Home Sweet Moody - cusa-fans.com

[mr. pony]

Home Sweet Moody
League-Leading UTEP Thumps SMU, 62-51, For ‘Home’ Win
By Rick Atkinson for cusa-fans.com
http://cusa-fans.com/

DALLAS – The UTEP Miners feel right at home in Dallas. In fact, UTEP coach Tony Barbee now calls SMU’s Moody Coliseum his team’s “house.”

After the Miners’ win over the Mustangs on Wednesday, Barbee said his “player of the game” was UTEP’s impressive throng of fans, which made up a good portion of the 2,965 souls in attendance.

“Our Miner fans in the Dallas Metroplex area are tremendous,” Barbee said. “This is four years in a row now that we’ve had a home-court advantage, coming on the road here to Moody Coliseum - which is typically a hard place play.”

“But when our fans outplay their fans, we feel comfortable in here.”

Barbee added that he didn’t even change his pre-game theme from the one he used last Saturday in El Paso. “Against Tulsa it was, ‘Protect your house,’” he said. “I wrote it again tonight. ‘Protect the house.’ It felt like we were at home.”

Miner fans’ chants of “U-TEP! U-TEP!” were heard throughout the game, (though SMU students finally pushed back with lusty “SUCKS!” insertions to the cheer in the second half.)


UTEP's Derrick Caracter "had his way" in the second half

Guard Randy Culpepper led UTEP with 18 points while 6-9, 275-pound forward Derrick Caracter bulled for 16 points and a team-leading eight rebounds.

“Caracter is just such a physical presence,” Doherty said. “We did a great job on him in the first half. … In the second half, he just had his way. And it looked like our guys were afraid of him.”

Doherty said Caracter and Tulsa’s Jerome Jordan are probably the league’s top big men. “Then, [SMU center Papa Dia] is probably the next tier,” he said. “Pop had an opportunity tonight to show people that he is top tier in the league and he, I don’t think, did that.”

Dia hit 3-of-10 shots, finishing with 11 points and eight rebounds, and never managed to really get it going inside.

Lead Vanishes

The Mustangs led at the half, 24-22, as UTEP (18-5, 9-1) shot 30-percent from the field and SMU’s Mouhammad Faye pumped in 11 points. But the Miners blitzed out of the locker room with 16-4 run to choke off any thoughts of an upset.

“We had them right where we wanted them,” Doherty said, “and I thought our defense broke down significantly in the second half.”

Said Barbee, “I give credit to our team because we’ve been resilient all year long. We played physical. We played tough. … We got in the locker room [at halftime], and they got after each other. I didn’t have to do much of the talking. They got after each other. They came out in the second half and they played with that kind of fire.”

“As bad as we shot in the first half, our defense kept us just close enough that when we found it and got it going, we could go on that run.” UTEP’s shooting improved to 61-percent in the second half, for a 44-percent night overall.

The Mustangs did cut the lead to five, 40-35, with 12 minutes left - and UTEP quickly pushed it back to ten. There were five lead changes and five ties in the first half, but SMU never led after Julyan Stone’s three for the Miners with 18:28 left in the game.

“Our guys looked like they were afraid when UTEP stepped it up in the second half,” Doherty said.

SMU shot 34-percent with 14 turnovers and six assists. The Miners outrebounded SMU, 25-10, in the second half.

UTEP’s league-leading win streak now stands at eight.

With the loss, SMU (11-12, 4-5), remains tied for sixth place in Conference USA with seven regular season games left. It’s now a three-way knot, as Houston joins Southern Miss and the Mustangs halfway up/down the league ladder.


SMU's Derek Williams nabs a loose ball

‘No Toughness’

Doherty said he was disappointed in team leaders Dia and guard Derek Williams. “They’ve had great seasons,” he said, “but they showed no toughness throughout the game, especially in the second half when UTEP stepped it up.”

“If they want to be big-time players, they’ve got to produce in big-time situations. And they didn’t tonight.”

Doherty said Williams’ performance marked a step back for him. “He just didn’t take ownership of the team, didn’t show toughness.” Williams had eight points on 3-of-12 shooting, with one assist and three turnovers.

“Be a leader,” Doherty said. “I don’t care if you score, but you’ve got to get the team organized. You can’t be afraid of a trap. You’ve got to communicate out there what we want. You’ve got to give positive energy. And he didn’t do that. That’s why I took him out, sat him (for two minutes in the second half.) He wasn’t helping us and Pop wasn’t helping us.”

“And it’s not just those two guys,” Doherty added. “Justin [Haynes]: 0-3 [from the field] and three turnovers in the first half.”

