UTEP Renews Rivalry With BYU On Saturday
El Paso, Texas – UTEP (10-3) will face BYU (15-1) at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the Don Haskins Center. BYU is ranked 23rd by USA Today/ESPN and 25th by the Associated Press.
The Cougars have a 10-game winning streak. The last time UTEP played BYU in basketball was in 1999 when the two teams were still a part of the Western Athletic Conference. The two teams have had a storied and heated history that can be seen on YouTube videos here and here.
Saturday is “White Out Night” and all Miner fans are asked to wear white to the game.
Saturday’s game against BYU marks the first time that UTEP has faced three ranked teams in a 30-day span since the 1997-98 season.
This is the final non-conference game for the Miners, who are 9-3 outside of C-USA play — including 7-1 at home. UTEP is trying to get to 10 non-conference wins for the first time since the 2004-05 season, when it was 10-2 entering the WAC schedule.
UTEP has lost its last 12 games to AP Top-25 opponents dating back to an 80-61 win over no. 20 Fresno State on Feb. 17, 2001 in El Paso. The last time the Miners faced a rated BYU team was on March 4, 1993, when they dropped an 84-63 decision to the 21st-ranked Cougars at the Haskins Center. UTEP is 4-8 all-time versus BYU teams ranked in the top 25, including 2-3 at home with wins on March 3, 1972 (73-69) and Jan. 17, 1981 (64-62).
The Cougars entered the rankings for the first time this season on Monday. It marks the fourth straight year that BYU has been ranked at one point of the season. BYU is one of the nation’s most prolific offensive teams, averaging 84.6 points per game while shooting 50.8 percent from the field, 42.5 percent from three-point range and 78.9 percent from the charity stripe.
“They are as talented of an offensive team as I’ve seen in all my years in college basketball,” UTEP coach Tony Barbee said in a news release.
Junior guard Jimmer Fredette is averaging 20.7 ppg and pinned 49 points on Arizona in late December (Fredette was 16-for-23 from the field and 9-for-13 from outside in that game). He is a top-30 candidate for the John R. Wooden Award, presented to the player of the year in college basketball.
The Cougars are 3-1 on the road with wins over Hawaii (83-65), Fresno State (72-67) and Arizona (99-69) and their lone loss of the season at Utah State (71-61) on Dec. 2.
BYU leads the series 39-25. The series is deadlocked at 15 in El Paso and the Cougars hold a 13-10 edge in games played at the Don Haskins Center. UTEP has won four of the last six meetings between the schools, all in the late `90s.
BYU was one of eight schools that split from the WAC in 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference, joining Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming. UTEP has posted a 6-7 record versus the aforementioned schools since the split, including a 58-47 win over Air Force in the championship game of the Sun Bowl Invitational on Dec. 29.
Tickets for the UTEP-BYU game are available at the University Ticket Center, Ticketmaster locations, and www.ticketmaster.com. Prices are $8.50-$50, not including service charges.
For more information on the two teams, go to www.utepathletics.com and www.byucougars.com.
