UTEP Miners men's basketball

(Redirected from UTEP Miners basketball) Men's basketball team of the University of Texas at El Paso

UTEP Miners

2024–25 UTEP Miners men's basketball team

University

The University of Texas at El Paso

Head coach

Joe Golding (4th season)

Conference

Conference USA
(Mountain West in 2026–27)

Location

El Paso, Texas

Arena

Don Haskins Center
(capacity: 12,000)

Nickname

Miners

Student section

Miner Maniacs

Colors

Dark blue, orange, and silver accent

NCAA tournament champions

1966

NCAA tournament Final Four

1966

NCAA tournament Elite Eight

1966

NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen

1964, 1966, 1967, 1992

NCAA tournament round of 32

1975, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1992

NCAA tournament appearances

1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1975, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2004, 2005, 2010

Conference tournament champions

1984, 1986, 1989, 1990, 2005

Conference regular season champions

1957, 1959, 1970, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1992, 2004, 2010

The UTEP Miners basketball team plays for University of Texas at El Paso in El Paso, Texas. The team is an NCAA Division I men's college basketball team competing in the Conference USA. Home games are played at Don Haskins Center.

History

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1966 Texas Western basketball team

Main article: 1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team

As Texas Western, the Miners won the 1966 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The 72–65 victory over Kentucky in College Park, Maryland is considered one of the most important in the history of college basketball, as it marked the first time that a team with five African-American starters won a title game. It came against a Kentucky team that had no African-American players, during the period of the Civil Rights Movement.

The title team has been chronicled throughout the American media, including the book And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Frank Fitzpatrick in 1999 and the 2006 Disney movie Glory Road.

The team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Postseason

NCAA tournament results

The Miners have appeared in 17 NCAA Tournaments and were the 1966 National Champions. Their combined record is 14–16.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1963	Round of 25	Texas	L 47–65
1964	Round of 25 Sweet Sixteen Regional third-place game	Texas A&M Kansas State Creighton	W 68–62 L 60–64 W 63–52
1966	Round of 25 Sweet Sixteen Elite Eight Final Four National Championship	Oklahoma City Cincinnati Kansas Utah Kentucky	W 89–74 W 78–76 W 81–80 W 85–78 W 72–65
1967	Round of 25 Sweet Sixteen Regional third-place game	Seattle Pacific Wyoming	W 62–54 L 63–72 W 69–67
1970	First round	Utah State	L 81–91
1975	First round	Indiana	L 53–78
1984*	Second round	UNLV	L 60–73
1985	First round Second round	Tulsa NC State	W 79–75 L 73–86
1986	First round	Bradley	L 65–83
1987	First round Second round	Arizona Iowa	W 98–91 L 82–84
1988	First round	Seton Hall	L 64–80
1989	First round Second round	LSU Indiana	W 85–74 L 69–92
1990	First round	Minnesota	L 61–64
1992	First round Second round Sweet Sixteen	Evansville Kansas Cincinnati	W 55–50 W 66–60 L 67–69
2004	First round	Maryland	L 83–86
2005	First round	Utah	L 54–60
2010	First round	Butler	L 59–77

Received a first round bye in 1984.

NIT results

The Miners have appeared in ten National Invitation Tournaments. Their combined record is 6–10.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1965	First round	Manhattan	L 53–71
1972	First round	Niagara	L 57–76
1980	First round Second round	Wichita State Michigan	W 58–56 L 65–75
1981	First round Second round	San Jose State Tulsa	W 57–53 L 72–76
1993	First round Second round	Houston Georgetown	W 67–61 L 44–71
1995	First round Second round	Montana New Mexico State	W 90–60 L 89–92
2001	First round Second round	McNeese State Memphis	W 84–74 L 65–90
2006	Opening Round First round	Lipscomb Michigan	W 85–66 L 67–82
2011	First round	New Mexico	L 57–69
2015	First round	Murray State	L 66–81

CBI results

The Miners have appeared in three College Basketball Invitationals. Their combined record is 4–4 and they advanced to the finals in the 2009 tournament.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
2008	First round	Utah	L 69–81
2009	First round Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals Game 1 Finals Game 2 Finals Game 3	Nevada Northeastern Richmond Oregon State Oregon State Oregon State	W 79–77 W 75–66 W 81–69 L 69–75 W 70–63 L 73–81
2014	First round	Fresno State	L 56–61

The Basketball Classic results

The Miners have appeared in The Basketball Classic one time. Their record is 1–1.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
2022	First round Second round	Western Illinois Southern Utah	W 80-54 L 69-82

Miners in the NBA

17 former UTEP players have played at least one game in the NBA.

