UTEP to start Conference USA off with trip to Marshall

THE TIP-OFF UTEP (7-7) and Marshall (9-4) tip off Conference USA play before a national television audience on Wednesday at 6 p.m. MT in Huntington. CBS Sports Network will have coverage of the game with Dave Ryan (play-by-play) and Pete Gillen (analyst) calling the action. UTEP is 6-0 in Conference USA openers. Four of the wins have come against SMU. The Miners won at SMU in 2006 (80-67) and 2009 (74-68), and knocked off the Mustangs in El Paso in 2008 (79-66) and 2010 (49-45). In 2007, UTEP won its C-USA opener at home against UAB (76-63). Last year the Miners beat Tulsa at the Haskins Center, 69-59, to christen the league slate. Overall the Miners have won seven straight league openers dating back to their days in the Western Athletic Conference, a school record. UTEP begins its seventh C-USA season on Wednesday at Marshall. The Miners were 11-3 in league play in 2006, 6-10 in 2007, 8-8 in 2008, 10-6 in 2009, 15-1 in 2010 and 11-5 in 2011 for a composite ledger of 61-33. Only Memphis (84) and UAB (65) have more C-USA wins since 2005.

UTEP & C-USA ROAD GAMES UTEP is 22-25 in Conference USA road games since joining the league for the 2005-06 season (4-4 last season). UTEP has won 13 of its last 19 C-USA road games dating back to the 2008-09 season. UTEP is 2-4 in C-USA road openers with a win at SMU (80-67) in 2006, a loss at Tulsa (86-79 in OT) in 2007, a loss at Houston (77-72) in 2008, a win at SMU (74-68) in 2009, a loss at Houston (75-65) in 2010 and a triple-overtime loss at UAB (100-97) last season.

UTEP AT A GLANCE The Miners are starting fresh this season with nine newcomers, including a Division I transfer (junior guard Jacques Streeter) and seven freshmen. UTEP returns just three letterwinners and one starter (senior forward Gabriel McCulley) from last year?s unit that finished 25-10 overall and tied for second place in Conference USA with an 11-5 mark. The Miners lost 82.5 percent of their scoring and 70.6 percent of their rebounding production from the 2010-11 squad, which had eight seniors.

SCOUTING MARSHALL The Herd dropped to 9-4 with a 67-51 loss to Akron on Sunday in Huntington. Marshall?s other losses have come at the hands of Ohio (70-68), Syracuse (62-56) and Belmont (79-74). Ohio and Syracuse were a combined 27-1 entering the week, and Belmont was 6-0 at home. The Herd is 7-2 at the Cam Henderson Center this season with the losses coming to Ohio and Akron. Sophomore guard DeAndre Kane, the 2011 C-USA Freshman of the Year, is averaging a team-leading 16.7 points per game. Senior guard Damier Pitts is collecting 14.5 ppg and junior forward Dennis Tinnon, a transfer from Kansas City Community College, averages a near double-double with 9.9 ppg and 10.4 rpg. Marshall?s +10.6 rebound margin leads C-USA. The Herd averages 17.7 offensive boards per game, also tops in the league.

THE SERIES UTEP leads the series 7-1 and is 3-0 ver- sus the Herd at the Cam Henderson Center. The Miners won in Huntington 53-51 on a putback at the buzzer by Jason Williams during the 2005-06 season, squeezed out a 79-76 victory during the 2007-08 campaign and prevailed 80-76 two years ago to clinch the C-USA regular season title. The Miners are 7-0 versus the Herd since joining C-USA, the only team they haven?t lost to since joining the league. UTEP beat Marshall twice in the Haskins Center during March of last year, 82-74 and 77-65. The latter was a quarterfinal game in the C-USA Tournament.

THE LAST MEETING UTEP placed six players in double figure scoring and blew out to a 23-point first half lead before holding off Marshall, 77-65, in the Buick Conference USA Championship quarterfinals on March 10, 2011 at the Don Haskins Center. Following a closely contested opening nine minutes, UTEP went on a 20-2 run to extend an 18-15 lead to 38-17. The Miners took their largest lead of the night of 23 points (44-21) on a three-pointer by Randy Culpepper with 2:57 remaining in the period. Marshall, however, crept back to within seven points in the early stages of the second half. A three-pointer by Johnny Thomas completed an 18-3 spurt that cut a 46-24 deficit to 49-42 with 14:22 to play. That was as close as the Herd would get, however, as UTEP built its lead back to 15 points (66-51) with 5:19 left. Gabriel McCulley scored 14 points and added nine rebounds for the Miners, who outrebounded Marshall 40-36 after losing the battle of the boards to the Herd, 47-31, on March 2. Stone had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Culpepper (12 points), Christian Polk (11), Jeremy Williams (11) and Claude Britten (10) also scored in double figures for UTEP.

