I had to go back and look because I didn't remember him almost losing the ball on his own. I saw it get poked away by a defender with about 30 seconds left. Is that what you're referring to? I guess you can say that shouldn't happen, but it's not like he just dribbled it off his foot in the backcourt. It's pretty tough to judge either way in mop up time when he's being told not to go toward the basket.
I've never been one to spend much time analyzing shots. They can shoot it granny style for all I care, as long as it goes in. I didn't see anything in his very limited game time to tell me his shot is the problem, which you stated is the reason why he's not playing.
AGAIN, I'm not saying Eli should be starting or getting 20+ minutes a game and I don't think we magically turn into early '90s UNLV if he plays more, but I don't think it's that unnatural for some fans to wonder why a kid that was a 3/4* recruit with other high major offers is getting the same minutes as the guy who was a backup qb for Kansas a year ago.
More to the point for me, if he's that far behind (most likely on defense if we know anything about TJ) I don't understand why we blew a year of eligibility for 10 total minutes of game time.