Analysis: UTEP men find spark they've been searching for all season
All season long the hope around UTEP men's basketball was that a road win would lead to something more.
Indeed, Thursday's win at Jacksonville State did lead to a Saturday victory at Liberty and suddenly, if the Miners can win as a home favorite against last-place Florida International, they'll take a three-game winning streak to the Conference USA tournament.
More: CUSA men's basketball standings
Nothing is set yet in a wide-open league where the Miners can finish anywhere from fourth to last, but they seem likely to avoid the play-in game.
Remarkably, should they end up in a tie with New Mexico State — a likely result, though a two-way tie is less likely — that would be broken by RPI ranking, where UTEP is 30 spots ahead of an Aggie team they split with in the regular season and matched every league result.
This UTEP team has always had talent, they lead the NCAA nationally in steals by a good margin, and now the Miners are figuring out how to score.
Against Liberty, the revelation was the play of Corey Camper Jr., who with the game on the line, became un-guardable when he scored four consecutive baskets to turn back Liberty's biggest run.
On the other side of the court, the much-maligned Kevin Kalu played the type of defense the Miners need from a center in a lineup that can feature four guards. He didn't score a point and didn't attempt a shot in 25 minutes, but he was plus-22 and his nailing down the middle made the four-guard lineup work.
What UTEP did in its two road wins looked sustainable. The Miners always had the chance to be dangerous in the league tournament because of their talent, now that looks to be coming true.
UTEP still seems unlikely to win the CUSA tournament, which is the only way to extend its season, but it can create some fun in the next two weeks, something that seemed far off a week ago.
This could also be a foundation for the future, which will be bright if presumptive CUSA freshman of the year David Terrell returns.
All season long the Miners looked like a team in search of a spark. At the right time, they've found it.
Women close to tourney bye
The UTEP women continued what has been a season-long trend, winning a home game against a team close to them in the standings, Jacksonville State, then losing to a team at the top of the conference, Liberty.
More: CUSA women's basketball standings
That probably was enough to push them up to seventh in CUSA, which would avoid the tournament play-in game and also undefeated-in-league Middle Tennessee.
Their Thursday game at Florida International could be a preview of the first-round tournament matchup.
For UTEP to have a chance at making some noise at the tournament, it will need to improve on its rebounding, which has been up-and-down all year, and its scoring, which has mostly been down all year.
The rebounding looks most fixable, as at times the Miners have been good at that. UTEP is at its best scoring when it gets everyone involved, when it has four or five players in double figures, so that's something to work on at FIU.
There have been bright spots in a rebuilding season, there was a big bright spot Thursday against Jacksonville State when UTEP had a determined look about it.
This season has mostly been about two steps forward and one step back, but that's a net forward and they've laid a building block for something better.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Analysis: UTEP men's basketball finds spark they've been searching for
