CONFERENCE USA TOURNAMENT

Conference USA tournament time is upon us and there is so much excitement this year. This year El Paso is the host for the Conference USA Mens and lady basketball tournaments. 31 teams along with their coaching staffs, families and fans will all be in town this week in what will be a great week of basketball. This tournament will bring a small boom to the economy. Hopefully this tournament stays in rotation in the city of El Paso. A lot of teams will be playing very tough this week. UTEP being 5th currently in the standings will need a lot of help from all of its fans. The Miners home court advantage will be extremely important this week when it has an extremely hard 4 days of basketball to fight through.

The UTEP Miners have a lot to celebrate even if they do not win the conference tournament. UTEP ended its season record with a 22-9 mark giving Tim Floyd his first 20+ win season. Jon Bohannon was selected to the ALL Conference Third team list. Julian Washburn and Vincent Hunter were selected to the 2nd team list. Vincent Hunter was also awarded the Conference USA Freshmen of the year award. Hunter had (5) 20+ games this season along with (2) 26 point games tying a school record for freshmen. Hunters career will only continue to flourish here in El Paso. Julian Washburn was selected the all-defensive team. Great accolades for both players who look to be leaders in this weeks tournament.

The Miners will need to win 4 straight games in 4 straight nights if they want to win this tournament. A tournament win would send the Miners to the NCAA tournament. That would be Coach Tim Floyd’s first NCAA birth since becoming head coach at UTEP. That would mark the first time in 5 years that the Miners would make the NCAA tournament.

Here is the schedule and times for the games.

2014 Conference USA Championship Schedule
Don Haskins Center, El Paso, Texas
Tuesday, March 11?(10) North Texas vs. (15) Rice (C-USADN) 3:30p?(11) Florida Atlantic vs. (14) Marshall (C-USADN) 6:00p?(12) East Carolina vs. (13) UTSA (C-USADN) 8:30p
Wednesday, March 12?North Texas/Rice vs. (7) Tulane (C-USADN) 12:00p?FAU/Marshall vs. (6) Old Dominion (C-USADN) 2:30p?ECU/UTSA vs. (5) UTEP (C-USADN) 6:00p?(9) Charlotte vs. (8) UAB (C-USADN) 8:30p
Thursday, March 13?UNT/Rice/Tulane vs. (2) Tulsa (C-USADN) 12:00p?FAU/MAR/ODU vs. (3) Middle Tennessee (C-USADN) 2:30p?ECU/UTSA/UTEP vs. (4) Southern Miss (C-USADN) 6:00p?UAB/Charlotte vs. (1) Louisiana Tech (C-USADN) 8:30p
Friday, March 14?Semifinal # 1 (CBS Sports Network) 2:00p?Semifinal # 2 (CBS Sports Network) 4:30p
Saturday, March 15?Championship Game (CBS) 9:35a