Miners hopeful for strong run during Sun Bowl Tourney
Coming off a 76-74 loss to Northern Arizona and riding a six-game losing streak, the UTEP men’s basketball team have no better chance to turn the season around than in late December.
The Miners will face a 1-11 Maryland Eastern Shore squad when play tips off in the 55th Annual WestStar Bank Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational on Wednesday . Akron will take on defending tournament UC Irvine at 5 p.m., with the Miners and the Hawks set to battle at 7 in the Don Haskins Center.
Maryland Eastern Shore is 0-10 on the road but has played one of the most difficult schedules in the country. The Hawks have already faced Boston College, Wichita State, Colorado State, LA Tech, Virginia Tech, UCF and Michigan.
“We will not take Maryland Eastern Shore for granted. We should not. We’ve got a ballclub that beat Alaska Fairbanks by one,” UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. “We have got issues in terms of stopping people. Our defensive field goal percentage is last in our conference. Our three-point defensive field goal percentage is last in our conference. Those are the two things that we feel like we can get better at.”
The Miners are hopeful though, as they look at their all time record in the Sun Bowl Invitational with 31 titles and 43 berths in the championship game (84-24 all-time).
While UTEP is an impressive 10-2 with Coach Floyd on the sidelines; a trend that hopefully continues in late 2016 and into 2017.
