Game 21 - UTEP 76, East Carolina 65

"We look our longest road trip of the season. I'm writing this at the airport. The minute the game was over, we packed up our crap and headed straight for the biggest place in North Carolina that had an airplane.

Actually, I didn't feel lost in Greenville. Two of my friends came to see me from high school ball. We were all on the same team. It was about a seven or eight hour drive for them, and they'd both have to ride on the interstate all night, just to get back home the next day, but it was worth it to see them again. I hope my high school coach doesn't find out. Coach, just don't notice those "Brenda is the Best" and "We Love UTEP #13" signs if you have a secret TV feed to the game that the public doesn't know about. (I really didn't want them to drive that far, but I couldn't stop them.)

Coach Ballard told me all week, "watch out for Princess Abair", "watch out for Princess Abair" and I've heard so much about what she does that I'm sick. "You lapse on defense, Dean, and Abair's going to light you up!" We've really been working on defense, because the Pirates can put the ball up.

So I say hi to my friends, we meet for forty minutes before the game. (Until Coach Ballard calls me back into the locker room.) When we come out, it's a nice little crowd, but not so big that I could lose either of my friends. "Plenty of empty seats."

Anyway, Letell Hanson hits a 3-pointer to put us up 8-6 and for a long time we never look back. We come out hard in a pure zone and they look really tentative. They say a good zone looks like a man to man and we were doing all the right switches. We started to pull head, slowly, and had a 23-13 lead early on.

But East Carolina is dangerous. Abair steps back off that 3-point line like it was electrocuted. She doesn't make use of every inch of space; she'll take those shots a foot off the line, and she hit one that must have been from NBA distance. East Carolina closed back within single digits.

We had a 10-2 run at one point in the first half and at one point we led 41-25. We were playing well enough, but East Carolina was really pushing us off the boards. We had like 12 rebounds in the first half and they had 11. The Pirates closed to within 41-29.

Coach told us straight up. "You're not dominating. It's your free throws that are keeping you in it. (We were 10-for-13.) You're still reacting to them. You have to play your game and have faith in your game. It's UTEP basketball that's going to win this. The other team never knows what's coming!"

In the second half, our faith would be tested. We got cold on the court but East Carolina was still knocking them down and made adjustments, mixing up a pressure defense with a weak side trap whenever we tried to pass the ball. East Carolina started to close in. #12 (Serena Backes) hit a couple of 3-pointers. It was a 10-0 run I was told and the Pirates closed to 52-48.

Tia Ownby was pretty good out there. She hit a little midrange jumper that tied the game 56-56. We were now just hanging in there. "Have faith!" Coach said. "Spread them out, make sure you communicate, avoid the trap."

We were up 63-61, and East Carolina just fell apart. We went up on a 10-2 run, and led 73-63 going into the final few minutes. East Carolina looked busted. They failed the gut check. We passed it and got the win.

There were three pretenders. Now there are just two. There's us, there Southern Miss and there's friggin SMU. All 8-1 in conference. We're going back home feeling better about ourselves. Maybe I can turn this into a psych paper. Abair had 15 points, but I had 18 - not that I look at such things."

--Brenda Dean



This was a very tight game, and played out pretty much as our narrator said it did. UTEP's shooting sagged to 34 percent in the second half which gave the Pirates space to come back. But the Miners made a run as the game was down to the final minutes, and East Carolina just imploded.

Also: the head coach of East Carolina picked up two technical fouls before that final run. Maybe East Carolina didn't have a deep "coaching bench" and without the coach the team just fell apart. Whether Sharon Baldwin-Tener - the real coach of East Carolina - has ever picked up a technical foul is left as an aside.

Oh yes, and the final AP RPI rank and Coaches RPI rank.

API Poll RPI: 48
Coaches Poll RPI: 40

Up next: Marshall, back in El Paso.

