There’s a clock in the office of UTEP coach Rodney Terry that still includes the words “Arizona” and “Arizona State,” a reminder of the century-old history among the former Border Conference and Western Athletic Conference basketball rivals.
But the Miners are scheduled to show up Saturday at McKale Center not as part of any conference game, a nonconference series, or even a one-time guarantee appearance. They’re a twice-attempted fill-in for an obscure, unbracketed multi-team event known as the Southwest Classic.
First, UTEP was plugged in for Sam Houston State for a Nov. 29 Southwest Classic game at McKale and then, when that didn’t work out, that game was replaced by an Arizona-New Mexico State game scheduled for Saturday … until the Aggies pulled out, allowing UTEP to be plugged back in.
It was all about COVID-19 issues, of course: Sam Houston State had to cancel because of them, UTEP canceled its Nov. 29 trip after a positive test and New Mexico State, which has been all but booted out of its home state because of coronavirus-related health orders, was ultimately forced to exit Saturday’s game because of its own positive test.
So it’s the Miners and Wildcats, final pregame COVID-19 tests permitting, almost two weeks later.
Finally.
“I think our guys were excited about the opportunity, the level of competition that we were gonna have at U of A the first time around,” Terry said of the would-be Nov. 29 matchup. “I thought preparation was really good, and we had a really good practice the day prior to going down. And then you have the hiccup there in terms of not being able to play the ballgame.”
By most COVID-19 quarantine standards, the “hiccup” wasn’t too bad: Just five days away from the game for most of the UTEP players, one of whom had tested positive with the rest sidelined by contact tracing.
But the Miners still found it frustrating, having warmed up win a season-opening win over Division II Texas-Permian Basin before having to come to a complete halt the same day their bus was warming up for a five-hour ride to Tucson on Nov. 28.
“I mean, that was tough,” UTEP forward Bryson Williams said Friday on a Zoom call. “Just going from we’re going to play a big game, some high level competition to ‘You can’t even step foot in the gym today.’”
It hit them later that day when the bus couldn’t leave and the day after that, Nov. 29, when McKale sat empty.
“Now you’re sitting home, and you’re looking and you’re like ‘Man, we’re supposed to be in Tucson, and we’re not playing today. And we’re in a protocol where we can’t even go to a facility,’” Terry said.
“So you go from all these weeks of practices to all of a sudden not having any basketball activity for five days.”
Terry said there was a silver lining in that the break allowed a couple of banged-up players to get fully healed, while the team connected on Zoom and mostly chilled out. Point guard Jamal Bienemy said they were “just sitting around watching TV,” while they also attempted solitary workouts
“I just went running,” forward Bryson Williams said. “Just being in the city of El Paso, with all these hills, you’ve got to take advantage. So I was running a couple of miles, doing some push-ups and sit-ups at home, just trying to do whatever I could to keep my body right and know that when I get back it’s all about business.”
Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller, right, claps during the second half of Wednesday’s win over Cal State Bakersfield. Saturday’s opponent, UTEP, should provide a stiffer challenge than the Roadrunners did.
That’s what happened.
The Miners returned to practice in time to prepare for a home win over Division III Sul Ross State on Dec. 5, then traveled to the Bay Area for a 73-61 loss at Saint Mary’s.
Despite shooting just 38.9% in the first half, UTEP pulled within four points of the Gaels in the second half to stay competitive.
“I learned about my team that we are resilient,” Williams said of that game. “There were no guys out there that had their heads down when we were down with two minutes left in the game. Everybody was still like, ‘Hey, man, we’re gonna go we’re gonna fight to the end. You never know what could happen.’”
It’s a different attitude, with different talent, than Terry had the last time he visited McKale. His first Miners team lost 79-46 to Arizona early in the 2018-19 season after he moved over from being Fresno State’s head coach.
UTEP won just eight games that season, but improved to 17 last season and was picked to finish eighth in the official poll of the 14-team Conference USA this season.
“They’re talented and they’ve got a couple of players who have a chance to play beyond college basketball, maybe even in the NBA,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “Rodney does a good job. They play with great energy and effort, and I think they might be the most talented group that we’ve faced this year when they show up on Saturday.”
But as of now, there are no future dates scheduled between the Miners and Wildcats to test each other, to extend their collective history together.
While Arizona invited UTEP for a one-time appearance at McKale in 2018-19, Saturday’s matchup was arranged by the Southwest Classic event operator. The teams have not had an agreement to play at each other’s arena since Miller and then-UTEP coach Tim Floyd squared off in 2012-13 and 2014-15.
“We haven’t discussed the home-and-home situation, but I’ve got tremendous amount of respect for U of A’s program and always have,” Terry said. “This will be the 93rd time we play, so there’s a lot of familiarity. We were all in a conference together at some point.
“I think as much as you can play regional games — if you have great traditional programs, high-level programs in your area that you can play — I think that’s really the way to go.”
