The last time the Fresno State men’s basketball team faced the UTEP Miners was on Feb. 10, 2005, when both teams were in the Western Athletic Conference.
Now with the Bulldogs in the Mountain West and UTEP in Conference-USA, the teams will meet in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
This meeting comes after the Bulldogs finished the season the farthest they have been in a postseason tournament since 2009. They beat the Air Force Falcons last Wednesday then lost to the New Mexico Lobos — the eventual tournament champions — last Thursday.
Much like the contest against New Mexico, the Bulldogs will play in front of a contentious crowd. Whereas many Lobos fans filled up the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, the CBI’s first-round game will take place at UTEP’s house: the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
“We were playing in a neutral court,” Fresno State coach Rodney Terry said, “but a hostile environment. [New Mexico’s fans] brought The Pit to Vegas. It’s no different than what we’re going to face in El Paso.
“We just have to be extremely excited and look forward to a really good challenge on the road.”
In postseason tournaments, this is the first time the Miners and Bulldogs will square off in El Paso. On March 16, 1983, Fresno State beat UTEP 71-64 in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at Selland Arena in Fresno. Miners current head coach Tim Floyd was an assistant in that game.
Defense, defense, defense
The Miners are riding on their best defensive performance in 50 years. They have held opponents to only 38 percent shooting, tied for fourth-best since 1955.
This year, UTEP held six teams to less than 30 percent shooting.
“When you think about Floyd’s team,” Terry said, “you think about a team that can play defense extremely well and at a very high level.”
A Mountain West team that is comparable to the Miners, Terry said, is San Diego State, because both teams have the defensive versatility to confuse opponents and cause errors.
“[The Miners] play some stuff that you don’t usually see,” said Fresno State senior guard Tyler Johnson. “Our biggest thing is going to be to stay together and take advantage of opportunities that we have to run transition defense.”
And playing in transition is something the Bulldogs have done all year long. And their appearance in a postseason tournament is not going to change the game plan.
“We’re not putting in a new offense or defense,” Johnson said. “We might have to take advantage of things we normally don’t have to just because of the way [UTEP] has played, but we’re going to play the same way.”
