Despite
a horrible 10-22 season in 2001/02, Miner fans last spring were
looking forward to the 2002/03 basketball season. The Miners had just
signed what appeared to be a very good recruiting class, making the
future of UTEP basketball seem bright. This optimism came despite the
transfer of starter Nick Enzweiler, a 6-6 SF/PF who was probably the
team’s best outside shooter.
Things took an ugly turn for the worse in August, when two more
players transferred from the program: starter Antone Jarrell, a 6-6 SG/SF,
and part-time starter Luke Martin, a 6-1 PG. In addition, Keion
Kindred, a 6-4 PG from CA who was seen as the team’s star recruit,
decided to enroll at Yavapi JC rather than honor his letter of intent
w/ UTEP. The team did announce at the same time the signing of El Paso
native Omar Duran, a 5-8 SG from Midland College, but to most of us
this seemed to be a pathetic attempt to put a positive spin on a
bitter piece of news. Very few Miner fans expected Duran to make any
kind of impact.
In late October Head Coach Jason Rabedeaux decided to step down.
Despite the poor timing, as practice had already begun, Miner fans
greeted his departure w/ enthusiasm. Billy Gillispie, an assistant to
Bill Self at Illinois, was hired to take over the program. Despite the
fact that Miner fans realized that they were in for a long season,
Gillispie’s enthusiasm, energy, and class left UTEP faithful w/ a
reason to be optimistic about the future.
Unfortunately, there was still a season to be played w/ a roster
depleted of talent by the multiple defections. It has been a very
tough season to endure. The Miners finished 6-24 on the season, the 24
losses a UTEP record, eclipsing last years record of 22. While the
news for Miner hoops fans has mostly been bad, there have been a few
positives this seasons too. Here is my review of the UTEP 2002/03
basketball season:
Most Pleasant Surprise:
There are three candidates for this position. The first, FR SG Gio
St. Amant, was not expected by some experts to make much of an impact
in the WAC, though other experts disagreed. Still, no one expected the
freshman to be the team’s leading scorer, and to set several UTEP
freshman records along the way.
The second candidate is FR PF John Tofi. Tofi was expected by all
to make an impact at UTEP, just not this quickly. Instead, the big man
from Northern California proved to be the team’s most consistent
player, and finished just behind St. Amant for the team scoring title.
Despite the strong cases by St. Amant and Tofi, the biggest
surprise on this year’s team has to be Omar Duran. Practically no one
gave Duran any chance to contribute, and through the first six games
Duran did not do much to change this perception. During that sixth
game, however, Miner starter Roy Smallwood went down w/ a season
ending injury, and Duran stepped into his starting spot the next game.
He scored 18 points in that game, and averaged 13.5 ppg over the next
17 games, while shooting well over 40% from beyond the arc during that
stretch. He did go into a mild slump the final 5 games of the regular
season, but rebounded from that to hit 7 big three pointers against
San Jose State in the play-in round of the WAC Tournament. Omar
finished w/ 79 three pointers this year, one shy of the UTEP single
season record.
Biggest Disappointment:
Smallwood’s injury alone would cause the senior’s season to be a
huge disappointment, but his season was a big disappointment before
that. Smallwood, the team’s leading returning scorer, was only
averaging 6.8 ppg before sustaining his injury against New Mexico
State. Some Miner fans have pointed out that Roy was doing a lot of
the “little things” to help the team out, but for Roy that was not
enough. The former WAC Freshman of the Year averaged 13.4 ppg as a
frosh, but his sophomore and junior numbers never measured up to those
of his initial season. Coming into the season he had one last chance
to live up to the promise he showed as a freshman, but instead
averaged less than 7 ppg. Roy might receive a medical redshirt as a
result of his injury, giving him one last chance to step up and become
the great player that he has the potential to be. I, for one, am not
holding my breath.
Season Highlight:
With only 6 wins, there aren’t too many games to choose from. Still
there are a couple of games that stand out. One game that I am sure
many might chose would be the play-in game of the WAC tournament,
where we beat San Jose State 86-80, prolonging our season one more
game. I, however, am going to chose the January 25 hone game against
Boise State, which the Miners won 85-78 in overtime.