UTEP?S LAST GAME Cedrick Lang scored a career-high 22 points and tied the UTEP record for single-game field goal percentage as the Miners thumped Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 79-58, in the consolation game of the Bank of the West Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational on Dec. 29 at the Don Haskins Center. Lang shot 9-for-9 from the floor and came within four points of tying the UTEP freshman scoring record. His final bucket came with 16:02 to play. John Bohannon came within three assists of collecting only the second triple-double in school history. Bohannon finished with 14 points, 10 boards and seven assists. With Lang and Bohannon dominating inside, UTEP outscored UAPB in points in the paint, 46-6. The Miners also had a 13-4 edge in second chance points. Gabriel McCulley added 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting for UTEP. The Miners trailed just once, at 23-21 midway through the first half, before erupting for a 17-2 run to go ahead 38-25 on a three pointer by Michael Perez with 4:28 remaining in the period. UTEP led 47-34 at the half, then built its advantage to 19 points (58-39) on a three-point play by Lang with 16:02 to play. UAPB closed the gap to nine points (67-58) on a three pointer by Mitchell Anderson with 6:49 to go but the Miners shut out the Golden Lions the rest of the way, outscoring them 12-0 in the final 6:34. The Miners shot 71.4 percent in the first half and finished at a season-high 58.2 percent, while outrebounding UAPB 33-24.

UTEP IN THE C-USA STATISTICS (Through games of Dec. 31, 2011)

Category Stat Rank Scoring offense 65.1 10 Scoring defense 62.9 7 Scoring margin +2.2 10 Free throw % 69.3 5 Field goal % 46.9 3 Field goal % defense 42.9 11 3-point field goal % 36.1 7 3-point field goal % defense 35.9 11 3-pointers per game 5.6 9 Rebound margin -1.8 12 Blocked shots 3.1 11 Assists 14.6 3 Steals 4.7 11 Turnover margin -0.79 9 Assist/turnover ratio 1.1 2

Individual Category Stat Rank J. Bohannon Free throw % 73.8 10 J. Bohannon Rebounding 6.0 t14 M. Perez 3-pointers per game 1.6 12 M. Perez Field goal % 45.9 12 M. Perez Scoring 12.0 18 J. Streeter Assists 4.6 3 J. Streeter Assist/turnover ratio 2.2 4 J. Washburn Field goal % 42.9 14

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A MONTH MAKES The Miners were 6-3 in December after posting a 1-4 mark in November. This chart ilustrates UTEP?s improvement from one month to the next, mostly coinciding with the return of senior forward Gabriel McCulley.

Category November December Points per game 56.6 69.9 Points allowed per game 64.0 62.3 Scoring margin -7.4 ppg +7.6 ppg Field goal % .423 .495 Field goal % defense .446 .420 3-point field goal % .300 .390 3-point field goal % defense .424 .331 Free throw % .627 .722

UTEP ON THE ROAD The Miners are 0-3 in away games this season, but were within striking distance in the final minutes at Oregon on Nov. 29 (down 60-59 with 34 seconds to play) and at UNLV on Dec. 14 (down 59-54 with 2:21 to go). UTEP has put itself in position to win several road games under coach Tim Floyd with defense. The Miners have yielded fewer than 70 points in nine of their last 11 road games dating back to last season.

MORE ON UTEP?S ROAD PERFORMANCE Big men John Bohannon and Cedrick Lang were a combined 19-for-25 from the field in the Miners? three road games to date (Lang was 8-for-9). Michael Perez is averaging 13.3 ppg on the road with a .516 (16-for-31) field goal percentage. The Miners have shot 17.2 percent (5-for-29) from three-point range and 62.7 percent (37-for-59) from the line on the road this season. UTEP is averaging eight fewer free throw attempts than opponents on the road in 2011-12.

MINERS SPLIT 14 NON-CONFERENCE GAMES UTEP enters conference play with a .500 record for the first time since the 1970-71 season, when it stood 5-5 heading into the WAC opener at home against Utah. The Miners finished 9-5 in league play that year, tying for second place.

MINERS? SHOOTING NUMBERS ON THE CLIMB Following a 53-35 loss to Stephen F. Austin at the Don Haskins Center on Nov. 26 — a game in which the Miners set an arena record for fewest points — UTEP was shooting 40.5 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from three-point range. Since then the Miners have shot 242-for-489 from the floor (.495) and 58-for-152 from beyond the arc (.382) over the last 10 contests. UTEP has shot 49 percent or better in seven of the last 10 games, including a season-high .582 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff the last time out (Dec. 29). The .582 percentage was the Miners? second-best under Tim Floyd behind .596 versus Marshall on March 2, 2011.

