Don Haskins Center:
This is a really
special place, the arena that the Miners call home. Do you know that UTEP (in that time Texas Western) is
the only school in Texas to ever win a NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship?
Legendary Hall Of Fame Coach Don Haskins led the 1966 squad to win the National
Title and coached the Miners from 1961 to 1999. The Arena was named after him
in 1998. No doubt that my favorite men’s game this season here has been the 3OT
game against the Oregon Ducks in which the Miners got the W and it was even
featured on Sportscenter. Here’s a recap that C-USA posted on Youtube.
Arizona:
The first road game
this season was against the nationally ranked Wildacts in Tucson, it’s a
relatively short drive so Jon Teicher (radio play-by-play in English for the
Miners) and I made the drive over there. The McKale Center is spectacular, fans
are great and they have an amazing team! By the way, Arizona also has a Spanish play-by-play crew for their
basketball and football home games and it was great to interact with them pre
and post-game.
Orlando:
The Miners
participated in the Old Spice Classic in the Disney Wide World of Sports
Complex in Orlando this year, their first 2 games were aired on Sportscenter
and the third on ESPN3.com, unfortunately they lost the 3 games (vs. Oklahoma,
Clemson and Vanderbilt), it was a hard start for the Miners because they lost
Konner Tucker (an amazing 3 point shooter) and McKenzie Moore wasn’t eligible
to play yet (he’s a transfer), so they struggled without 2 of their top 3
scorers.
Kyrie Irving and some of the players from the Cleveland Cavs were in the house on the first night of the tournament because they had a game against the Magic on Friday night and one of the Cavs guys was a Gonzaga grad, so they were there to talk to the team. Kyrie was cool enough to let me take a picture with him.
Colorado State:
This was my first trip
in 2013, we flew in to Denver and then drove over to Fort Collins Colorado,
home of the Colorado State Rams. The Moby Arena floor is a little weird, not as
weird as the one in Oregon . . . but yeah their floor is weird. It wasn’t a big
crowd, but it was a really good game that went down to the last minute,
unfortunately the Miners didn’t get their first road win in the season that
day.
Tulane:
Our first conference
road game was against the Tulane Green Wave, so that meant it was going to be
my first time going to New Orleans. It was amazing to see how the city got back
on their feet a couple of years after being hit by Katrina, we were there 3
weeks before the Superbowl so everybody was getting everything ready to host
the big game. We ate lunch the day before the Miner game in Manning’s (Archie
Manning’s restaurant) and it was awesome to see all the great memorabilia he
has there.
Excellent food and has awesome movie-theater like seats to watch sports events in (they said it was jam-packed the day of the BCS National Championship game a couple of days before that).
Excellent food and has awesome movie-theater like seats to watch sports events in (they said it was jam-packed the day of the BCS National Championship game a couple of days before that).
Jon Teicher knew it
was my first time there, so he asked me if I would like to walk over to Bourbon
Street, of course I said yes! Man, walking there (even though it was early and
there wasn’t a big party feel) was special . . . I’m going back in November for
football season and I definetly hope I can party (at least a little bit) on
Friday night before the game.
That night we (English
& Spanish radio crew) had dinner at Jacques-imo's (don't believe what their advertisement says, it's great food) with UTEP Coach Tim Floyd. He told me that he only eats seafood in New Orleans (he coached there for 7 years, 6 with the University of New Orleans and 1 with the Hornets) and Mexican food in El Paso . . . so I tried the food there even though I don't like seafood . . . and it was great! It was great
to chat with such a great basketball mind like Coach Floyd.
He told us there that
the next day he didn’t want to see us to be in their morning shootaround, that
instead he preferred that we went to the World War II Museum, so we did that.
It’s so amazing, if you ever go to NOLA . . . the WWII Museum is a MUST,
specially their special movie narrated by Tom Hanks (I wish I watched it when I
was a kid in school, I was so terrible in history that I felt I learned more
that day that in all my school life in history classes).
That game (against
Tulane) was played perfectly by the Miners and they got their first road win
and it was my first win on the road calling the team’s games.
Tulsa:
I went there for
football season and if there’s something about that place that I love it’s
their food, simply amazing!
The Reynolds Center is
really nice, their floor was brand new and I didn’t like it’s design . . . but
heck, every place is different. Unfortunately the Miners dropped it by 3 in a
low scoring affair (45-42).
ECU:
Man, this place I’m
never going to forget it. I also visited Greenville during football season and
the game got stopped for 45 minutes because of heavy rain and thunderstorm,
guess what? I was on the roof and got really wet. Well, that’s one of the
things I love about basketball . . . it’s always indoors, so it doesn’t matter
if it’s raining, cold or snowing . . . the game is always played in perfect
conditions, that’s the reason why Dr. Naismith created it. Well, the reason why
I’ll remember that place forever is because the ending was spectacular, the
Miners were losing by 2 with 4.4 seconds left and McKenzie Moore nailed a long
3 for the win . . . here’s my call from that game winning shot (no doubt it’s
my highlight of the season).