Why this game? For one, Thomas Gehrke, a 6-7 SO SF from Brazil, had
just transferred in, and was playing his first game in a Miner
uniform. He finished w/ 15 points and 6 blocked shots. Another reason
was the play of 6-6 JR PF Darrius Mattear, a very athletic JC transfer
that to this point in the season had proven to be a major
disappointment. Mattear, playing in place of an injured John Tofi,
finally put his athleticism to use, pulling down 18 boards to go with
11 points on perfect shooting from the field, though only 1-3 from the
line. The play of Gehrke and Mattear, as well as the rest of the team,
gave Miner fans something to look forward to for the rest of the
season. UTEP faithful now had some reason to believe that the team
might turn it around slightly down the stretch, and win more games
than was originally expected.
Unfortunately these expectations were not met. While Gehrke played
solid ball under the circumstances, he never equaled the performance
of his inaugural game, averaging 7.6 ppg on the season. Mattear had
one or two decent games the rest of the season, but did not live up to
the promise he showed in that game. Most of the rest of the team
faltered as well, as the Miners only won two of their final fourteen
games.
Season Lowlight:
Unlike the season highlight, there are many, many choices in this
category. Games that stand out include a 14 point loss to Alcorn State
at home; a home loss to Texas A&M Corpus Christi; any road game, as we
extended our record road losing streak to 28 games; and a season
ending loss to Tulsa in the WAC Tournament. It wasn’t that we lost to
Tulsa that made the game so painful, as this was expected - it was
that we lost to them by 34 points.
Still, for my money the lowest point of the season came in the
first round of UTEP’s holiday tournament, the Sun Carnival Classic,
when the Miners played host to Columbia. What makes this game worse
than the others? The Miners lost to the Lions; only Army shares that
dubious distinction, as the Lions finished 2-25 on the season. The
Miners had an early 23-6 lead, only to lose the game at the end 55-54.
Finally, I was in town for the holidays, and actually had to sit
through and watch this debacle.
Team MVP
When I started to write this section I was struggling to make the
hard decision of choosing between the team’s two most deserving
candidates: Tofi and St Amant. In order to make things easier I have
decided to wuss out and give the award to both of them. They
definitely both deserve it, as St Amant led the team w/ 13.6 ppg, but
Tofi wasn’t far behind at 12.9 ppg. Tofi’s 5.7 rpg place him second on
the team, while St Amant finished second on the team in assists w/ 2.5
apg. Each performed much better than anyone expected, and will form
the nucleus for Gillispie to build his team around.
Player Impressions
Gio St Amant, 6-3 FR SG: 13.6 ppg, 2.5 apg, 42.6% fg, 82.8% ft
Gio rewrote the UTEP freshman record book. He set freshman
records for highest scoring average (13.6), most points in a
season (407), most games scoring 20 or more points (7), highest
free throw percentage (82.8%), points in a single game (26 against
Hawaii on Jan 2), and assists in a single game (9 against
Tennessee St on Dec 21). He is the team’s best player off of the
dribble, and is effective at getting to the foul line and
converting the free throws. He does need to improve on his outside
shooting and in taking care of the ball. Given what I’ve heard
about his personality and attitude I have no doubt that he will
continually improve his game throughout his career. I look forward
to watching him play for the next three years.
John Tofi, 6-8 FR PF: 12.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 48.9 % fg, 68.6% ft
Tofi was probably the Miners most consistent player. He is very
good down on the block, where he has some nice post moves and a
soft touch. He does need to get a little stronger on the boards
and from the line. Like Gio, I will enjoy watching this guy play
for the next three years.
Omar Duran, 5-8 JR SG: 10.3 ppg, 37.2% fg, 38.0% 3fg, 67.7% ft
Don’t be fooled by the shooting percentages above - Omar is a
much better shooter than that. His numbers did suffer because of a
slow start, but after that he spent much of the year above 40% in
3-point shooting. While teammate Chris Craig may have had a higher
shooting percentage, there is no doubt that Omar was the team’s
primary outside threat. Also, don’t be fooled by his height, as
Omar is strictly a shooting guard, lacking the penetrating and
play-making ability you would expect in a point. He will almost
assuredly move back to the bench next season as a 3-point
specialist, but his contribution to this year’s team is greatly
appreciated.