Well-covered shooting forward Robert Nyakundi was no factor for SMU, hitting 1-of-5 field goal attempts. “Rob is a guy who can take jump shots," Doherty said. "He’s not a guy who can take people off the dribble. So they located him, they found him, they stayed close to him and didn’t give him many open looks.”

“The only guy who gave us a positive game was [forward] Mouhammad Faye,” Doherty said. “And to a lesser extent [guard] Rodney [Clinkscales].”

Faye led SMU with 19 points and nine rebounds. “He can do some things offensively,” Doherty said. “I’d like him to tighten up his defense some, but 19-and-9 against a quality opponent, we needed that.”

Clinkscales had five points, two rebounds and one assist in 32 minutes, subbing for starter Mike Walker, who had no points in 10 minutes, missing two threes.

“UTEP is fantastic,” Doherty said. “I think they’ll, hopefully, go to the NCAA tournament. Not just go, but win a few games.”

“We had a bad half against a great team,” Doherty concluded. “I don’t want to make excuses. If we want to be a good team and have a winning season, and be a contender in this league, we’ve to put up more of a fight than we did in the second half.”

Next two for SMU:
*Saturday, February 13, @ Houston, 4 p.m.
*Wednesday, February, 17, Rice, 7 p.m.

[RE Tycoon]

Let's tap the brakes. While our crowd sucks, the UTEP crowd did not "easily make up the majority of fans". In fact I remarked to my seat mates that this one of the smaller crowds they have brought considering their record.

I'd venture a guess that they made up 30-40% of the crowd (still not good), and they really only had a concentration in the section behind the visiting bench.

I really get tired with the SMU fans who over credit visiting fans b/c they are color coordinated. If you combined the rainbow of colors that SMU fans wear to games (khaki, purple, green, yellow, etc.) and made them either all red or blue, then our crowds would look better.

I hate even having to make this point because it shows how pitiful are fan base is. I hope Doherty and the team reads Barbee's comments and it makes them mad...it sure does [deleted] me off.

[mr. pony]

Let's tap the brakes. While our crowd sucks, the UTEP crowd did not "easily make up the majority of fans". In fact I remarked to my seat mates that this one of the smaller crowds they have brought considering their record ...

You know, maybe you're right. It's been edited. Thanks.

[jobu]

Wait, SMU had a student section? Besides the band?

[ponyscott]

Let's tap the brakes. While our crowd sucks, the UTEP crowd did not "easily make up the majority of fans". In fact I remarked to my seat mates that this one of the smaller crowds they have brought considering their record ...

.

I agree as the 'red out' wasn't quite what I expected but to say that UTEP was the majority, is off base and biased BS.

[Pony_Fan]

I think it should just be a given to wear Red at each and every home fball and bball game to coordinate. No reason to have to have a "red out" for a game.

Just my .02

Every other school usually has 1 color to identify them which I really wish we had.

[mr. pony]

Let's tap the brakes. While our crowd sucks, the UTEP crowd did not "easily make up the majority of fans". In fact I remarked to my seat mates that this one of the smaller crowds they have brought considering their record ...

.

I agree as the 'red out' wasn't quite what I expected but to say that UTEP was the majority, is off base and biased BS.

Yeah, I'm biased for UTEP.

[Bergermeister]

UTEP did have a majority of fans in attendance at Moody Wednesday night. SMU had a majority of spectators. Fans vocally support their team. Spectators watch. Sadly, Moody Coliseum belongs to the Miners until we take it away.

[WildBillPony]

I looked over at the UTEP forum, & some that sat behind the benches stated that they didn't know SMU had a student section at the game.

[Lebanese4Life]

Every other school usually has 1 color to identify them which I really wish we had.

Yeah I with the same thing but there's nothing we can do about it =(

[CalallenStang]

I think it should just be a given to wear Red at each and every home fball and bball game to coordinate. No reason to have to have a "red out" for a game.

Just my .02

Every other school usually has 1 color to identify them which I really wish we had.

Yes, because when we wear Red and play Houston, the Houston fans will look just like us

[Pony_Fan]

I think it should just be a given to wear Red at each and every home fball and bball game to coordinate. No reason to have to have a "red out" for a game.

Just my .02

Every other school usually has 1 color to identify them which I really wish we had.

Yes, because when we wear Red and play Houston, the Houston fans will look just like us

and one game all year we wear blue -- when Tulane plays Marsall - they both wear green. So what

[CalallenStang]

I think it should just be a given to wear Red at each and every home fball and bball game to coordinate. No reason to have to have a "red out" for a game.

Just my .02

Every other school usually has 1 color to identify them which I really wish we had.

Yes, because when we wear Red and play Houston, the Houston fans will look just like us

and one game all year we wear blue -- when Tulane plays Marsall - they both wear green. So what

Tulane fans dress as empty seats when they play Marshall.