Don Haskins Era

[FiliUTEP]

Who was the highest rated recruit Haskins brought to Utep?

Also why didn't Utep capitalized after the 1966 win? It looks like in the 70s UTEP didn't do much winning. What it took until 1991 to get to the sweet 16?
Was Utep able to bring in highly recruited players after 1966? I would imagine every non white player would lineup to play for Utep? Did that not happen?

 

[MikePatrick915]

Who was the highest rated recruit Haskins brought to Utep?

Also why didn't Utep capitalized after the 1966 win? It looks like in the 70s UTEP didn't do much winning. What it took until 1991 to get to the sweet 16?
Was Utep able to bring in highly recruited players after 1966? I would imagine every non white player would lineup to play for Utep? Did that not happen?

1968 sports illustrated article stated that utep exploited their black athletes and tossed them aside once they ran out of eligibility. Other coaches would use that to negatively recruit against utep. It took away any ability for them to capitalize. Too bad or they could have had multiple title runs.

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

1968 sports illustrated article stated that utep exploited their black athletes and tossed them aside once they ran out of eligibility. Other coaches would use that to negatively recruit against utep. It took away any ability for them to capitalize. Too bad or they could have had multiple title runs.

Sounds like excuses to me. What about the white players? I guess that must have been a really popular issue of SI. Must have been really beat up since other coaches would use it for years.

The Miners made the tournament in 1967 and went 14-9 in 1968. So they were already trending downward before that article came out.

Nice story though.

 

[MikePatrick915]

Sounds like excuses to me. What about the white players? I guess that must have been a really popular issue of SI. Must have been really beat up since other coaches would use it for years.

The Miners made the tournament in 1967 and went 14-9 in 1968. So they were already trending downward before that article came out.

Nice story though.

Okay, why don`t you go in a time machine and go recruit for Coach Haskins then. That is what he stated on numerous occasions. Also, every school started recruiting black players so there was a lot more competition for the top players.

 

[JCorona]

Was it or is it common practice to keep players after they've exhausted their eligibility?

 

[STexMiner]

Haskins was a great Xs and Os coach. He wasn't the best or most dedicated recruiter (see Gary Payton). If he had people around him who could spot talent, we were really good. When he didn't, we weren't.

 

[jdubb66]

Highest rated recruit i remember was a 6' guard from the Washington DC area. Had a great freshman year then disappeared. Would have been around 1990. Henry Hall was his name i believe. Chris Sandle and Chris Blocker were also very highly rated.

I believe the Miners also made sweet 16 in 87 as well no? Victories over Arizona an Iowa.

 

[MineroFanatico]

Highest rated recruit i remember was a 6' guard from the Washington DC area. Had a great freshman year then disappeared. Would have been around 1990. Henry Hall was his name i believe. Chris Sandle and Chris Blocker were also very highly rated.

I believe the Miners also made sweet 16 in 87 as well no? Victories over Arizona an Iowa.

Nyet. Round of 32. 3 points away from sweet 16, tho.

 

[Rocketsr]

1968 sports illustrated article stated that utep exploited their black athletes and tossed them aside once they ran out of eligibility. Other coaches would use that to negatively recruit against utep. It took away any ability for them to capitalize. Too bad or they could have had multiple title runs.

My father told me this exact same reason. He hated SI every since that article came out and never bought another issue ever again. There were 2 very large recruits that were coming to UTEP that specifically pulled out and named that article specifically.
Here is that article:

In An Alien World

El Paso lies farther west than Denver, Cheyenne and Dodge City. Although it is in Texas, it is nearly 1,000 miles away from the "grits zone"—that portion of

vault.si.com

The following week they further bashed UTEP:

19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

THE BLACK ATHLETE (CONT.)Sirs:Having been the student body president of the University of Texas at El Paso (1967-68), I can truthfully say that the facts in

vault.si.com

Haskins said this about the article:
Anyone who tells you that our 1966 team was celebrated across the country for what we accomplished is lying. We were loved in El Paso. And certainly there were blacks who saw us on television and couldn't believe their eyes and loved what we did. But the establishment and the media it controls was completely against us. We were pariahs. We were villains. We were the 'wretched.' We were not being held up as heroes."

