Texas A&M 81, UTEP 76

Basketball season is starting to look a lot like football season; big programs are getting beat, at home, by much smaller programs. After the first half I was concerned we would be part of that trend. UTEP was up by 8, had gone 8 for 16 from 3, and Stephon Jackson seemed to be making any shot past half court. On the other hand we could not buy a bucket: 10-31 shooting and 1-8 from 3. At half time Turge told the team that we just need to stick together and play our game, even "if they hit every shot we were going to stick together and be a team." I guess we stuck together, if the result of sticking together is figuring how to defend the screen and make a shot. In the second half UTEP only made two more threes out of 10 attempts, while we went 5-9, including one from Josh carter with 2 minutes left that gave us the lead.

DJ had a great game; 12 boards, six on offense, and a nasty block. Free throws were again troublesome for him, he one for six. A guy who is that bad from the line can really hurt you in big games. Think Hack-a-Shaq. There were some glimmers of greatness from Derek Rolan and Dolan Sloan, but neither player is "playing anywhere near were they are going to be playing at some point."

One thing I find intresting is Turge's offensive shift. Just a few weeks ago he described our offense as in "constant motion", but now we are going to "live or die playing inside out." Did we miss enough shots to make him give up the motion? He did say that we have to try and find a way to make some shots, maybe this is his way.