The UTEP Miners basketball team plays for

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The team is an NCAA Division I men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

team competing in the

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

. Home games are played at

Don Haskins Center The Don Haskins Center, formerly known as the Special Events Center, is the home of UTEP Miners men's and women's basketball. The venue is located in the heart of El Paso, Texas. In addition to hosting sporting events, the Don Haskins Center is al ...

History

1966 Texas Western basketball team

As Texas Western, the Miners won the

1966 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1966 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 22 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national men's basketball champion of the NCAA University Division, now Division I. It began on March 7 a ...

. The 72–65 victory over

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known a ...

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 civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. 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 ''Glory Road'' is a science fantasy novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (July – September 1963) and published in hardcover the same year. It was nominated for ...

''. The team was inducted into the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

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 Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

s. Their combined record is 6–10.

CBI results

The Miners have appeared in three

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI s ...

s. Their combined record is 4–4 and they advanced to the finals in the 2009 tournament.

The Basketball Classic results

The Minerss have appeared in

The Basketball Classic The Basketball Classic presented by ERACE is a single-elimination, fully-bracketed men's college basketball postseason tournament created in 2022 as successor to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, featuring 32 National Collegiate A ...

one time. Their record is 1–1.

Miners in the NBA

* Nate "Tiny" Archibald *

Jim Barnes James Martin Barnes (April 8, 1886 – May 24, 1966) was an English golfer and a leading figure in the early years of professional golf in the United States. He is one of three native Britons (with Tommy Armour and Rory McIlroy) to win three di ...

Derrick Caracter Derrick Eugene Caracter (born May 4, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for Capitanes de Arecibo of the Puerto Rican Baloncesto Superior Nacional. He played college basketball for Louisville and UTEP. Caracte ...

Antonio Davis Antonio Lee Davis (born October 31, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, and New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also played ...

* Greg Foster *

Tim Hardaway Timothy Duane Hardaway Sr. (born September 1, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. Hardaway played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets a ...

* David Lattin *

Nolan Richardson Nolan Richardson Jr. (born December 27, 1941) is a former American basketball head coach best known for his tenure at the University of Arkansas, where he won the 1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and led the Razorbacks to three F ...

* Julyan Stone * Jason Williams *

Willie Worsley Willie James Worsley (born November 13, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player who was one of the guards for the Texas Western Miners basketball team during their now-legendary 1966 NCAA championship game against Kentucky. Al ...

Dave Feitl Dave Scott Feitl (born June 8, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Houston Rockets in the second round (43rd pick overall) of the 1986 NBA draft. A 6'11" center from the University of Texas at El Pa ...

Arnett Moultrie Arnett Nathaniel Moultrie (born November 18, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. He played college basketball with UTEP and Mississippi State. High school In Mou ...

Vince Hunter Vincent Hunter (born August 5, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for UNICS Kazan of the VTB United League. He played college basketball for UTEP. High school career Hunter attended Consortium College Prep, in Detroit, Michigan, ...

Miners in international professional basketball

* McKenzie Moore (born 1992), in the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional sports, professional competition in Israeli sports club, club basketball, making ...

Randy Culpepper Randy Lechard Culpepper (born May 16, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for Basket Brno of the NBL. College career He played for the University of Texas El Paso Miners. He is in Conference USA's top 15 all-time in career scor ...

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

Retired numbers

UTEP has retired five jersey numbers for seven different players.

Basketball Hall of Fame

Don Haskins Donald Lee Haskins (March 14, 1930 – September 7, 2008), nicknamed "The Bear", was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for three years under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He w ...

Nate Archibald Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born September 2, 1948) is an American retired professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City–Omaha Kings ...

* 1966 National Championship team *

* Jareica Hughes *

Don Haskins Center

The Don Haskins Center (Capacity 11,892), the home of UTEP Miners basketball. With fans seated extremely close to the playing floor and the UTEP

student section A student section or student cheering section is a group of student fans that supports its school's athletic teams at sporting events; they are known for being one of the most visible and vocal sections of a sports crowd as well as for their occ ...

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 Don" is the home of the UTEP Miners, who were the first Division 1 Men's National Basketball Champions in the State of Texas (1966). (Previous home was Memorial Gym.)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Utep Miners Men's Basketball