Game 20 - UTEP 79, UAB 59

"Sometimes, there are games where you feel like you're going to win even coming in. We went to Birmingham, Alabama to play the Blazers. When we hit the court, the Blazers obliged us by picking up four fouls in the first two minutes. When I heard those whistles and counted the fouls, I turned to Toya (LaToya Lloyd) and asked 'do you believe this?' She said, 'I think the pressure just got to them.' And two minutes weren't up yet.

We couldn't really build a big lead on them, but we remained in control. Even when UAB worked it down to one possession, we still felt in control. We hit the half 31-28 and Coach Ballard just kept saying, 'Don't lose your focus. Play your game. They're playing quality ball, but heart is going to tell." I decided that I was just going to play with some heart, and I scored eight points as the second half got underway - a couple of threes, both from the top of the key helped.

The closest they got was 48-45. We began to pull away. We were up by 10 and Josina Costa helped us get a little run late in the second. The Blazers were gassed. They just couldn't handle our defense. We held them to like 30 percent. I even picked up four rebounds on them, and my defense sucks."

--Brenda Dean



Once again, I've forgotten to include assists-steals-blocks by half. If anyone at all is reading, my apologies.

As it turned out, Dream would score the most points of the game with 18. At some point in this process, I need to count up player stats. She had a 25 point game against SMU, a 25 point game against Tulsa...hmm, for some reason I thought Dean was fading but I think she's coming on strong. A good game all around.

With this game, we've ended eight games in Conference USA. I have a way of determining who wins the games I don't play out, but I don't think the method is working. Here are the Conference USA standings half-way through the season.



So how do you get four teams tied with 7-1 records? How do you have two teams with 0-8 records? It boggles the mind. It seems like the superior teams are just not being challenged.

The Blazers' 3-17 record, however, hurts UTEP in the rankings. They'd be ranked a lot higher if they played a tougher schedule.

AP Poll RPI: 50
Coaches Poll RPI: 41

Up next - the very tough East Carolina team, which is 7-1 in Conference USA - at least in my universe. In the real world, they were 8-8 for the year which proves that my system is broken.

Game 19 - UTEP 67, Memphis 49

"We flew into Memphis on Thursday to begin a big road trip. We play five out of the next six games on the road. Our next opponent is Memphis, and we know that Memphis isn't very good. But after we lost to SMU at home, Coach Ballard warned us about this road trip and to take every opponent seriously. So we do.

The new ESPN polls are out and I look at wherever UTEP is. I could be playing for Connecticut or Tennessee, and I wonder how things would be different if it weren't for the accident. That loss to SMU made us lose 16 votes in the Coaches' Poll. Only two coaches think we're a top 25 team. We're off everyone else's radar, and a win against Memphis won't impress anybody.

The upperclassmen say that every time we go to Memphis the coaches take us somewhere to see something important or fun if we have time. The university considers this part of a culture-building exercise. We went to see Sun Studios because it was relatively cheap - you don't think that the university is going to pay for that but the students could pay for it out of their pockets. (We had some, uh, "help" in paying for it.) Toya (LaToya Lloyd) said that she was tempted to cut a few records herself. Toya and Wilhelmina Moss started making up a blues ditty on the spot. I don't think the other tourists cared for their singing.

We got to play at the FedEx Forum. We were the first game of a double-header with the men's Memphis team. It was their last scheduled game there this year and some of the men's fans took the opportunity to watch us. I wonder how many were paying attention and how many were waiting for the men's game. (My guess: 5/95).

Seems that their coach must have told them to play hard defense and not take too many shots - to slow us down. Coach Ballard was telling us that she wanted more ball movement, and that Toya and I are were to try to find someone for the dime. So they were playing slow, we were playing slow and it was a slog.

I knew what kind of game it was #35 (Letell Hanson) hit a 3-pointer to start the game and picked up the foul too. We never lost the lead from the first basket and we charged out to a 13-4 lead. We led by 23 points at one time, 57-34.

That was when Coach told us to slow the game down even more. "Let's not blow these guys out." Coach said it because Memphis was just a bunch of slow girls. That roof would have to cave in for us to lose this game. She wanted touches after "1001, 1002". We tried to get a passing game going and Memphis scored the next 14 points because they knew we were still trying to figure it out. They closed to 57-49.

