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UTEP (3/3/18)


CMJ

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13 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

Our 8th loss by 5 points or less.  Which means we sustained 8 losses by an average of 2 points.  

We were that close to having a 20 plus win season.  That would have been one of..if not the greatest one-season turn around in our history.

Rick

 

 

BTW....best I can tell our greatest one season turnaround was Blakely's first season in 1975..  We won 16 more games than the year before.

 

Rick

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1 hour ago, FirefightnRick said:

BTW....best I can tell our greatest one season turnaround was Blakely's first season in 1975..  We won 16 more games than the year before.

 

Rick

Billy Gillespie was at UTEP for 2 years.  His first season he won 6, then the following year they went 24-8.

That 6-win team was still incredible to watch.  That team played really really hard for him and the university.  Filiberto Rivera is still my favorite college point guard of all time.  Omar Thomas had an exceptional dribble-drive game.  I don't know if the record still stands, but when he signed to El Paso, he was the all-time JUCO scoring leader.

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9 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

BTW....best I can tell our greatest one season turnaround was Blakely's first season in 1975..  We won 16 more games than the year before.

 

Rick

Blakeley did win 16 over the previous year  (from 6-20 to 22-4) but it could have been 5-6 more if those college teams were allowed to play the same amount of games as today (around 31-32); in the regular season. That team also would have certainly had their choice of  post-season tournaments; to pick up 2-3 more wins.  

One important factor I consider with new coaches is how did they finish the season? That Blakeley lead team finished the season on a high and was deemed the best basketball program in Texas; averaging about 8,000 in attendance. 

Unfortunately, other coaches have not fared as well as Blakeley in their first season:

McCasland - 15-16

Johnny Jones - 15-14

Tim Jankovich - 14-15

Tommy Newman - 9-11

Tony Benford - 12-20

Vic Trilli 5-21

Jimmy Gales - 11-17.

Of course, one could always point to and argue the ease in increasing wins when the predecessor had a very low number. It certainly helped Blakeley's legacy.

After Jimmy Gales first campaign of 11-17, he took the team to the NCAA tournament by winning the conference/tournament.  Hopefully, we will see a better ending (not that this season is over) next year under McCasland. Expectation(s) historically are higher in 2 & 3.

 

Edited by Cooley
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