UTEP SHOOTING BETTER AT THE LINE TOO Over the last seven games, the Miners have knocked down 115-of-151 foul shots (76.2 percent). In the first seven games, UTEP shot 61.1 percent (77-for-126) from the line. Here?s a comparison of UTEP?s individual free throw percentages in the first seven games and in the last five.

– Free Throw Percentages – Player First 7 Games Last 7 Games John Bohannon 6-11 (.545) 25-31 (.806) D?Von Campbell 6-8 (.750) 2-2 (1.000) C.J. Cooper 3-4 (.750) 4-4 (1.000) Cedrick Lang 7-14 (.500) 21-30 (.700) Gabriel McCulley 4-9 (.444) 18-23 (.783) Michael Perez 10-18 (.556) 24-30 (.800) Jalen Ragland 4-4 (1.000) 0-0 (.000) Jacques Streeter 19-28 (.679) 16-22 (.727) Julian Washburn 6-14 (.429) 5-9 (.556)

REBOUNDING DROUGHT ENDS UTEP outrebounded Arkansas-Pine Bluff 33-24 on Dec. 29, ending a run of seven straight games that the Miners were outboarded by the opposition. UTEP posted double-digit offensive rebounds (11) versus the Lions for the first time in seven games. The Miners also had more offensive rebounds than their opponent (11-7) for the first time in eight contests. On the year, UTEP trails the offensive rebounding line 166-127 to foes.

THINK POSITIVE UTEP has had a positive assist/turnover ratio in six of the last nine games, recording 142 dimes and 112 giveaways during that span. The Miners, however, have had a negative ratio in each of their three road games with a total of 34 assists and 49 turnovers. Michael Perez leads UTEP with 10 turnovers in three road games, including eight at UNLV on Dec. 14.

50 IS PERFECT The Miners are undefeated under coach Tim Floyd when they shoot 50 percent or better from the field (17-0), including 6-0 this season. UTEP is 0-6 this season when it shoots between 40 and 49 percent, and 1-1 when it shoots less than 40 percent. The Miners are 7-3 when shooting a higher percentage than their opponent and 0-4 when shooting a lesser percentage. On the opposite end of the floor, UTEP is 18-1 under Floyd when holding foes to shooting percentages below 40.

LANG TIES FIELD GOAL % RECORD Freshman forward Cedrick Lang tied the UTEP single-game record for field goal percentage, shooting 9-for-9 from the floor against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 29. The record is shared by Marlon Maxey (versus BYU on Feb. 17, 1990) and George Banks (versus UT Pan American on Dec. 28, 1994). Over the last three games Lang is 15-for-18 from the field, raising his season percentage to .689.

LANG DEVELOPS INTO AN OFFENSIVE THREAT Freshman forward Cedrick Lang scored in double figures once in the first eight games of the season, but has done so four times in the last six games. During that stretch he is averaging 11.0 ppg while shooting 77.4 percent (24-for-31) from the floor and 69.2 percent (18-for-26) from the line. Lang leads the Miners in blocked shots with 11 and has pulled down five or more rebounds in eight games.

BOHANNON COMES ON Sophomore center John Bohannon has led the Miners in rebounding in four straight games for the first time in his career, averaging 7.5 boards during that span. He posted double-digit rebounds (10) against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 29 for the fifth time in his career. Bohannon has also scored in double figures in four of the last six contests (10.8 ppg), including a career-high tying 20 points versus Auburn on Dec. 25. He is coming off a 14-point/10 rebound effort against UAPB, his third career double-double.

STREETER SHAKES OFF THE RUST After sitting out the 2010-11 season following his transfer from Cal State Fullerton, junior guard Jacques Streeter is starting to look like the player who led the Big West Conference in assist/turnover ratio in back-to-back years. Since committing five turnovers versus NM State on Dec. 11, Streeter has totaled 37 assists and 12 turnovers in eight games. Streeter leads the Miners in free throws made (35) and attempted (50) and has gone to the line in all but two games this season.

PEREZ HAS BEEN STEADY Sophomore guard Michael Perez has scored in double figures in eight of the last 10 games (15.3 ppg during that stretch). He has made a three pointer in nine straight contests. And he has shot 80 percent (28-for-35) from the line in the last eight games. Perez has also done a much better job taking care of the basketball since committing eight turnovers at UNLV on Dec. 14. He hasn?t had more than two turnovers in any of the seven games since despite being on the floor for an average of 31.3 minutes.