UAB:
Well, this is a
trip that I’ve been trying to forget since it happened. I mean, the people
there are great, both from the city and from UAB . . . but the Miners let go of
a 15 point lead in the second half and lost the game in overtime, dropping
their C-USA record to 4-2 . . . when they could’ve been 5-1 and gone back home
for a 3 game homestand with a shot at being in contention for the Conference 1st
place . . . well, I was so dissapointed
of the outcome that I didn’t even take a picture of myself in the arena, marking this the
first time that I didn’t take a pic in the place of me where I called a game with
UTEP (football & basketball).
But their homecourt is awesome! Unfortunately (for them) fans don't come out in big numbers.
But their homecourt is awesome! Unfortunately (for them) fans don't come out in big numbers.
Houston:
This is Hofheinz
Pavillion, where the Miners faced the Cougars, my seat wasn’t in the ideal
position because I was behind the scoring table and due to that I had an
obstructed view . . . no doubt the worst place I’ve been accommodated in so far
this season.
All in all it’s a
nice arena, check out those numbers that are retired by Houston University:
true legends of the sport. Elvin Hayes was scheduled to sign there before the
game, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it . . . I was ready to buy a basketball to get him to
sign it and ask him for his HOF inscription, but he didn’t go.
For the game, it
was a simply terrible showing for the Miners . . . . first game since November
that they didn’t have a shot at winning in the final minutes of the game.
Hattiesburg:
This place is great! People there are simply extraordinary! Nice arena, great team and it was a great game that the Miners unfortunately let go of in the final 3 minutes.
One more trip to Houston, this time it was to face Rice. It was my first time sitting at the scorer's table. Miners won, Rice was the worst C-USA team this season (only won 1 Conference game).
SMU:
Final trip of the regular season was to Dallas, unfortunately the Miners didn't get to play at SMU because they're remodeling their gym because their moving to the Big East next season (well, the American Athletic Conference now that the Catholic schools split).
The game was played in Garland, Texas. At the beginning we were told the game would be played in a high school gym. When we arrived to the Curtis Culwell Center it was completely the opposite, a really nice arena for college basketball. Miners won that game too against the Larry Brown coached SMU Mustangs!
Tulsa:
Conference USA tournament was held in Tulsa, the Miners had a first round bye because they finished third. UTEP won against Houston in the Quarterfinals, but fell against Southern Miss in the semis. Our return home was scheduled for Sunday, so we were able to be there for the Final between Memphis and Southern Miss in a game that went to double overtime and that was really fun!
Got to meet Wally Szczerbiak who was there working for CBS Sports.
The BOK Center at Tulsa is AMAZING! It truly is a NBA Arena! Talked to some media peeps from Tulsa and they told me that they were really close of getting the Sonics (now Thunder) to get to the city. I know it's gonna be TOO DIFFICULT, but I hope they get their NBA team . . . it's such a great city because of the people who live there.
Well, hope I didn't bore you to sleep. If you made it all the way down here, thank you for reading!
This place is great! People there are simply extraordinary! Nice arena, great team and it was a great game that the Miners unfortunately let go of in the final 3 minutes.
Rice:One more trip to Houston, this time it was to face Rice. It was my first time sitting at the scorer's table. Miners won, Rice was the worst C-USA team this season (only won 1 Conference game).
SMU:
Final trip of the regular season was to Dallas, unfortunately the Miners didn't get to play at SMU because they're remodeling their gym because their moving to the Big East next season (well, the American Athletic Conference now that the Catholic schools split).
The game was played in Garland, Texas. At the beginning we were told the game would be played in a high school gym. When we arrived to the Curtis Culwell Center it was completely the opposite, a really nice arena for college basketball. Miners won that game too against the Larry Brown coached SMU Mustangs!
Tulsa:
Conference USA tournament was held in Tulsa, the Miners had a first round bye because they finished third. UTEP won against Houston in the Quarterfinals, but fell against Southern Miss in the semis. Our return home was scheduled for Sunday, so we were able to be there for the Final between Memphis and Southern Miss in a game that went to double overtime and that was really fun!
Got to meet Wally Szczerbiak who was there working for CBS Sports.
The BOK Center at Tulsa is AMAZING! It truly is a NBA Arena! Talked to some media peeps from Tulsa and they told me that they were really close of getting the Sonics (now Thunder) to get to the city. I know it's gonna be TOO DIFFICULT, but I hope they get their NBA team . . . it's such a great city because of the people who live there.
Well, hope I didn't bore you to sleep. If you made it all the way down here, thank you for reading!
