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UTEP Miners men's basketball
Men's basketball team of the University of Texas at El Paso
Men's basketball team of the University of Texas at El Paso
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| current | 2025–26 UTEP Miners men's basketball team |
| name | UTEP Miners men's basketball |
| logo | UTEP Miners wordmark.svg |
| logo_size | 200 |
| university | The University of Texas at El Paso |
| conference | Conference USA |
| (Mountain West in 2026–27) | |
| location | El Paso, Texas |
| coach | Joe Golding |
| tenure | 5th |
| arena | Don Haskins Center |
| capacity | 12,000 |
| nickname | Miners |
| studentsection | Miner Maniacs |
| bestfinish | 1 |
| NCAAchampion | 1966 |
| NCAAfinalfour | 1966 |
| NCAAeliteeight | 1966 |
| NCAAsweetsixteen | 1964, 1966, 1967, 1992 |
| NCAAroundof32 | 1975, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1992 |
| NCAAtourneys | 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1975, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2004, 2005, 2010 |
| conference_tournament | 1984, 1986, 1989, 1990, 2005 |
| conference_season | 1957, 1959, 1970, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1992, 2004, 2010 |
(Mountain West in 2026–27) The UTEP Miners men's basketball team plays for the 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
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.
- Received a first round bye in 1984.
NIT results
The Miners have appeared in ten National Invitation Tournaments. Their combined record is 6–10.
| 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.
| 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.
| 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.
| 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.
| UTEP Miners | border=0}}" | No. | UTEP Miners | border=0}}" | Player | UTEP Miners | border=0}}" | Position | UTEP Miners | border=0}}" | Career | UTEP Miners | border=0}}" | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Tim Hardaway | PG | 1985–1989 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Bobby Joe Hill | PG | 1961–1966 | |||||||||||
| 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
- Nate Archibald
- Tim Hardaway
- Don Haskins
- Nolan Richardson
- 1966 National Championship team
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
References
- "Don Haskins Center".
- (March 4, 1999). "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: Kentucky, Texas Western, and the Game That Changed American Sports". Simon & Schuster.
- "1966 Texas Western". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
- Knight, Bill. (July 2025). "Ex-NBA, UTEP star Tim Hardaway will have jersey retired at game tonight". El Paso Times.
- [https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/sports/college/blogs/utep-basketball/2012/01/17/on-honors-and-jerseys/31493687/ On honors and jerseys] at El Paso Times, 17 Jan 2012
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