Unbeaten UTEP basketball team ready for rematch with NMSU in Battle of I-10

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UTEP and New Mexico State, two teams with wonderful basketball histories, will get together for some heated hoops at 7 p.m. today in the Don Haskins Center ... get together for the 199th time.

The long time series is always hot and heated and full of fun and, most of the time, the basketball is pretty good. UTEP is 5-0, one of only 15 Division 1 teams still undefeated. The Aggies are 2-5 overall, 0-3 on the road. NMSU has dropped home games to rival UTEP and New Mexico and the Aggies have not won in the Haskins Center since Dec. 16, 2006.

The Miners, who thumped the Aggies 75-58 in Las Cruces, will have a new face on the roster tonight. Derrick Caracter, the 6-foot-9, 285-pounder, was declared eligible Saturday. Caracter, a talented transfer from Louisville, will make his UTEP debut after transferring last January. He has been practicing with the team since then, waiting for this moment.

"First off I just want to say faith gives you blessings and thanks to the Father up top, all of this was possible," Caracter said. "A year before this I was sleeping on my momma's couch, trying to figure out where I was going to be at this time and if it wasn't for the Man up top, none of this would have been possible."

UTEP coach Tony Barbee said, "The team's excited to have him because they know the difference he's going to make on our team. That's the best thing about this year's group; everybody is about team and winning as a team. Individual success is far down the
totem pole."

All the Miners are eager to play under the lights again. Their last game was that win in Las Cruces Dec. 1.

"That was my first time in the rivalry and it was really a fun atmosphere," said junior college transfer Jeremy Williams. "It's always more fun when you beat them. We know we've still got to pick it up this time because we know they'll be coming after us. We've got to be prepared, ready to get rolling and our goal is to always get better every time we go out there."

Junior Gabriel McCulley said, "We've been going at each other all week and we're excited to play someone else -- especially New Mexico State. The New Mexico State game is always special. That game always has your heart pumping a little more and everything is more intense. I think we're all really excited and ready to play."

And 6-11 junior Claude Britten said, "Oh, yeah, we're ready to play. We've been working hard, no days off, conditioning and going over plays. Every game we play, we try to do better. I'm happy with where we are as a team now ? but we all know we can get better and we know we have to continue to get better."

The Miners ran away to a 39-24 halftime lead back on Dec. 1 in Las Cruces, never really letting the Aggies get into the game. UTEP shot a respectable 44.3 percent from the field and held NMSU to just 28.6 percent from the field.

Of course, that was then and this is now and Sunday night is a whole new ball game.

The Aggies are led by Jahmar Young, 19.3 points a game, Jonathan Gibson, 18.4 points a game and Hamidu Rahman, 13.4 points a game. UTEP continues to have five average in double figures -- Randy Culpepper 17.2, Arnett Moultrie 13.6, Julyan Stone 12.4, Williams 11.8 and Christian Polk 11.4. Britten and McCulley are always double figure threats and now the Miners have yet another big body with scoring potential in Caracter.

New Mexico State leads this all-time series 100-98 ... but, again, that was then and this is now.

Sunday night is an entirely new episode in the always fun, always intense, always crazy basketball rivalry between UTEP and NMSU.

 

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Tough life: West finally cleared, hopes to contribute to Aggies


Life as a non-qualifier can be tough.

B.J. West had more to think about than whether or not he could help the New Mexico State men's basketball team on the court.

He didn't have a scholarship and he couldn't practice with the team after signing this summer. Both of those changed on Monday, when the NCAA cleared West.

"It was a huge deal to get him cleared," Aggies coach Marvin Menzies said. "I was starting to get concerned. It's a lot of stress off him and his family financially. Had he not been cleared, there would have been issues whether he would be able to stay here based on scholarship issues."

Now that he has been cleared, West has practiced the past three days.

At 6-foot-9, West adds length to the NMSU front line.

"I've only had a chance to watch him with the guys for a couple days," Menzies said. "He is very long and plays very hard and has a nice motor. He will be a nice addition to the program whether he plays this year or next year."