But Toya - who hadn't scored a field goal all night - woke up in the end when we were all in the bonus. She scored like 8 points in the last five minutes of the game, two baskets (one for 3 points) and some free throw shots.

Next up is Alabama-Birmingham. No plane for us, we get in a bus. I should have bought a harmonica to play on the trip so that Toya can practice her blues. How many notes can I learn before we get there?"

- Brenda Dean



Well, there you have it from the horse's mouth herself. Dean only ended up with 10 points in this game, but she shot 4 for 7 and had 3 rebounds and a steal. Letell Hanson's 20 point game was rather surprising. As for Memphis, they shot themselves out of the game - they only hit 14.8 percent of their shots in the first half and only hit 27.7 percent for the game. This game would probably lead to one of those perplexing interviews coaches give - really, what can you say when you've hit less than one of the five shots you've attempted. (Lyn Yeats had a 6-for-22 night, she took 22 of Memphis's 54 shooting attempts.)

Here are the final results in both polls - what each poll would look like if it included all positions instead of the Top 25, and if it were maintained on a game-to-game basis:

AP Poll Rank: 49
Coaches Poll Rank: 39

Not good enough quite yet to get in at-large in the NCAA Tournament. The Miners need to win a few more games to do that.

Game 18 - SMU 87, UTEP 74

"Everyone has gone out to do something with the rest of their day. I'm sitting in front of a psych book at the laboratory looking up some stupid statistical program. No one really knows who I am. I know they don't, because no one said something like, "bad loss". No one here really cares.

SMU was favored to be the top finisher in the CUSA and they wanted to prove it. Coach Ballard said, "For the Mustangs, this is a statement game." Last year, we won the CUSA regular season title but the Mustangs won the tournament. They came out and they played us hard. Usually, we can outrebound a team but not SMU. The way they matched up against us - that game went by like a rocket.

I got matched up against Ashlee Schuch. She said, "so you're the hillbilly senstatation."

"Bite me, bitch." We went at it. Shit, you should have seen what she got away with. You should have seen what I got away with. I was both popping elbows, shoving from the back. She wouldn't even get riled. She would just come right at me, daring me to stop her whenever we matched up in the Zone. And she came at me a lot.

We were tied in the first halff and then they started a run and we we went down by eight points. That's what Coach said, I wasn't looking up at the score. I was trying to run coach's double wing trap but Schuch slid right out of it. I couldn't run it but everyone else could and we managed to make our way back to a halftime tie at 42-42. "Defense, #13. Defense!" was what coach was telling me but I was still thinking about Schuch."

I got caught tapping Schuch's elbow when she was getting the shot off. I said something to the ref that I wouldn't want my mother to hear. I got T-ed up. They hit the shot. I was so dazed by the technical that I double-dribbled, and I don't think I've double dribbled since I was in 7th grade.

I snapped out of it and I answered with the 3-pointer. It was sweet. We began to wake up and we took the lead but they came right back at us. One of their players, #14 (Gowans) went down but SMU didn't stop.

Then...we just fell apart. I think we were up 66-63 and they went on a 12-0 run. We couldn't shoot, and SMU spread the floor on us. They started to move that ball around and whenever we were one-on-one with someone, they just had a few more inches. They could either get the midrange jumper or find the open man for the shot. I looked at everybody, and we were all just fish-eyed.

We closed it to 77-71, but they were on a roll. With about two minutes left, I fouled out. "Why aren't you talking?" Coach screamed at everyone else while I walked back to the bench. She didn't even acknowledge me. "You better learn to help each other or they're going to eat you alive in the tournament!"

It was over. SMU was high-fiving each other and celebrating on our own court. I had 25 points. I shot 10-for-30. Schuch had 24 points - she shot 10-for-14 and went 3-for-4 in 3-point shooting.