Sports Illustrated came to town after we won the title and did a story on black athletes at TWC that, incredibly, said I exploited black players; that our kids weren't real students and El Paso was a community that was unfriendly to minorities. I hit the roof. The magazine was so irresponsible I couldn't believe it. In one part of the story it suggested that El Paso was so racist that none of my players' wives could get jobs there. Wives? None of my players were even married."

After all of the fallout, recruiting was virtually impossible. Instead of using the championship to attract more good players, we had to fight all the negative press. Opposing coaches would for years travel around with a copy of that Sports Illustrated story in their briefcases. They'd go to a home visit with someone we were recruiting and pull it out."
~Coach Don Haskins

 

[Rocketsr]

Highest rated recruit i remember was a 6' guard from the Washington DC area. Had a great freshman year then disappeared. Would have been around 1990. Henry Hall was his name i believe. Chris Sandle and Chris Blocker were also very highly rated.

I believe the Miners also made sweet 16 in 87 as well no? Victories over Arizona an Iowa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1990/12/14/hall-finds-trip-home-sad-indeed/b97348df-f5a4-4eb2-aa85-0e53df3587f6/

Good Article on Henry Hall.

UTEP lost to Iowa and did not make it to the Sweet 16. The only year UTEP was in the Sweet 16 besides 64, 66 and 67 was 92.

 

[FiliUTEP]

Why hasnt Utep sued Sports Illustrated if it was a lie?? Wouldn't that be slander? Didn't Mike Price sued Sports Illustrated?

 

[JCorona]

Why didn't Haskins just say fake news?

 

[FiliUTEP]

My thing is how was Haskins able to keep his job during the 70s?? They didnt win in the 70s. Did the 1966 title save Haskins from ever being in the hot seat?

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

Again, this article came out in 1968, after UTEP started the mediocre 14-9 1967-68 season. Did this article help UTEP? No. Did some black recruits not give UTEP a chance? Probably. Was it the only and sole reason Haskins didn’t “keep it going”? No, of course not. Lots of white players and new areas he could have recruited.

I guess all of our rivals copies had been beaten up by the mid 80s. Didn’t seem to keep any black recruits away then.

 

[utep2step]

Who was the highest rated recruit Haskins brought to Utep?

Also why didn't Utep capitalized after the 1966 win? It looks like in the 70s UTEP didn't do much winning. What it took until 1991 to get to the sweet 16?
Was Utep able to bring in highly recruited players after 1966? I would imagine every non white player would lineup to play for Utep? Did that not happen?

Best transfer stud was from ASU, Chris Sandle, IMO. He upped the bar with his presence.

Best JUCO recruit under Haskins, Chris Blocker.

Best bad ass recruit has too be Bad News.

70’s Roshern Aimee.

Fred Reynolds was a great get for Haskins in early 80’s

 

[utep2step]

It’s what Haskins did after the article that is legendary. Unlike colleges who overcame their self inflicted wounds, Haskins overcame after being brutally attacked by racists, bad reporters and the spreading of lies from his direct competition.

Not trying to be cheesy but we must celebrate what Haskins overcame (and Dr Natalicio as well).

 

[utep2step]

Again, this article came out in 1968, after UTEP started the mediocre 14-9 1967-68 season. Did this article help UTEP? No. Did some black recruits not give UTEP a chance? Probably. Was it the only and sole reason Haskins didn’t “keep it going”? No, of course not. Lots of white players and new areas he could have recruited.

I guess all of our rivals copies had been beaten up by the mid 80s. Didn’t seem to keep any black recruits away then.

