UTEP Men’s Basketball C-USA Schedule Announced
UTEP has finalized its 2010-11 men’s basketball schedule with the announcement of the Conference USA slate.
The Miners will once again play 16 league games, facing Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa twice each. UTEP will host UCF, Marshall and Memphis and play at East Carolina, Southern Miss and UAB.
The biggest development in this year’s schedule is the trading of two games versus Southern Miss for two games versus Rice. The Miners and the Owls will face one another a pair of times in league play for the first time since the 2004-05 season, when both schools were a member of the Western Athletic Conference.
The Miners will open defense of their C-USA regular season title on Wednesday, Jan. 5 at home versus Tulsa. UTEP will carry a streak of 14 straight C-USA regular season wins into the battle with the Golden Hurricane.
UTEP will play three of its next four conference games on the road, including matchups at UAB (Jan. 8), Tulane (Jan. 12) and Houston (Jan. 22). The Miners will also host Rice (Jan. 15) and Tulane (Jan. 26) in January before closing out the month with the rematch against Tulsa at the Donald W. Reynolds Center (Jan. 29).
UTEP will be home for four of seven games in the month of February, including a nationally televised (ESPN2) matchup with Memphis on Feb. 26. The Miners derailed the Tigers’ NCAA-record 64-game conference winning streak last season with a 72-67 triumph at the FedExForum.
UTEP will also face UCF (Feb. 2), SMU (Feb. 12) and Houston (Feb. 19) at the Don Haskins Center in the month of February. The Miners will play at Rice (Feb. 5), Southern Miss (Feb. 16) and East Carolina (Feb. 23).
The Miners will close out the C-USA regular season by hosting Marshall (March 2) and playing at SMU (March 5) prior to hosting the C-USA Tournament March 9-12. The Haskins Center will be the site of a conference championship for the first time in 21 years.
2011 UTEP Conference USA Schedule
Jan. 5 Tulsa Jan. 8 at UAB Jan. 12 at Tulane Jan. 15 Rice Jan. 22 at Houston Jan. 26 Tulane Jan. 29 at Tulsa Feb. 2 UCF Feb. 5 at Rice Feb. 12 SMU Feb. 16 at Southern Miss Feb. 19 Houston Feb. 23 at East Carolina Feb. 26 Memphis March 2 Marshall March 5 at SMU March 9-12 Conference USA Championship (El Paso, Texas)
