MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The box score of Middle Tennessee men's basketball's 71-68 win over UTEP will show Camryn Weston scored zero points, going 0-for-3 from the floor. But scan your eyes further down the line and you'll see that the senior guard's impact on the offense was measured in far than his own scoring on Saturday.
 
"I was decent," said Jlynn Counter, who led the Blue Raiders with 21 points. "But I've got to give credit to this guy to my left, 14 assists, two turnovers, that's pretty insane. He was finding us tonight."
 
In an afternoon with no shortage of storylines to parse through in the Glass House, from Jestin Porter becoming the 38th Blue Raider to score 1,000 points in the Blue and White to Essam Mostafa's recovery from injury that kept him out of a game earlier this week to secure a double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds) in his first game back, it was Weston's 14-assist, zero-point afternoon that stood out among everything else.
 
Saturday's game from Weston was the first time a college player had that many assists with no points since December 1, 2019, when Cameron Parker of Sacred Heart dished out 24 assists while scoring no points in a 101-57 win over Division III foe Pine Manor. In games between two Division I teams? It's the first time that's happened since March 14, 2018, when Mississippi State's Lamar Peters had 14 assists, no points in 66-59 win over Nebraska in the first round of that season's NIT.
 
Those 14 dimes from Weston resulted in 31 points for the Blue Raiders, including 12 of Counter's 21 and eight of Mostafa's 17 points on the day. Over half of MTSU's field goals on Saturday were made after passes from Weston.
 
"When we get open for him, he's throwing money," Porter said. "He'll look you off and still throw it to you."
 
Weston was key in keeping MTSU in the game on Thursday night against New Mexico State, scoring 17 points in a loss to the Aggies. But he said he knows that it doesn't always have to be him doing the scoring.
 
"Every night is not always going to be your night," Weston said. "Tonight was Rocc's night, JP's night, Essam's night. I just played my role. Get them open, get them the ball."
 
Essential to that role, head coach Nick McDevitt said, was Weston's ability to the ball in the paint. A maestro with the ball in hands as a dribbler, Weston draws a lot of attention from the defense even on the perimeter. But when he's inside and has a chance to score? McDevitt said that often forces defenses to react in a way that opens up opportunity for others.
 
"Because of his size and strength, if you don't help, he's going to finish," McDevitt said, praising Weston's high basketball IQ. "Now, all of a sudden, the defense is collapsing, these guys are moving and making shots."
 
Making the statline even more impressive, McDevitt said, was the style of defense UTEP plays, one that prioritizes havoc, entering Saturday as the defense that's forced more turnovers than any team in Division I basketball this season. With bigs that hard hedge off ball screens and overplay passing lanes, all while applying intense, on-ball pressure, it's a scheme that's liable to cause some players to throw the ball away. Weston had just two turnovers on the afternoon as the team's primary ball handler.
 
"Against anybody, that's hard," McDevitt said of Weston's 7.0 assist to turnover ratio. "Against that style of defense, it's very difficult to do and awfully impressive."