100% Road Apples. Yes, it hurt recruiting. Haskins gave testimony over it. I take his word for it. By the 80’s he rebuilt and the rest was history. He overcame.

You see NoWins, Haskins provided hope and what you gleefully regard as blissful ignorance is actual ability to overcome. Bigotry, ignorance, and denial of right to prosper. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Haskins was denied opportunity to further the program and he still overcame and it burns in true Miner fans and it eats at you for whatever reason.

 

[unihorn]

TCU gives Dixon extension after 1st NCAA victory in 35 years. Didn’t realize it’d been that long for the froggies.

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

100% Road Apples. Yes, it hurt recruiting. Haskins gave testimony over it. I take his word for it. By the 80’s he rebuilt and the rest was history. He overcame.

You see NoWins, Haskins provided hope and what you gleefully regard as blissful ignorance is actual ability to overcome. Bigotry, ignorance, and denial of right to prosper. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Haskins was denied opportunity to further the program and he still overcame and it burns in true Miner fans and it eats at you for whatever reason.

Testimony? What ****ing court case did he give testimony over this in?

It doesn’t eat at me. WTF? I wasn’t even alive then. It doesn’t make a bit of difference either, since he remained the damn coach until 1999.

Just because that was Haskins opinion and because people’s dads and grandpas are believing this rhetoric is true, does not mean it’s 100% fact.

I already stated, it might have contributed to losing some recruits, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have found other good recruits that didn’t care about it.

Dave Bliss still coached basketball after he tried to frame one of his ex-players as a drug dealer, but Don Haskins couldn’t get the best players here because of a SI article. I guess without the SI article, we would have beat UCLA during the 1970s.

 

[axingfools1]

TCU gives Dixon extension after 1st NCAA victory in 35 years. Didn’t realize it’d been that long for the froggies.

I believe he won an NIT too. Dixon turned over his roster for like 6 years straight before getting his team to where they were this year.

 

[unihorn]

I believe he won an NIT too. Dixon turned over his roster for like 6 years straight before getting his team to where they were this year.

B12 MBB is tough.

 

[unihorn]

Testimony? What ****ing court case did he give testimony over this in?

It doesn’t eat at me. WTF? I wasn’t even alive then. It doesn’t make a bit of difference either, since he remained the damn coach until 1999.

Just because that was Haskins opinion and because people’s dads and grandpas are believing this rhetoric is true, does not mean it’s 100% fact.

I already stated, it might have contributed to losing some recruits, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have found other good recruits that didn’t care about it.

Dave Bliss still coached basketball after he tried to frame one of his ex-players as a drug dealer, but Don Haskins couldn’t get the best players here because of a SI article. I guess without the SI article, we would have beat UCLA during the 1970s.

So you’re saying Haskins used it as an excuse?

 

[Dmanminer]

Testimony? What ****ing court case did he give testimony over this in?

It doesn’t eat at me. WTF? I wasn’t even alive then. It doesn’t make a bit of difference either, since he remained the damn coach until 1999.

Just because that was Haskins opinion and because people’s dads and grandpas are believing this rhetoric is true, does not mean it’s 100% fact.

I already stated, it might have contributed to losing some recruits, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have found other good recruits that didn’t care about it.

Dave Bliss still coached basketball after he tried to frame one of his ex-players as a drug dealer, but Don Haskins couldn’t get the best players here because of a SI article. I guess without the SI article, we would have beat UCLA during the 1970s.

You all really don’t understand what it was like back in that era. El Paso wasn’t and still isn’t a easy place to recruit. Yes EP is advancing as far as the social aspect, but not much was happening here in the 70’s. The only true night life was country western and a few rock joints. The biggest happening were put on by Klaq.

 

[Dmanminer]

As far as suing SI that wasn’t something that was done in those days.

 

[TxRdKiller]

Best transfer stud was from ASU, Chris Sandle, IMO. He upped the bar with his presence.

Best JUCO recruit under Haskins, Chris Blocker.

