone who was so high on WKU just because of some highly touted recruits on paper you have some nerve talking to others about perspective.

 

[MT Glenn]

We could all have a different take on what perspective is. My perspective had me thinking we might not win another game all year, so two in a row is great against anyone.

 

[MTFNBY5]

My perspective has clearly changed over the last couple of weeks and it's not just the winning. It's clear that progress is being made as far as running offense, shot selection (sometimes), playing together, protecting the ball, and team defense. Still a long way to go and we are limited by both talent and experience. I don't expect a miracle as we had in Bruce Stewart's first year when, after having two highly-touted players transfer out and looking bad early, we won the OVC tournament (which IIRC was in the Murph).
I know one thing: MT BkB fans increasingly have rising expectations for their program under this young staff: The school on West End; not so much.

 

[blueraiderJT]

Winning and improvement does not meet everyone’s agenda when the nay-sayers post.. can you imagine if Wiley (who is noticeably absent during good performances except to start a topic about UConn sports right after the game ended) was a WKU fan, getting all that talent I recruiting but not knowing how to use it.. or the folks that say Marshall’s style of play doesn’t work in CUSA-yet they’re 5-0 thus far..

As for the positive- the last couple weeks I’ve seen this team really run some good stuff offensively in wins and losses.. that’s been MIA early on.. the ball is moving, guys are executing sets, and ball security has improved.. that energy that they’ve played with all year is fostering chemistry and with execution the players confidence has increased.. all good things.

Look, winning is always better than losing but we are still a 5 win team and had to come back to beat a 6 win team. Not exactly beating Duke here but it is an improvement and I'll take anything right now. He's at a Randy Weil level right now. Let's see if we can beat Rice.

Honestly, the UTSA win was way more impressive since they were leading the conference. We had to hang on with dear life but beating the leader was impressive. Beating Rice on the road will speak a bit more to me and may put us in the conference tourney. Until last Thursday, we were on the outside. Let's see where it goes. This could spark a fire and I, like everyone here hopes it will.

 

[MT01]

I have some perspective. Here is mine. I haven't watched much since we came out of our one-(D1)win non-conference portion of our schedule but watched the UTSA game from end to end. And we almost played that game like every other game this season. Look somewhat competent early and then look like a intramural team the rest of the way. The UTSA game is one of those where one team simply plays way over its head and the other team was flat - well at least for the first 35 minutes. I mean we had a forward with a handful of threes all season that couldn't miss from outside. You usually get one game a season like that where you just can't do anything wrong. And yet we still almost blew it. Think about the fact that we blew a 21 point lead in the final 3 minutes and UTSA had a chance to tie in the final 30 seconds. We could play that UTSA team 100 times and would probably only win it two or three times.

The UTEP was a contest of the prettiest ugly girl. UTEP is in a very similar situation to us decimated by coaching change and short-handed roster. Winning>Losing but that game didn't tell us much about progress. Neither game told us much about progress in terms of a trend. UTEP is the only D1 game this season we had a plus assist to turnover ratio. So, if they can do that a second time in a row and do it on the road then maybe you can say we are starting to establish some chemistry and showing improvement. But then you have to turn around and play the top team in the league so far this season again on the road. I believe this weekend will tell you whether there is anything to hang your hat on here. The one place we have shown improvement is we are shooting the ball better the past couple of weeks. So, if you can can continue to shoot in the mid to upper 40's while also demonstrating a positive turnover to assist ratio then I'm feeling better about the direction.

That's what I'm looking for. What I'm hoping for. This weekend will tell us a lot.

 

[MTOleBlue]

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