UTEP vs Tulsa Basketball Recap

UTEP 73, Tulsa 59

Life's getting mighty complicated at the top of Conference USA's men's basketball standings. The UTEP Miners won't mind at all, because they own first place in this increasingly intriguing league.

Coach Tony Barbee's club was stagnant as it stuttered and stumbled through the first 21 minutes of Saturday night's key contest against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. This clash between upper-division teams at the Don Haskins Center possessed a great deal of importance, but the weight of the occasion seemed to hinder the home team in El Paso, Tex. With 18:29 to go in the second half, Tulsa owned a 35-30 edge. Coach Doug Wojcik's outfit from Oklahoma was using determined defense to slowly silence a raucous home crowd in the West Texas town.

That's when UTEP's tempo picked up, and the Hurricane got stormed out of the gymnasium.

The Miners - particularly big man Derrick Caracter and guard Randy Culpepper - began to clog passing lanes and hound Tulsa at every turn. UTEP began to fly around the court and vex the visitors from the Sooner State. The Miners allowed just one field goal in a stretch of seven minutes and 53 seconds, and as a result, they were able to claim a 47-42 edge with 10:36 remaining in regulation.

Then the Miners' offense - which lingered in the shadows for most of the night - finally came to the forefront. With scores on five consecutive possessions,. that 47-42 edge turned into a 59-46 bulge for the home folks with 8:02 left. When one considers the fact that Tulsa missed six free throws in the final eight minutes, it's not surprising that the boys in road blue jerseys couldn't mount a significant comeback against Barbee's boys.

This result now puts C-USA's status into question. On a day when Memphis - the longtime leader of the league - suffered a damaging blow in a home-court loss to Gonzaga, it's worth talking about how this UTEP triumph changes the nature of the conference race.

Tulsa did beat Oklahoma State in non-conference play, but with OSU losing ground in the Big 12, which scalp suddenly doesn't seem so impressive. Moreover, Tulsa lost non-conference games to Missouri State, Nebraska and Nevada. The Golden Hurricane really don't have that great a profile, which means they need to win C-USA's regular season and do well in the conference tournament. Even more urgently, Wojcik's roster has to win the high-profile battles in C-USA, so this setback in El Paso could become quite costly before too long.

As for UTEP, this win puts the Miners atop C-USA at 8-1, but it's a long way to Tipperary for Mr. Barbee and friends. The school formerly known as Texas Western (when it won the 1966 national title) lost to BYU and Ole Miss in non-conference play, but it also dropped decisions against New Mexico State and Texas Tech. There's nothing in non-conference play to recommend the Miners to the NCAA Division I-A Men's Basketball Committee, so UTEP needs to win the league much as Tulsa does. A first-place finish, combined with a loss in the final of the league tournament (and nothing less) could potentially get this team into the Big Dance, but frankly, a shaky portfolio means the Miners can't take anything for granted.

They'll just have to keep posting solid wins like the one they just registered on Saturday night against Tulsa.