Women, men taking different routes to begin season

With just seven games remaining until Conference-USA play, the Miner women are off to a 6-0 start for the season, which is tied for the best start in school history with the 1996-97 team and the longest in head coach Keith Adams' tenure.

"We have learned a few things off of last season," Adams said. "This is a good group of returners and newcomers and right now, we are looking to blending them in."

Senior guard Briana Green said that this year, they are looking to come back with a vengeance as they face teams that they feel they could have beaten last year.

"We didn't get off to a great start last season," Green said. "This year has a sort of a revenge feel because we are looking to get back at everyone and beat everyone. Last year, we half-won and half-lost, which is going to change as we come back playing hard."

Houston was one of the teams that the Miners believe they can beat this year. UTEP's season ended against the Cougars March 10 at the C-USA Tournament in El Paso, losing to the regular season champions by four points.

"I'm looking forward to taking on Houston because they were the ones who kicked us out of the playoffs," senior guard Kim Smith said. "It was a really close match and I think with the team that we have now, we'll prove that we can do it."

Adams said that along with taking each game one at a time, defense and rebounding will be the first step to entering these match-ups.

"Right now, I'm just focusing on us because there are so many things we have to improve on," Adams said. "In our past games, we defended and rebounded well, which helped us play well, and because of that, I think that sets us up for good things to happen this season."

UTEP has already beaten Denver, a team they lost to last season on the road, and will be facing other stiff competition away from the Don Haskins Center prior to conference play. They will visit New Mexico Dec. 10 in Albuquerque and Arizona State Dec. 28 in Tempe. The Lobos, at 2-4, have shown they can play defense, allowing only 55.7 points per game. The Sun Devils, with a record of 4-1, have an even better defensive presence, allowing 52.2 points. That type of defense is what Adams and her players hope to accomplish by the time they play those games.

"Execution and defense is what we are really working on and the reason for that is the harder you play on defense, the easier offense comes," Green said. "Our defensive mind set is going to make a difference in all of our game, and from what I can see, it already has."

This season, the men, at 1-4, have struggled on all sides of the ball, including getting the team chemistry down, but in spite of their lacking, there have been some bright moments that this team has displayed.

"There is some pain involved right now and we understand that. It was not fun (Nov. 26 against Stephen F. Austin), and there will be other nights that are no fun," head coach Tim Floyd said. "It was a very idealistic point of view in terms of going into this with all young guys and still thinking we have done the right thing long term. Hopefully we will look back at this for years to come and say it was a necessary part in terms of establishing a long term program."

With that said, UTEP will begin a difficult stretch in their schedule during the winter break, starting with a home contest at 3 p.m. Dec. 11 against NMSU. The Miners are also looking forward to Dec. 14 as they head to Nevada for the chance to knock off undefeated and current-No. 20 UNLV after they upset top-ranked North Carolina Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.

"It is tough knowing where we are right now to go on the road to tough games like…UNLV, who just beat the number one team in the nation, but we are up for the task," sophomore guard Michael Perez said. "If coach thought we weren't up for it, he would not have scheduled the games."

The Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic is a tournament this team is anxious for in terms of evaluating themselves. Their first game will take place Dec. 22 in Honolulu against Clemson, who is 3-2 so far.

"Hawaii would be a good start for us as well. We play Clemson the first game and that is going to be another tough matchup," Perez said. "We feel like we are excited for that and we basically just have to keep working and continue getting support from our fans."

Some other notable games that UTEP will have will be Dec. 28 at the Don Haskins Center in the Bank of the West Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational against Colorado State. They are currently 4-2 and are coming off an 85-75 victory over UT-San Antonio, who beat the Miners in their season opener at home.

UTEP will also head to Marshall in their Conference-USA opener Jan. 4 with the Thundering Herd at an undefeated 5-0 so far. Despite the slow start, the Miners feel they can beat anybody in their way and will only improve as the season progresses.