Episode 931: UTEP head coach Joe Golding

Marching to Madness

Coach Golding initially appears on the “Marching to Madness” CBB podcast, discussing his UTEP Miners who tied for fourth in the Conference USA basketball regular season. Then, the Miners made it to the conference tournament championship game for the first time since 2011, but they lost a 78-71 decision to Western Kentucky. Coach Golding discusses raising Abilene Christian, his alma mater, from D-2 to D-1 and then the Wildcats winning two of their last three Southland titles which saw them with a pair of NCAA bids, where the previous embodied a victory over Texas in Round 1.

Topics of Discussion include:

• The culture that is developed for players to participate and win in league tournaments
• Losing the top two leading scorers in Sid Powell and Tae Hardy
• The return of Otis Frazier and Corey Camper as Frazier works at power forward while Camper made the second most three-point field goals for the MIners
• The defensive philosophy that allowed the Miners to lead CUSA in allowing only 5.8 made threes as well as a 32.2 percent three point percentage for opponents