Conference USA - Semifinals

(1) UTEP 75, (5) Tulsa 61

There is little doubt that playing the conference tournament in a given team's hometown confers at least some advantage to the team that's graciously hosting said tourney.   For the opening and quarterfinal rounds of the Conference USA Tournament, Tulsa's presence electrified an otherwise indifferent and sparsely populated BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.  With emphatic back-to-back wins, the Golden Hurricane began to look like a team that just might surf the energy of the hometown crowd to a surprise C-USA title.  As it turns out, top-seeded UTEP had other ideas. There would be no coming back for Ben Uzoh, Jerome Jordan, and their teammates versus UTEP.  Just a sound 75-61 beating at the hands of a better team.  

The Big Picture:  UTEP scored the game's first four points on fast-break layups by Jeremy Williams and Randy Culpepper, which was just a sign of things to come in a game in which the Miners never trailed.  The Miners' lead was 35-25 at the half, as they scorched the Tulsa goal, shooting 55.2 % from the floor for the half.  More importantly, UTEP headed off a patented Tulsa second-half comeback by sinking 14-of-17 freebies in the final 20 minutes, and holding both Ben Uzoh and Jerome Jordan in check. 

The Good:    By no stretch of the imagination was this a great performance by UTEP.  The Miners made only 3-of-15 triples; went a pedestrian 16-of-23 from the free throw line; and had only 9 assists compared to 11 turnovers.   The Miners compensated by relentlessly attacking Tulsa with dribble penetration on offense, which led to a 32-22 advantage for UTEP in the paint, and with a disruptive defensive effort that led to 18 Tulsa turnovers and 32 UTEP points off of those turnovers.  Put simply, UTEP's quickness on both sides of the ball is going to create matchup problems no matter who the opponent is. 

The Bad:  In order for Tulsa to have pulled off the upset, senior guard Ben Uzoh and senior big man Jerome Jordan - stars of the C-USA tourney in the first two rounds – needed to continue their superlative play.  That didn't happen.  Both players got in early foul trouble due mostly to UTEP's relentless dribble penetration.  Making matters worse for Tulsa, starting forward Steven Idlet was also in foul trouble all game.  Since Tulsa is not deep to begin with, any sort of foul trouble Tulsa gets in verges on being debilitating. 

The Ugly:  The Miners may have won this one, but can anybody really take their NCAA Tournament chances seriously when they shoot freebies and triples with all the precision of Ted Nugent on meth wielding an AK-47? In the first half on Friday, UTEP made only 1-of-7 3-pointers, and 2-of-6 freebies.  Bricking triples and free throws when versus Tulsa is one thing, doing it in the Big Dance versus superior competition is another.

What’s Next

The Miners roll into the C-USA tourney final as prohibitive favorites to cut down the nets at the BOK Center on Saturday.  Although they split the season series with C-USA finals opponent Houston, the Miners haven't lost a game since back when people had never heard of The Hurt Locker  and Conan O'Brien was still hosting The Tonight Show.  Even if the BOK Center is less than full, UTEP will have the full support of every bubble team in the nation.