Healthy Bulldogs open CUSA play with clear intentions

Louisiana Tech’s mission to make good on its status as preseason favorites in Conference USA begins Thursday on the road against the UTEP Miners (10-3).

And luckily for the Bulldogs (11-2), they’re starting their league journey as healthy as you could ask for after a two-week break from action – getting Sean Elkinton, Jordan Crawford, and Devin Ree back fully healthy in what will be the start of a motivated run in CUSA for Tech this year.

“We’re happy with where we’re at and we’re happy we got a break because we had a lot of injuries,” LA Tech head coach Talvin Hester said. For the first time, besides Will Jeffress, we’re going to go out there with our whole team. And not even a guy with a strain or anything like that. We’re healthy. I’m glad we got the break. We needed it at the time we needed it.”

Health progress is nothing to overlook according to Hester, who is grateful the longer break allowed the Bulldogs to refocus on their matchup with the Miners while allowing nagging injuries to settle down. Despite picking up wins over Grand Canyon, UMass, Richmond, Southern Illinois, Louisiana-Lafyette, and Georgia Southern to name a few in non-conference action without a fully available lineup, a full-strength LA Tech gives Hester and his staff the versatility they need to maximize a run towards a regular season title.

That journey starts Thursday against a UTEP team built to cause chaos and grind teams down. But if the Bulldogs stay poised and recognize a win comes from trusting the fresh faces around them, they should be in good shape in Hester’s assessment.

“Mastering the basics. Playing within ourselves and taking care of the ball,” Hester said of executing against UTEP. “Come to two-foot stops on paint touches. Not passing the ball on the move. They’re really good at when you get a rebound on the outlet pass shooting back to take the ball, not being stationary on outlet passes. They can’t beat you up. They’re just pressuring the ball. If we’re just strong with the ball and pass to each other, pass to the light-colored jerseys, I think we’ll be OK.”

UTEP is 7-0 at home this season and leads CUSA in turnover margin (+5.2), opponent turnovers (249), and steals (150). The Miners have traditionally been a pressing, in-your-face team that wants to take teams out of their strengths by speeding them up. But for as good as the Miners are defensively, they have the second worst scoring offense in CUSA (74.5 ppg), leaving room for the Bulldogs to pull away if they take care of the ball and value possessions.

It's going to help that Tech has a top five-point guard in the country in Sean Newman, who ranks second nationally in total assists (128) while leading the nation in assists per game (9.8) to go with a solid scoring average of 9.7 ppg. He has 40 assists and 11 turnovers over his last three games and put up 12 total assists to 7 turnovers in two wins over UTEP last season.

The Bulldogs have a strong core around Newman as well if the Miners try to speed him up and force the ball out of his hands, with Daniel Batcho (20 ppg, 6.8 rebounds), Amaree Abram (13.7 ppg) and Kaden Cooper (12.8 ppg) all working well together throughout non-conference play.

Overall, Tech has done a good job of limiting turnovers, averaging just under 13 a game coming in.

But for Abram, Cooper, and many others, this will be their introduction to CUSA competition and Hester knows it’s not going to be a walk in the park, even if the Bulldogs took care of the Miners last year and are seen as the league’s top-dogs.

If they’re not ready to meet the intensity level or standard of late-game execution, Hester said it could be a shaky start. But if they stick to who they are and trust that Newman, Batcho, and their own game is good enough, they’ll come out of El Paso 1-0 in CUSA play.

“It’s been as strong as I’ve seen it since I’ve been in the league,” Hester said of CUSA this season. “I just hope that the league can keep it up. I feel like it should be one of the most respected leagues in the country. We know it’s not Power 4. We get that but it’s a respected level of basketball and it always has been.

“If we go out and know how hard we have to play, I think we’ll be fine.”

LA Tech (11-2) takes on UTEP (10-3) on Thursday at 8 p.m. in El Paso, Texas, to open CUSA play. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.