UTEP’s Tough Test in Hawaii
For the foreseeable future the Maui Invitational will be the premiere preseason basketball tournament in the state of Hawaii and that has not changed this year with teams like Memphis, Duke, UCLA and Kansas highlighting the field. But there is another tournament in Hawaii that is attracting some big name schools. A month after the Maui Invitational concludes, the Diamond Head Classic, hosted by Hawaii at their home arena, will take place. Beside the fact that there is no better place to spend your holidays than in Hawaii, there will be some great basketball to watch as well.
UTEP is bringing in a ton of new players this year and the schedule is pretty soft leading up to their trip to the Stan Sheriff Center for the Diamond Head Classic. Prior to their trip to Hawaii, UTEP will only leave the friendly confines of the Don Haskins Center three times, to play at New Mexico State, Oregon and UNLV. The rest of the schedule is full of very winnable games even as the team adjusts to all the new faces.
But it will be different in Hawaii. The Miners start off with their toughest test to date as they face against Clemson. The following game will be against Southern Illinois or Kansas State. If all goes well up to that point, this Miners team should beat Southern Illinois and could beat Kansas State. The other side of the bracket includes Big West favorite Long Beach State, the always dangerous Xavier, the SEC’s Auburn and host Hawaii. No matter which of those four teams they face on Christmas Day, it will be a tough test and we will learn a lot about the Miners during the four day tournament.
In an interesting side note, former UTEP coach Tony Barbee is now at Auburn. That would be a fun little matchup for UTEP to try and oust their former coach who left them for a bigger name school.
Read the in-depth men’s basketball preview of this team
