C-USA Tourney Off To A Good Start

EL PASO, Texas — The Conference USA Basketball Tournament got off to solid start at the Don Haskins Center, Memorial Gym and along Glory Road on Wednesday.

And now there is talk that if El Paso does well this week as host, the next goal of the El Paso Sports Commission will be the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m so glad El Paso has the opportunity to host this tournament,” said Tom Bryant, a longtime Miner fan who is confident El Paso would also support being a first- or second-round NCAA site. “It’s just great for the city.”

With 22 teams in town and more than 20 games being played here this week, hosting a tournament of this size can present its share of challenges. But so far, many are impressed with the set-up at UTEP.

“They’re doing awesome,” Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said. “On a scale of one to 10, a 10!”

Banowsky seemed impressed with the Glory Road area, which features a new Sun Metro Transit Terminal, with mosaic murals of Don Haskins and his 1966 Texas Western Championship team, made famous in the Disney movie “Glory Road.”

“Unbelievable,” Banowsky said of the atmosphere. “And once we get the tournament under way and in full swing, you’re going to see it just build to the point where hopefully we’ll have quite a festival out here.”

Local officials involved in putting together the winning bid for this year’s tourney think the NCAA Tournament would be a good next goal for El Paso, which also hosted more than 30,000 out-of-town bowlers for the 2010 USBC Women’s Bowling Congress.

“It’s a perfect place,” said Southern Miss coach Larry Eustacy, a longtime friend of UTEP coach Tim Floyd and the late-great Don Haskins. “It’s a perfect venue. Name a better place. People appreciate great basketball here and I think they’re really going to get treated to that this week.”

Banowsky says it makes sense that El Paso could handle an NCAA Tournament, simply due to the numbers.

“If you can handle 22 teams, you can certainly handle an NCAA first and second round,” Banowsky said. “And bottom line is there’s no reason it shouldn’t be here.”

Local tournament officials said the NCAA has lowered its seating requirement for NCAA first- and second-round sites to 12,000, which the Haskins Center meets.