Best bad ass recruit has too be Bad News.

70’s Roshern Aimee.

Fred Reynolds was a great get for Haskins in early 80’s

Damn, man. Sandle and Blocker are two of my all-time favorite Miners. Glad you mentioned them. Weren't they both on the '87 team that came back from down 7 to Arizona with 45 seconds remaining and we won in OT?

 

[utep2step]

Damn, man. Sandle and Blocker are two of my all-time favorite Miners. Glad you mentioned them. Weren't they both on the '87 team that came back from down 7 to Arizona with 45 seconds remaining and we won in OT?

Blocker “in your face” one handed jam on Iowa’s Brad Lohaus is one of my all time favorites.

 

[MinerManiac]

Damn, man. Sandle and Blocker are two of my all-time favorite Miners. Glad you mentioned them. Weren't they both on the '87 team that came back from down 7 to Arizona with 45 seconds remaining and we won in OT?

Yes they were. In fact, it was Blocker's toe on the line 2 point shot that sent the game into OT.

 

[FiliUTEP]

As far as suing SI that wasn’t something that was done in those days.

Cant they sue them now??

 

[MinerManiac]

My thoughts:

1. Right after we won the National Championship we changed our name to UTEP. How stupid was that? We immediately took away the one thing for which we had any fame.
2. Everyone always talks about how Haskins was a poor recruiter. That was certainly not always the case. He was tireless in his recruitment of Bad News Barnes and David Lattin, for example. That scene in Glory Road where he followed Harry Flournoy in his car, only to scare him away, until Harry came home to find Coach in his house: it really happened. Over time Haskins found recruiting more and more distasteful, eventually turning the vast majority of it over to his assistants, but young Haskins was a tireless recruiter.
3. In part Haskins was a victim of his own success. Prior to 1966 teams in the South didn't recruit Black players, and while teams in the North, Midwest, and West did, most, if not all, had limits to the number of Black players that they could sign. Haskins said that confused opposing coaches were always asking him what his quota was. He was able to take advantage of a largely untapped source of quality basketball players. The 1966 team changed that. There was a lot more competition for the players that Haskins used to be able to sign.
4. Opposing coaches use negative recruiting all of the time, so it's no surprise that the SI article caused Haskins so many problems. BTW, has anyone besides me read that article? I have a couple of thoughts on it. One, it is my guess that Black athletes at UTEP were treated better than their counterparts at most other institutions, including the ones that used the SI article to employ negative recruiting against UTEP. Two, that's no excuse. Maybe some of the article was fabricated, but reading the quotes from the athletes things weren't near as egalitarian as they needed to be. We should have been better.
5. After going 28-1 and 22-6, 14-9 in 1967-68 is a downward trend? Sorry, that is the normal ebb and flow of sports. Tom Izzo is one of the most successful coaches around, with the third most Final Four appearances in history. Still, in between some of his great seasons he's had records of 18-12 (about the same percentage record as 14-9), 19-15 (a worse percentage record), and 15-13, the latter was just last year. John Calipari went 9-16 last year. Going 14-9 isn't the sign of a downward trend, it's just a down year, which happens to everybody.
6. With the exception of 1976-79, which were horrible, the 70s weren't that bad. Certainly not near bad enough to dump the coach that brought your school it's biggest claim to fame. I mean 20-6, 20-7, 19-7, and 18-7, for example, are not bad records. We made the NCAA Tournament in 1970 and 75, and the NIT in 72. I wish that we could say that we've experienced the same level of success for the past decade.
7. While there were some whispers in the late 70s that Haskins had lost his touch, he proved in the 80s that he just needed assistants that could recruit to El Paso, which, as has been pointed out, is not an easy thing to do. If it hadn't been for the NCAA sanctions in the 90s that decade would have looked similar to the previous one.
8. We did indeed lose a close one to Iowa State in 1987. I remember telling everyone before that tournament that we would beat Arizona and play Iowa State in the 2nd round, and that the winner of that game would beat Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen and lose to UNLV in the Elite Eight. Iowa State, the winner, did exactly that. I've always wondered if I would have been just as prophetic if we had won that Iowa State game.