McCULLEY?S PRESENCE MEANS A LOT UTEP has been a much better basketball team since senior forward Gabriel McCulley returned from injury to play in the last 10 games. Without him, the Miners were 1-3 and averaging 56 points per game. Since then they have posted a 6-4 mark while averaging 68.8 ppg. McCulley is second on the team in scoring (11.8 ppg) and rebounding (4.9 rpg) while shooting 64.3 percent from the field and 68.8 percent from the line. He has played in 116 games for the Miners, scoring in double figures on 16 occasions. UTEP is 73-43 in the 116 games.

WASHBURN IS A DIAPER DANDY Averaging 9.9 points per game, swingman Julian Washburn is the fourth-highest scoring freshman in Conference USA behind Tulane?s Ricky Tarrant (11.8 ppg), Houston?s Joseph Young (11.4 ppg) and Houston?s TaShawn Thomas (10.5 ppg). Washburn aggravated a shoulder injury against Clemson on Dec. 22 and has scored in double figures once in his last five games after doing so in three straight contests from Dec. 11-17. Washburn leads the Miners in steals (1.1 spg) and minutes per game (32.2) and is tied with Jacques Streeter for the team lead in starts (13).

MINERS GETTING THE MOST OUT OF DEPLETED BENCH With two big men out for the season (Malcolm Moore/torn ACL & Hooper Vint/bulging disk in his back), UTEP?s bench is thinner than ever. However, that hasn?t stopped the Miners from having a player score in double figures off the pine in five of the last six games. Cedrick Lang did the honors against McNeese State (12 points) & Auburn (10 points), C.J. Cooper did so versus Clemson (11 points) & Colorado State (11 points), and John Bohannon achieved the feat against Kansas State (10 points).

CLAMPING DOWN UTEP?s defensive gameplan under coach Tim Floyd involves getting the other team?s top offensive players out of sync. Here?s a look at the job UTEP has done defending teams? top scorers this year.

Opp. Leading Scorer Vs. UTEP UTSA Melvin Johnson III (14.9 ppg)* 9 pts (4-9 FG) UC Riverside Phil Martin (22.0 ppg) 6 pts (3-11 FG) @NM State Wendell McKines (16.0 ppg) 23 pts (5-13 FG) SFA Antonio Bostic (16.0 ppg) 18 pts (7-11 FG) @Oregon Garrett Sim (14.0 ppg) 2 pts (0-6 FG) NM State Wendell McKines (18.1 ppg) 4 pts (1-7 FG) at UNLV Chace Stanback (15.2 ppg) 5 pts (2-8 FG) Southern Derick Beltran (12.2 ppg) 9 pts (3-12 FG) McNeese State Patrick Richard (16.4 ppg) 12 pts (6-11 FG) Clemson Andre Young (13.7 ppg) 6 pts (1-9 FG) Kansas State Jamar Samuels (12.4 ppg) 10 pts (1-8 FG) Auburn Frankie Sullivan (14.4 ppg) 7 pts (2-5 FG) Colorado State Wes Eikmeier (17.3 ppg) 16 pts (7-8 FG) Ark.-Pine Bluff Savalace Townsend (18.0 ppg) 3 pts (1-10 FG)

* Scoring average from 2010-11 season

STARTING OVER UTEP has the fifth-most inexperienced team in the country in terms of returning point production.

SCHOOLS THAT RETURN LESS THAN 20 PERCENT OF THEIR POINTS St. John?s 3.7 percent (85-of-2,313) Towson 5.3 percent (109-of-2,053) Boston College 10.8 percent (263-of-2,440) Texas 17 percent (459-of-2,701) UTEP 17.5 percent (433-of-2,470) Fairleigh Dickinson 17.8 percent (333-of-1,866) Wofford 19.98 percent (500-of-2,502)

THE GRADUATE Forward Gabriel McCulley is the only senior on this year?s team and the only player with a degree in hand. He graduated from UTEP with a degree in Criminal Justice in December of 2010 and is pursuing his Masters in Leadership Studies.

FLOYD ERA CONTINUES Tim Floyd is in his second season as UTEP?s head coach after directing the Miners to 25 wins in his initial year at the helm of the program. Overall Floyd is 360-197 in his 18th year as a collegiate head coach with stops at Idaho (1986-88), New Orleans (1988-94), Iowa State (1994-98), USC (2005-09) and UTEP. Floyd?s teams have made 12 postseason tournament appearances, including eight trips to the NCAAs and four visits to the NIT.

NOTING UTEP?S ILLUSTRIOUS BASKETBALL HISTORY The Miners have won 12 regular season conference titles (three Border Conference/eight Western Athletic Conference/one Conference USA), and five conference tournament titles (all in the WAC, most recently in 2005). To this day, UTEP is the only Division I school in the state of Texas to win a national championship in men?s basketball with the storied 1966 title. UTEP has made 29 postseason tournament appearances, including 17 trips to the NCAAs.

Source: UTEP Athletics