Justino Victoriano, 6-9 SR C: 8.2 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 54.7% fg, 54.4% ft
Coming into the season my big concern w/ Justo was whether or
not he could stay in games, as he had a severe foul problems in
most of his games last season. In my preseason preview I stated
that if he could keep himself out of foul trouble he would “easily
score well into double figures and average about 8 or 9 rebounds
per game.” He did stay out of foul trouble for the most part, and
I was correct about the rebounding, as his 8.5 boards per game led
the conference. I was wrong as his scoring, however, as he never
developed into the scoring threat that I thought he could become.
Chris Craig, 6-1 JR PG: 7.9 ppg, 3.4 apg, 42.0% fg, 43.0% 3fg
Craig got off to a horrific start this year, often having many
more turnovers than assists in the first third of the season. He
did settle down, and became a decent player later in the season.
He is not really much of a playmaker, but can hit the open man,
and is an accurate outside shooter. He would make a solid player
coming off of the bench, something he is likely to do w/ the
addition of JC transfer PG Sheldon Pace next season.
Thomas Gehrke, 6-7 SO SF: 7.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.1 apg, 34.4% fg,
68.1% ft
The Brazilian Gehrke transferred in during the middle of
season, playing his first game on Jan 25 against Boise State. He
started his UTEP career impressively, scoring 15 points and
blocking 6 shots in a rare Miner victory. He did struggle w/ his
shooting touch during the season, hitting only 34.4% of his shots,
including only 3 for 26 from beyond the arc. Still, he did play
well at times, and may improve significantly next season, when
he’s had more time to adjust to life in the states and is able to
begin practice w/ the rest of the team.
Roy Smallwood, 6-6 SR SF: 6.0 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 35.5% fg, 50.0% ft
An ACL injury cut short what was adding up to be Roy’s most
disappointing season yet. As a freshman Roy was the run away
winner of the WAC Freshman of the Year award, scoring 13.4 ppg,
pulling down 5.9 rpg, and leading the WAC in three-point field
goal percentage at 45.9%. 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.
It appears that Roy will be granted a medical redshirt this
season, meaning that he will come back and play next year. No
matter what happens I have given up any hope that Roy will ever
become the player he has the potential to be.
Darrius Mattear, 6-6 JR PF: 3.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 53.8% fg, 65.2% ft
John Tofi missed three games in the middle of the season due to
injury. During those games Mattear, who to that point had been a
disappointment, stepped in and played extremely well, averaging 9
points and 12 rebounds. This caused me to think that Tofi’s injury
might be a blessing in disguise, that DMat might emerge to become
a valuable player the rest of the season. It didn’t work out that
way, as Mattear did not score more than 4 points or pull down more
than 7 rebounds in any game thereafter.
Joe Devance, 6-7 SO PF/SF, 3.0 ppg, 1.9 rpg
Devance, who played 10.3 minutes per game, is a player that
would have only received time at the end of blowouts had he been
on a Miner team of the past. Still, he does work hard when he
plays, and did manage 12 points in a late season game against La
Tech and 9 points in the Miners paly-in round WAC Tournament game
against San Jose State, both of which the Miners won.
Alex Anthis, 6-3 FR SG, 1.0 ppg
Anthis appears to be destined to warm the bench during his UTEP
career. I do get the feeling that he has a nice shooting touch
from outside, but he doesn’t show it during games. I originally
had high hopes for him when he came to UTEP after playing on the
Greek National Team, but I no longer am optimistic that he will
ever contribute much in a Miner uniform.
Final Comments
While the last two seasons have been very hard to endure for Miner
basketball fans, I do believe that there is cause for optimism. Billy
Gillispie has a strong reputation as a recruiter, and apparently has
an impressive network of contacts throughout the state of Texas. Tofi
and St Amant give him a solid foundation to build around, and it will
be fun to watch these two players develop over the next three seasons.
It may take two or three more years, but I’m confident that Gillispie
rebuild the Miner basketball program.
Go Miners!!!!
E-Mail the Author: Mark
Hatch
