Texas-El Paso (19-12) At Nevada (21-12)
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GAME NOTES: Former members of the Western Athletic Conference, the Miners of Texas-El Paso face off against a familiar foe tonight in the Nevada Wolf Pack as the two programs clash in the first round of the 2nd annual College Basketball Invitational. Before defecting for Conference USA a few years back, the Miners clashed with Nevada at least twice a year between 2000-2005, the all-time series dating back to the 1965-66 campaign and favoring the Wolf Pack by a narrow 7-6 count. This season the Miners were sporadic at best for much of the year, winning three straight games just two times. The squad closed out the regular season with back-to-back victories over the likes of UAB and Southern Miss, but then took an 89-85 overtime tumble versus Houston in the C-USA Tournament, leaving the group one win shy of 20 on the season. As for the Wolf Pack, a steady player in the postseason under head coach Mark Fox, they had some issues early on in the season with tough losses, but following an eye-opening setback to Idaho at home in early January the team went on a tear. From that point on, the Pack lost just four more regular season games, resulting in an 11-5 finish in league play. The second seed in the WAC Tournament in the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nevada pushed aside both San Jose State and Louisiana Tech in order to reach the title game versus Utah State, but was turned back by the Aggies on Saturday night in a 72-62 final. The winner of this meeting will take on the winner of the Northeastern/Wyoming contest in the quarterfinals next week.
All one needs to know when talking about the Miners is the play of Stefon Jackson, one of the nation's top scorers with his 24.2 ppg this season. The only player to start every game for the Miners in 2008-09, Jackson was an offensive machine for the squad, firing up shot after shot, averaging almost 18 attempts per game. What's more, Jackson also converted 272-of-324 (.840) at the free-throw line which means the rest of the unit accounted for only 367 made shots at the stripe. Providing UTEP with one of the most explosive one- two scoring punches in the nation, Randy Culpepper was always lurking in the background in order to register his 17.4 ppg on 74-of-213 shooting behind the three-point line. Between he and Jackson, the duo accounted for more than half of the team's shot attempts from the field. Cleaning up much of what Jackson and Culpepper left behind was Arnett Moultrie (7.9 ppg) who averaged a team- best 8.1 rpg.
Brandon Fields, after averaging 12.4 ppg for the Wolf Pack a season ago, was poised to become one of the leaders in 2008-09 for the Reno-based program, but he had a rough start to the campaign and never fully recovered. Instead, the Pack was headed by Luke Babbitt who was named the WAC Freshman of the Year. Babbitt, who led the team in scoring and rebounding with averages of 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest, all while shooting an impressive 86 percent at the free-throw line and an even more outstanding 42.1 percent behind the three-point line, is the third Nevada player in the last five years to be named the top freshman in the league. Also earning all-conference honors this season was Armon Johnson with his 15.4 ppg and team-best 139 assists over the course of his 32 starts in 33 games. Malik Cooke (9.6 ppg) came up big in several spots for the Wolf Pack with his 6.2 rpg and was also clutch shooting the ball at a 53.3 percent clip, and while he was 44.4 percent accurate behind the three-point line, the team still suffered at a mere 30.4 percent out on the perimeter.
The key for both teams will be the performance of Jackson, whether or not he can carry the Miners or if his frequent shooting habits come back to bite the team when it least can afford it. It also helps that Nevada gets this game at home.
Predicted OutcomeNevada 75, Texas-El Paso 70Copyright 2009 Courtesy of The Sports Network.