Hardly anyone was there. Coach Ballard let us have it. "Don't you dare look at me. I wasn't the one out there who wasn't communicating. I wasn't the one who let SMU shoot 56 percent on us. I wasn't the one who was out there not fighting for possessions. You better look at yourself and find the answer for that."

We're all trying to blow it off and pretend that it doesn't matter. But it does. Coach will kill us tomorrow. The season goes on. We won't go undefeated in C-USA. And I'm here stuck in the psych lab, hurting all over."

--Brenda Dean





It was a tough game, and I was actually surprised to see UTEP lose a game. After you build up a 15-2 record with your cards - UTEP had won six straight until this game. It just goes to show you that even if you tilt the table in your direction, it is very hard to go undefeated at any level of college basketball.

UTEP now goes on the road for three straight games, playing the next four games against opponents from the eastern United States. If the tournament started today, UTEP would be in third place. Four teams in C-USA get first round byes; the rest of those teams have to play an opening round game.

Here are the new ranks:

AP Poll Rank: 50
Coaches Poll Rank: 35

Up next - the Miners go to Memphis. Memphis is 6-12 and is 0-6 in CUSA play.

Game 17 - UTEP 75, Tulsa 67

"We figured that we weren't going to have very much trouble with Tulsa. Tulsa had a really good player named Jazmin Beddow who could ball, and sometimes I wondered why Tulsa wasn't better that it was. The problem was that their fronts couldn't play any defense. They played that 7-11 defense - you know, put your hands up and remain perfectly still. Coach Ballard said that Tulsa wouldn't set a screen if their lives depended on it and they didn't look sharp on tape.

So we got off to a 17-10 lead. We had 17 points and we were just keeping them right off the boards. Tulsa didn't have a single rebound, offensive or defensive - they'd shoot, we'd pick up the ball and then we'd try. We were making it look really good - we were up 26-12 before they got a rebound - and they kept sending us to the foul line. We didn't notice that Tulsa was sneaking up on us, but they had closed the gap to six points at the end of the half and we went into halftime 36-30.

But when they came out in the second, they rolled out. Marcie Palin came out strong and she scored two buckets early on. (Never trust that name, you know.) Tulsa tied it at 38-38 with a bucket by Palin and she got the And One. That put them up 41-38 but Letell (Hanson) hit the 3 at the top of the arc and tied it back up.

After that, we were in a fight for our lives. Tulsa smelled blood, an upset on our home grounds. The game was getting physical - Patty Clark went out when she hurt her hand and went back on the bench in the first half - and we were just throwing everything at Tulsa that we could think of. Tulsa was setting screens. I think it's sick when these crappy teams have a good run, and then all of a sudden they remember their fundamentals.

At one point, we were leading 68-61 when Palin closed it to 68-64 with the bucket and drawing the foul. She would score 25 points on us. Down 70-64, and with the clock running down, they were going to have to one of us to the foul lines.

"Put it in #13's hands," Coach said. Those were my hands.

So Tulsa put that press on at the end and they sent me to the foul line twice. They managed to close the game to four but I hit all four of my shots, including the last two shots of the game that gave us an eight point lead and killed a comeback.

We're 5-0 in conference. I'm starting to become very aware of that, and everyone else is starting to be aware of it, too." I dread this game with SMU coming up. Coach is going to work us like dogs.

--Brenda Dean

(* * *)



I think it's been about two weeks since I played this game, so I don't remember much about it. I don't keep a shot-for-shot record, but I do scribble notes. What you read above is basically recounted from the notes, and I can't vouch for its accuracy. Maybe Brenda wrote that diary entry after the fact, I don't know.

Okay, so it's been busy. I'll give you an idea of how the C-USA looks right now. UTEP leads 5-0 in conference, followed by East Carolina, Southern Mississippi and Southern Methodist, all of whom are 4-1. Memphis and Rice are both 0-5 in conference.

After the Southern Methodist game - the next game on the schedule - UTEP goes on a long road trip, playing five out of six games on the road, including the longest road trip of the year against East Carolina on the road.