West could play as early as Sunday at UTEP or he could redshirt this season.

That, like many things, hinges on the possible return of junior forward Wendell McKines and redshirt sophomore Troy Gillenwater. Both veteran players have missed the first seven games due to academics.

"He might play (on Sunday) but I have to see what goes on with the other guys," Menzies said.

Sitting out the season is something that West said he was open to.

"At first, I decided if I missed 10 games, I would
just redshirt," West said. "I guess we will see by Sunday. Whatever decision (Menzies) makes, I am going to go with it because he is the coach."

West played last year at God's Academy, a prep school in Texas. Prior to that, he spent three years at Rapides High in his native Louisiana.

At Rapides, West had eight triple doubles and averaged 16 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks per game to win a Class B state title in 2007-08.

"Rapides was pretty easy," West said. "I was in Class B so there wasn't really much talent but there was some. It was a lot different in prep school."

It turned out that switching schools is what delayed his scholarship.

West was under review for several months by the NCAA and as time passed, he had to continue supplying the NCAA with the documentation it requested.

"All of my teammates were telling me to stay positive and stay focused and determined," West said.

Upon his arrival to Las Cruces, West played open gym with his future teammates.

"I played every day with them," he said. "I had to get used to the altitude of it but, after a while, now I'm good."

West said it's been difficult watching the Aggies get off to a 2-5 start. At the same time, while he could potentially add some much needed depth to the frontline, neither Menzies nor West is in a rush to push him into action.

"I don't like watching my team play," West said. "But if I can't help my team, there is no use in me being out there."

 

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Aggies shoot for improved play in trip to UTEP




The last time the New Mexico State men's basketball team was swept by rivals UTEP and New Mexico was 2004-05.

The 2-5 Aggies hope to avoid that fate Sunday night when they travel to UTEP for a 7:05 p.m. tipoff against the 5-0 Miners. Sunday's game can be heard on the radio 104 KGRT-FM and in Spanish on Vista 98.7 FM.

While snapping a two-game losing skid and getting back into the "win' column is important, it's more crucial that the Aggies improve before opening Western Athletic Conference play on Jan. 2.

"For us right now at 2-5, it's more important that we go out and show improvement and go out and play better basketball every time out and take incremental steps every time out and be in a competitive place in the upper echelon of conference," head coach Marvin Menzies said.

Menzies said that confidence and winning go hand-in-hand so getting a win could do wonders for a struggling club.

"That starts in practice and I feel like we had some pretty good practices so I'm thinking that we will go out and compete at a higher level than last time we played them," the head coach said.

UTEP has won four of the last five meetings between the two teams and the last two contests at the Don Haskins Center.

The last time the teams met was a 79-58 UTEP victory at the Pan American Center on Dec. 1. The Miners scored the first nine points of the game and ended up beating NMSU by the largest margin ever in Las Cruces during the rivalry series.

"We are
going to change some things to mix it up a little bit," Menzies said. "It's important because we haven't (started out well) lately. You have to measure the whole 40 minutes and play 40 minutes hard. (Getting off to a better start) is more important because it gives us a good feel for how we need to play going forward."

The key to slowing the Miners is containing 6-foot-6 junior point guard Julyan Stone.

Stone was 8-of-11 from the field and scored 17 points in the first game against the Aggies.

"Entry passes to the post are easy for him because he is way taller than me and they have two or three plays for him to post me up," Aggies sophomore point guard Hernst Laroche said. "I have to front him and when he dribbles, I have to pressure them. He's the leader and when he plays well, I think everybody plays well."

The Aggies shot 29 percent against UTEP while the Miners scored 27 points off NMSU turnovers.

Laroche said eliminating turnovers, defense and shot selection are among the keys for turning things around Sunday.

"We are a winning team and losing is not part of our team," Laroche said. "It's important because we have goals and the way we are playing right now, we are way behind of where we are supposed to be. To achieve our goals, we have to play better."