In my preseason preview I stated that Gio was a mystery to me: he had unbelievable HS stats, but was not on any national recruiting gurus radar, and west coast recruiting expert Greg Hicks told me that he didn’t believe Gio belonged at this level. Boy was Hicks ever wrong. Gio needs to work on improving his shot, and does turn the ball over a little too much (28 times through 11 games), but he is a good scorer and passer, is the best penetrator on the team, and is not afraid to make the big play. If fact, Gio has set UTEP freshman single game records in points (26 against Hawaii) and assists (9 against Tennessee State) this season. I believe that Gio will be contending for All-WAC honors by his junior season.

Unlike Gio, Tofi was noticed by some national recruiting experts, and everyone agreed that he was a good pick-up for the Miners. However, he was not really expected to contribute much until his junior season. Instead, Tofi has probably been our most consistent player, and has led the team in scoring most of the season. He is very good down on the block, where he has some nice post moves and a soft touch. I was in town to see him play against Columbia and Air Force, and was unfortunate enough to see one of his rare poor offensive performances against the Falcons. Against Columbia, however, he dominated in the second half, hitting 7 of 10 shots and grabbing 7 rebounds. He did manage to grab 12 boards and score 15 points despite shooting poorly against Air Force. He and Gio have been the stars of this team so far.

Craig has struggled at the point so far this season, w/ almost as many turnovers (45) as assists (46). He is also not a great penetrator. On the positive side he has improved his decision making as of late, and is a good shooter. He is not really starting point guard material, but should make a decent backup to Sheldon Pace, a JC PG from Chaffey College in CA who signed a letter of intent w/ UTEP this fall.

Coming into the season I had hoped that Justo could display the same type of offense he did in spurts last year on a more consistent basis this season, while staying out of foul trouble. I feared that foul trouble would again limit his effectiveness. Unfortunately, he was not able to stay out of foul trouble early on, and, w/ the exception of the Tennessee State game (18 pts), has not put up good numbers offensively. On the positive side he is hitting the boards extremely hard this season, and has kept himself out of foul trouble in the two WAC games. His overall contribution is better than what I had feared coming into the season, but is not quite what I had hoped for.

I owe Omar a very big apology. Prior to the season I looked at his JC stats and the situation under which he arrived, obtaining a scholarship only after three players quit the team, and predicted that he would be a bust. I said that he in no way deserved to be playing for a Div 1 team, and that the scholarship was awarded as a lame attempt to put a positive spin on the player defections. Omar has come out and proved me very wrong. He has started ever since SF Roy Smallwood went down w/ an ACL injury against NMSU, and played very well in that span. In those five games he has averaged 12.8 ppg while shooting almost 45% from beyond the arc. He is not w/o weaknesses, as he is not a good penetrator, has more turnovers (20) than assists (19), and his height makes him a defensive liability. On a more talented team he would come off of the bench as a three-point specialist. Still, he is making a very valuable contribution to the team this season.

Roy’s ACL injury cut short what was adding up to his most disappointing season yet. As a freshman Roy was the run away winner of the WAC Freshman of the Year award, scoring over 13 ppg, pull down over 6 rpg, and leading the WAC in three-point field goal percentage. Down the stretch he had several 20+ point games. Since then he has been a disappointment, but this year was ridiculous. Coming into the season my worst fear for Roy was that he would sleepwalk his way to another 12 to 13 ppg season, still not stepping up to take control of this team. He didn’t even average half of that in the six games that he played. There is a chance that Roy will be granted a medical redshirt this season. No matter what happens I have given up any hope that Roy will ever become the player he had the potential to be.

Other than Roy, DMat is the biggest disappointment on the team this year. The athletic Mattear has tremendous hops and loves to hit the glass, but, according to everyone who has seen him play, his inability on offense has cost him playing time. During the games I saw DMat did have a ferocious put back dunk, and scored some off of the break, but I never got to see him shoot much otherwise. He was posting his man up most of the time in the half-court sets, but wasn’t able to seal his man off in order to receive entry passes. If he can significantly improve his offense in the off season he will be a valuable contributor next year.

These two players combine for a whopping 1.5 ppg. Even if you add in Brandon Clausen, a walk-on who recently quit the team, the combined average would still be 1.5 ppg. Neither of these players have yet to prove they deserve a Div 1 scholarship, and get minutes only two give their over worked teammates a brief break.