The current rankings:

AP Poll RPI: 41
Coaches Poll RPI: 31

This was a slide backwards in the Coaches RPI. Obviously, there's no such thing as a game-per-game RPI. This just gives you an idea of where the team stands at any particular moment. There won't even be a new poll until after the SMU game.

(You know, maybe I'm too invested in this thing....)

Game 16 - UTEP 59, Tulane 53

"I was rooming with Toya (LaToya Lloyd) now. We were sitting in a hotel room in New Orleans, thinking about our first C-USA road game against Tulane. It's a long, long flight from El Paso to New Orleans, longer than I thought it was going to be. She said to me, 'So do you think Debra Rodgers will say hi to us?'

Debra Rodgers was a host of ESPN women's basketball. I said, "What, you think she'll fly in to see us?"

"Yeah. I think so. The game's gonna be on ESPN2."

Oh shit. Toya was right. I didn't even know! So I'm calling my family like crazy on Toya's cell phone, saying 'Turn on the game! Turn on the game! I'm gonna be on ESPN2!' I hoped I had a better showing in my second game than in my first one, because I want to play in the W someday. If it's still around, that is.

We drove by the football stadium. I remember when I was in high school, and I turned on the TV, and instead of a stadium there was one big pond full of water, its outlines marked by the stadium. The bus took us through some damaged parts of New Orleans. They still hadn't cleaned everything up. It was spooky, and knowing that we were going to be on national TV set me on edge. I like to drink a can of Mountain Dew and have a Snickers bar before a game; when we tipped off I was going to be caffeinated up.

We get to the basketball arena and Coach is telling us how important this is. 'You know that playing at UTEP is tough for other teams. Well, you won't be a championship team unless you can win on the road. They're telling each other, 'not in our house'! Well, you have to go out there and face that. Ladies, there are a lot of things that you can't control. But you can always control effort. I want to see effort."

So we go out there all fired up...and nothing.. We fall behind 6-0. Then 8-0. Then 12-0 and Coach Ballard calls time out. She looks at us and she says, 'Don't make me hickory switch you back to El Paso. You got yourselves into this mess, now go out there and get yourselves out of it. Don't expect me to call a time out for you every time you're facing adversity."

It didn't look like we were going to pull out of it. We were down 22-10 and we were in a lot of foul trouble. Going over the back. Being out of position to get the ball. Before we knew it, Toya was sitting, Patty Clark was sitting, and I was sitting.

Then, we went on a 9-0 run to close it to 22-19. We were way over the foul limit - we had 12 fouls in the first quarter - but we managed to fight our way back to a 24-23 game at halftime.

Coach held Toya out after halftime. She held a lot of us out, including me. Brianna (Neal) wasn't hitting any thing, but we had Antonia Martynau out there at shooting guard, and she pulled our bacon out of the burning fat. She hit a couple of back-to-back 3-pointers that had everyone on the bench on their feet and waving towels. Then she hit the next basket. Eight straight points from Marty, and we took a 10-0 run ot lead 35-26.

We were still having foul trouble, though. We were going to be over the limit again, and they brought it back to 43-41. I was back on the court, and my job was just to dish the ball to either #34 (Williamette Moss) or our designated second scorer. Tulane wasn't going to go away. Toya got hit with her fifth foul, and we were down our starting point guard.

Down 49-46, I managed to hit a 15 point jumper and drew the foul. I made the free throw to put the Miners up 52-46 and we were starting to edge forward. This was going to be close, because Tulane still wouldn't give up. We were up 57-53 and Tulane would get the next possession, but they were pressing us anyway. #34 drew the foul and hit both shots. Tulane couldn't make anything happen in the final 30 seconds despite two attempts at a long ball.

We did it. 59-53. We wouldn't have to play the Green Wave ever again - until we played them in the post-season tournament, and I hope we didn't."

--Brenda Dean



The jump Tulane got early in the game made me think that UTEP was doomed even before they started. Tulane had three Home Index points and UTEP was getting in a lot of foul trouble. So would the limitations on visiting UTEP be enough to win the game for Tulane.

