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UTEP coach Tim Floyd talking after a game earlier this season (YouTube screen shot)
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Former Pac-12 coaching nemesis Tim Floyd, who was once rumored to be the front-runner to replace Lute Olson, is grateful the Miners have a shot at home against the No. 3 Arizona Wildcats on Friday night.
“We’re very appreciative of Arizona coming over here to play because they don’t have to do that right now, where they are,” Floyd was quoted as saying tonight on UTEP’s Web site after the Miners’ 80-62 win over Southeastern Louisiana. “Oregon did it for us earlier. UNLV has done it.”
The third-ranked Wildcats (11-0) travel to El Paso, Texas, on Friday for the first time in 20 years to face their former WAC rivals, who are 6-3. The game, which will tip off at 9 p.m., Tucson time, is sold out at the Don Haskins Center. Fox Sports 1 will televise the game nationally.
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“From all of those standpoints it’s a very important game. It’s a game that will help us get better in our conference and it’s a game that I hope we handle the same way we handled tonight’s game. Not playing toward a crowd, not playing toward an agenda, but playing toward a team concept and trying to win with 21 assists and 10 turnovers. (Arizona is) a great, great, great basketball team, a very well-coached team, and we’re glad that we have an opportunity to play them on our home floor.”
— Tim Floyd, UTEP head coach
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“In the `80s, this was the way it was,” Floyd said. “It was either BYU rolling in, or Utah, UNLV, New Mexico, Georgetown and Michigan. It’s what I hoped for and envisioned when I came back here, that we would play in games that were relevant nationally.”
The Miners are improving under Floyd, the former USC coach who was fired amid the O.J. Mayo scandal in 2009, shortly after he was courted by former Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood for the Wildcats’ coaching vacancy.
Floyd, 60, spurned Arizona to stay with the Trojans. Sean Miller was hired instead. Nobody in Tucson has regrets. The folks in El Paso are happy, too, that Floyd became available.
He is in his fifth season with UTEP, a program he is familiar with from his 10 seasons as an assistant coach under Haskins from 1977-86.
“I think it’s a game in which we will be challenged in every way we can possibly be challenged,” Floyd said about Friday’s game. “It’s a game that’s meaningful for our fans and players, a game that we have recruited toward, knowing we would play these guys one time. It’s a game that when you’re building your season in terms of how you’re going to play, you think about the best team you’re going to play on your schedule and what would give you an opportunity to compete and win in that game.
“From all of those standpoints it’s a very important game. It’s a game that will help us get better in our conference and it’s a game that I hope we handle the same way we handled tonight’s game. Not playing toward a crowd, not playing toward an agenda, but playing toward a team concept and trying to win with 21 assists and 10 turnovers. (Arizona is) a great, great, great basketball team, a very well-coached team, and we’re glad that we have an opportunity to play them on our home floor.”
CAT CLAWS: Former Arizona assistant coach Phil Johnson, a member of Olson’s staff that was part of the 1996-97 championship team, is a longtime assistant of Floyd’s now at UTEP. Former USC interim coach Bob Cantu, who stayed with the Trojans as an assistant under Kevin O’Neill, is also a UTEP assistant who coached with Floyd in L.A. … Brandon Ashley and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson will face one of their most difficult defensive assignments when they guard UTEP sophomore forward Vince Hunter, who hails from Detroit. Hunter, last year’s Conference USA Freshman of the Year and a touted NBA prospect, leads the Miners with 16.2 points and 10.1 rebounds. … Floyd has played 10 players this season, each having at least one start. … The Miners’ three losses were on the road, including three-point setbacks against Washington (at Anaheim, Calif.) and Colorado State. Those teams combine for an 18-0 record. In each loss, UTEP had a chance to tie with last-second three-point attempts that were off the mark.
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“I think it’s a game in which we will be challenged in every way we can possibly be challenged."Tim Floyd. UTEPvsARIZ pic.twitter.com/XSjkCiWgBJ
— SportsTown El Paso (@SportsTownEP) December 17, 2014
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also has published articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
