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| INSIDE THE NUMBERS |
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2000-01 record: 10-22;
3-15 in WAC (10th)
Postseason: None. Last NCAA appearance was in 1992.
RETURNING LEADERS
Points: Smallwood 12.4
Rebs: Smallwood 6.3
Assists: Smallwood 2.0
FG: Victoriano 58.6%
3pt: Jarrell 35.6%
FT: Jarrell 77.8%
01-02 Stats:
UTEP | WAC
KEY LOSSES
Eugene Costello | 13.1 ppg
Brian Stewart | 10.7 ppg
Chris Neal | 7.5 ppg
Nick Enzweiler | 6.6 ppg
PROJECTED STARTERS
G | Omar Dunn | Junior
G | Gio. St. Amant | Fresh
F | Roy Smallwood | Senior
F | J. Victoriano | Senior
F | Darius Mattea | Junior
Player to Watch
Roy Smallwood
Senior Forward
Steady scorer-rebounder will likely finish among top five in career UTEP points.
DATE TO REMEMBER
Off to Houston, UTEP's first chance to break the road losing streak that hampered the Miners last season.
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UTEP MINERS
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What a mess. The Miners hired Illinois assistant Billy Gillispie as their head coach last week, this nearly 20 days after Jason Rabedeaux suddenly resigned due to personal reasons. Gillispie inherits a team not thought among the WAC's best this season, one that lost three starters and welcomes several new faces to its roster. The leader is senior forward Roy Smallwood, the team's second-leading scorer last season with a 12.4 average. In three years, Smallwood has been more steady than spectacular. With the obvious late start, Gillispie says he will coach to the team's strengths more than worrying about implementing his own system just yet. That could mean good news for a pair of new players. Giovanni St. Amant is a freshman guard who shot 56.5 percent his senior season in high school, and local product Omar Duran (5-8, 170) played at Midland (Tex.) College last season. The Miners won't improve much on last year's 10-22 record if they can't close out tight games or win on the road. They lost 10 games last season by five or fewer points and were winless in 12 games away from the Don Haskins Center.
TOUGH ENOUGH..............................
If anything, Gillispie has a few players up front who know what they're doing. Smallwood will contend for all-conference honors. He ranks sixth in blocks (92), 11th in steals (95) and 21st in scoring (1,083) on the program's career lists. Also, senior forward Justin Victoriano (6-9, 220) averaged 8.7points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 58.6 percent last season. Junior-college transfer Darius Mattear (6-6, 210) should also help on the boards.
TOUGH ENOUGH?..............................
This was not a mentally tough program last year in the least and Rabedeaux's departure not a month before the season begins won't help in that department. Consider: Leading by three in the closing seconds against Boise State in the WAC Tournament last season, UTEP fouled on a desperation three-point bank and watched a game-winning free-throw end its season. And now, the Miners get a new head coach this late in the process. Not good.
BOTTOM LINE..............................
You have to feel for UTEP's players, who had no control over the coaching matter. But now it's time to play and the Miners were being picked near last even with Rabedeaux. Last season's conference record (3-15) could improve given all the close losses in 2001-02, but Gillispie just inherited the definition of a rebuilding project.
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