Answer: No. I don't count offensive rebounds but UTEP outrebounded Tulane 38-29. Furthermore, despite going to the free throw line 26 times, Tulane could only hit 14 shots from the stripe. If Tulane had been more accurate at the free throw line and had a few more rebounds, they could have made a game of it. C'est la vie. Brenda's happy, and I'm happy.

Up next: UTEP goes back to El Paso to play Tulsa, which is 1-3 in CUSA - and 3-13 overall.

AP Poll RPI: 41
Coaches Poll RPI: 29

Hey, you look good when you're 14-2 on the year. But will UTEP ever crack the Top 25 in either poll?

Game Fifteen: UTEP 72, Houston 61

"I had been looking forward to this game since they announced it. Coach Ballard told us that Houston would be tough. 'They come out and give it all they've got. You know how tough that game was when we played those former Houston players. They call them the Cougars because they bite and claw at you. If you want to be conference champs, you'd better beat them on your home court, cause they might be too tough to beat at home. They take it right to you.' Normally, that's just Coach talking, but I believed it.

This was going to be a nationally televised game. And we definitely had an audience for it. It wasn't as if we filled up the Don Haskins Center, but I can tell you that there were more there than at one of my sold-out high school games. This would be the first time my parents got a chance to see me play on TV, and I knew that my extended family would be watching. It would be on ESPN2. Two teams with at least 10 wins playing for position in CUSA.

I was still suffering from that poke in the eye I got from the Rice game. I tried out some of those clear goggles, but they don't do much for your peripheral vision. At least, my eyes would be protected this time.

Anyway, we hit the court and we get lucky because Houston gets into foul trouble early on. Their coach took a T straight up and I had no idea why. Someone said she stuck her tongue out at a ref, some said that she said something that the ref didn't like and we took a 1-0 lead...because I shanked the first free throw. I guess I was nervous, huh, but those goggles were ignorant.

We take a lead in the first half, but #35 (Letell Hanson) goes down. Brianna (Neal) was ready to hop right in there. I played pretty well in the first half, but I had problems with those goggles, and the doctor recommended that I play with some sort of eye protection. I couldn't see those Houston girls moving around me, and when we went into the 2-3 I looked pretty sorry.

We took a 35-25 lead at the end of the first. Early in the second, I almost collided with a Houston player, and Coach takes me out. 'Can you see in those things?' she said.

'Not really well,' I admitted. I almost ran right into a screen, and there was a lot that I couldn't see coming.

'You've had enough. I shouldn't have put you out there, but you wanted to be out there,' Coach said. 'So you sit.'

So there I was during the second, sitting next to Mackie (Immaculata Suarez), with who I've had bad blood. We didn't say a word to each other. All I could do was watch. Houston wasn't going to go down easily, and they stayed within single digits of us in the second half. They started closing back. Up 57-54, we gave up a couple of fouls and before we knew it, Houston had tied us 57-57.

We were on f***ing knife edge, because I didn't want to lose to nasty Houston in our house. We were leading 64-61, and then Tony (Antonina Martynau) sinks this off-balance shot, and #12 (Shanna Jetton) draws her fifth foul. We held her to two points.

That sparked us. We were on a roll and the Cougars didn't score another point all afternoon. Mackie got out there and Coach just told her to dish the ball, and she did what she was told. Tony was on fire. She scored 15 points. Our starters only scored 31 points, everything came off the bench in that game. Their monster center, Woelfle, tried one last shot with time expired and Patty Clark just f***king blocked it! Reject!

I wanted to score more than nine points. But that game was great. When we play them at Houston, they'll come with everything they've got."

--Brenda Dean



Some trivia for this game and a reference to one of the 1993 rules of Statis Pro Basketball.

