UTEP game

[EP Pony Fan]

To listen to the people around here, you'd think UTEP was THIS CLOSE to being better than Duke. I'll be at the game at UTEP, cheering like hell for Coach Dement and the Ponies.

[CoxSMU]

Well, with some of the recent games, we have made our opponents look like Duke...

[Pony_Fan]

....SMU is "dangerous" and Gillespie says "Hopkins is NBA talent"


UTEP faces a dangerous SMU team which has already beaten Texas Tech and Purdue


Miners Open Four-Game Homestand Versus SMU

The UTEP men's basketball team will kick off a four-game homestand on Thursday against SMU.

The Miners (13-4, 4-3 WAC) are 10-1 at home this season, with an average margin of victory of 25.4 points. Overall UTEP will play six of its next eight games in the Don Haskins Center, where the Miners have posted an all-time record of 357-111. UTEP will entertain Louisiana Tech on Saturday, Rice on Feb. 5 and Tulsa on Feb. 7.

"We don't look at it as having four games in a row at home. We look at it as having one game in a row four times," said UTEP coach Billy Gillispie. "Whether you're at home or on the road, if you don't play well you're not going to win."

The Miners are in fifth place in the Western Athletic Conference standings. SMU (8-9, 2-5 WAC) is tied for eighth place. But the Mustangs already own impressive road wins over Purdue (60-59) and Baylor (66-62). SMU has also beaten Texas Tech (62-59) at Moody Coliseum in Dallas, one of only three losses for the Red Raiders to date.

The Mustangs are coming off a 75-61 loss to Louisiana Tech on Saturday at Moody Coliseum. Junior forward Patrick Simpson scored 16 points in a reserve role for SMU, which fell behind 41-29 at the half.

Simpson is one of three Mustangs who are averaging double figures in scoring. He is collecting 10.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per outing. Sophomore guard Bryan Hopkins, the 2003 WAC Freshman of the Year, is averaging 15.7 points per game. He is sixth in the WAC in scoring, fourth in steals (1.9 spg), fifth in assists (4.3 apg), ninth in free throw percentage (.779) and 10th in assist/turnover ratio (1.03).

"Hopkins is an NBA player in my opinion," Gillispie said. "He has outstanding talent and is unbelievably explosive."

Junior forward/center Eric Castro is averaging 10.4 points and 6.2 boards. SMU is shooting 42 percent from the field, 30 percent from three-point range and 68 percent from the line on the year. The Mustangs are second in the league in steals, averaging 7.9 per contest.

Gillispie said the next couple of weeks will separate the contenders from the also-rans in the Western Athletic Conference. "The cream will rise to the top," he said. "Around the first of February, teams start to peak and play their best. Hopefully we're going to get better as the season goes along, too."