Name	Draft Year	Draft Team
Tiny Archibald	1970	Cincinnati Royals
Gus Bailey	1974	Houston Rockets
Jim Barnes	1964	New York Knicks
Derrick Caracter	2010	Los Angeles Lakers
Antonio Davis	1990	Indiana Pacers
Scott English	1972	Phoenix Suns
Dave Feitl	1986	Houston Rockets
Greg Foster	1990	Washington Bullets
Dick Gibbs	1971	Chicago Bulls
Tim Hardaway	1989	Golden State Warriors
Vince Hunter	2017	Undrafted
Dave Lattin	1967	San Francisco Warriors
Marlon Maxey	1992	Minnesota Timberwolves
Arnett Moultrie	2012	Miami Heat
Julyan Stone	2011	Undrafted
Julian Washburn	2018	Undrafted
Willie Worsley	1968	Undrafted

Miners in international professional basketball

McKenzie Moore (born 1992), in the Israeli Basketball Premier League

Randy Culpepper, currently plays for Scafati Basket of the Italian Serie A2 Basketball League.

Kent Lockhart, a member of the UTEP team in the early 1980s, played for several years in the Australian professional league where he averaged over 25 ppg.

Retired numbers

Main article: List of NCAA men's basketball retired numbers

UTEP has retired six jersey numbers for seven different players.

Fltr: Bobby Joe Hill, Nate Archibald, and Dave Lattin, whose numbers were retired by UTEP

No.	Player	Position	Career
UTEP Miners retired numbers
10	Tim Hardaway	PG	1985–1989
14	Bobby Joe Hill	PG	1961–1966
14	Nate Archibald	PG	1967–1970
42	Nolan Richardson	F	1961–1964
43	David Lattin	PF/C	1965–1967
44	Harry Flournoy	F	1963–1966
45	Jim "Bad News" Barnes	C / PF	1962–1964

Basketball Hall of Fame

Don Haskins Center

The Don Haskins Center (capacity 11,892) is the home of UTEP Miners basketball. With fans seated extremely close to the playing floor and the UTEP student section located near the opponent's bench, "The Don" is so notorious as a tough place for opponents to win that UTEP has historically had difficulty convincing top-rated teams to play there. The highest ranked team (#5) to lose in the Haskins Center, which was known at the time as the Special Events Center, was Georgetown (coached by John Thompson), who lost 78–64 in December, 1985. The Miners repeated twice in 1986 against Auburn, 87-83. This happened in the Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament. UTEP did this for the third straight year with a win over #5 Wyoming in 1988. "The Don" is the home of the UTEP Miners, who were the first Division I Men's National Basketball Champions in the state of Texas (1966). (Previous home was Memorial Gym.)

References

"Don Haskins Center".
The University of Texas at El Paso Graphic Identity Guide (PDF). Retrieved August 8, 2019.
Fitzpatrick, Frank (March 4, 1999). And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: Kentucky, Texas Western, and the Game That Changed American Sports. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83551-7.
"1966 Texas Western". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Knight, Bill. "Ex-NBA, UTEP star Tim Hardaway will have jersey retired at game tonight". El Paso Times. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
^ On honors and jerseys at El Paso Times, 17 Jan 2012

External links

Official website

v t e University of Texas at El Paso
Located in: El Paso, Texas
Facilities	Border Intermodal Gateway Transportation Laboratory Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens Don Haskins Center Dudley Field Kidd Field Memorial Gymnasium Open Source Research Lab Sun Bowl University Field
Athletics	Football Basketball Men Women
Media	"The Eyes of Texas" Glory Road KTEP Rio Grande Review Texas Western Press
Founded: 1914 Students: 23.397 Endowment: US$217.2 million

v t e UTEP Miners men's basketball
Venues	Holliday Hall (1933–1961) Memorial Gymnasium (1961–1976) Don Haskins Center (1976–present)
Rivalries	New Mexico State
Culture & lore	Paydirt Pete Glory Road "Miners Fight"
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA national championship in bold

v t e Conference USA men's basketball
Current teams	FIU Panthers Jacksonville State Gamecocks Kennesaw State Owls Liberty Flames Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders New Mexico State Aggies Sam Houston Bearkats UTEP Miners (leaving in 2026) Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Future teams	Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (joining in 2025) Missouri State Bears (joining in 2025)
Championships & awards	Conference USA men's basketball tournament Player of the Year
Seasons	1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25

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