UTEP only had 3 Team Index points. (4 Home Index for UTEP - 1 Road Index for Houston). Obviously, UTEP would have to conserve its points. However, the technical foul earned by the Houston coach in the first half took away an Index Point from UTEP! Why? According to the rules, a technical foul can be considered an attempt by a coach to work over the refs, and the refs begin giving the team the benefit of the doubt.

What happens when the home team has no Index Points left and the visiting team earns a technical? According to the 1993 rules, the visiting team gains an Index Point of its own! If you know that the home team is holding on to an Index Point, and if you're head by about five or more late in the game, I can imagine some player deliberately provoking a technical foul to strip away that Index Point.

So how is UTEP looking in the rankings?

AP Poll RPI: 46
Coaches Poll RPI: 34

UTEP has four votes in the Coaches poll, but is not ranked, obviously. UTEP isn't ranked in the AP poll, either.

In the next game, UTEP will be on the road against Tulane. See the previous card set if you want to look at the cards. UTEP killed Tulane 90-52 in their first meeting of the year.

The 3,680 attendance is UTEP's biggest attendance of the year - but you know in women's basketball that attendees sometimes masquerade as empty seats.

Game Eight: UTEP 94, Jackson State 52

"This was our first game after final exams. Didn't do bad. Got two As and two Bs to make the Dean's List, but both of the Bs are in my major - psychology. Good Lord. What have I got myself into?

We were playing the Jackson State Lady Tigers. They managed to keep up with us for a little while, and led 6-2 at one point, and then tied 11-11. After that, we went on an 8-0 run and that was the end of the game. They hit a wall and #55 (Denita Ellies) couldn't do everything for them. She was the only good player they had.

How bad did it get? I was only allowed to score 12 points. Coach Ballard told me flat out that she wasn't going to let me break 40 points against these guys. After we went up 20 we started to pass it around, after we went up 30 we sat down #34 (Williamette Moss). Their guards couldn't defend and we were just pumping it into #54 (Brianna Neal). She scored 24 points and was the leading scorer.

We just crushed them. There were only a few interesting moments. Toya (LaToya Lloyd) got into a fight and they ejected her. Coach Ballard had a private discussing with her after the game. Toya said Ballard let her have it and I bet money she's going to have to miss the game against Utah. After the game we inducted her into UTEP's "Fight Club". It has five members so far, all players who have been ejected from games for fighting.

In the second quarter, Martie (Marta Jaworowski) went down with an ankle injury. It's not serious but she's probably going to miss the next game - I asked the trainer. Guess who Coach Ballard picked to play the five late in the game? Me! I never played center in high school. Hell, I never played forward in high school. And Coach says, "Go out there Dean and play the five." I look at her like "What?" and she just stares at me.

I went out there. Didn't do too bad. Had 15 rebounds and 4 assists this game. Thank God #55 has fouled out by that time, or I would have just looked stupid."

--Brenda Dean



Ah the glory of the box score. This was clearly UTEP's biggest win, and UTEP could have broken the 100 point barrier if they had tried. When UTEP goes up by twenty, I had UTEP deliberately use both ADVANCE phases. You could see what happened - UTEP had 23 total assists in the game, which is a rarity for a team that has players that create their own shots.

When UTEP went up by thirty, I pulled out a player. When they went up by forty, I pulled out another player.

And once again, you can see that there was another fight. I used my alternate rules. When the Z result called for fighting between both guards, I flipped the next card over and looked at the number under Foul Drawing. It was in the 80s, indicating that I would accept the fighting results. So new rule: If the result is between 85 and 88, I'll allow an ejection for fighting. Until then, we'll be shorthanded by two players for the next game with Utah, which is a road game: Lloyd will be suspended for one game and Jaworowski will sit out one game with an injury according to the new injury rules.

Note that in each of the two halves, UTEP had more rebounds than Jackson State did for the entire game.



Here is the RPI calculation for UTEP. UTEP moves up in the AP Poll RPI (because wins weigh more heavily) but falls in the Coaches Poll RPI (because quality of competition weighs more). Look at the Opponent RPI rank and you'll learn that UTEP's 7-1 win record is built on a foundation of sand.