 

[Dmanminer]

Cant they sue them now??

No

 

[unihorn]

My father told me this exact same reason. He hated SI every since that article came out and never bought another issue ever again. There were 2 very large recruits that were coming to UTEP that specifically pulled out and named that article specifically.
Here is that article:

In An Alien World

El Paso lies farther west than Denver, Cheyenne and Dodge City. Although it is in Texas, it is nearly 1,000 miles away from the "grits zone"—that portion of

vault.si.com

The following week they further bashed UTEP:

19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

THE BLACK ATHLETE (CONT.)Sirs:Having been the student body president of the University of Texas at El Paso (1967-68), I can truthfully say that the facts in

vault.si.com

Haskins said this about the article:
Anyone who tells you that our 1966 team was celebrated across the country for what we accomplished is lying. We were loved in El Paso. And certainly there were blacks who saw us on television and couldn't believe their eyes and loved what we did. But the establishment and the media it controls was completely against us. We were pariahs. We were villains. We were the 'wretched.' We were not being held up as heroes."

Sports Illustrated came to town after we won the title and did a story on black athletes at TWC that, incredibly, said I exploited black players; that our kids weren't real students and El Paso was a community that was unfriendly to minorities. I hit the roof. The magazine was so irresponsible I couldn't believe it. In one part of the story it suggested that El Paso was so racist that none of my players' wives could get jobs there. Wives? None of my players were even married."

After all of the fallout, recruiting was virtually impossible. Instead of using the championship to attract more good players, we had to fight all the negative press. Opposing coaches would for years travel around with a copy of that Sports Illustrated story in their briefcases. They'd go to a home visit with someone we were recruiting and pull it out."
~Coach Don Haskins

Thanks for sharing. Just read for the first time. It’s pretty damning. Had to have hurt recruiting.

 

[mikesarabia]

Damn, man. Sandle and Blocker are two of my all-time favorite Miners. Glad you mentioned them. Weren't they both on the '87 team that came back from down 7 to Arizona with 45 seconds remaining and we won in OT?

You are correct. Both Sandle and Blocker were on that team. That was my favorite team. They were loaded. Jeep Jackson, Mike Richmond, Quintan Gates, Soup Campbell, and a couple of freshmen Tim Hardaway and Antonio Davis To name a few. I have that game on a DVD and enjoy watching it.

 

[mikesarabia]

My thoughts:

1. Right after we won the National Championship we changed our name to UTEP. How stupid was that? We immediately took away the one thing for which we had any fame.
2. Everyone always talks about how Haskins was a poor recruiter. That was certainly not always the case. He was tireless in his recruitment of Bad News Barnes and David Lattin, for example. That scene in Glory Road where he followed Harry Flournoy in his car, only to scare him away, until Harry came home to find Coach in his house: it really happened. Over time Haskins found recruiting more and more distasteful, eventually turning the vast majority of it over to his assistants, but young Haskins was a tireless recruiter.
3. In part Haskins was a victim of his own success. Prior to 1966 teams in the South didn't recruit Black players, and while teams in the North, Midwest, and West did, most, if not all, had limits to the number of Black players that they could sign. Haskins said that confused opposing coaches were always asking him what his quota was. He was able to take advantage of a largely untapped source of quality basketball players. The 1966 team changed that. There was a lot more competition for the players that Haskins used to be able to sign.
4. Opposing coaches use negative recruiting all of the time, so it's no surprise that the SI article caused Haskins so many problems. BTW, has anyone besides me read that article? I have a couple of thoughts on it. One, it is my guess that Black athletes at UTEP were treated better than their counterparts at most other institutions, including the ones that used the SI article to employ negative recruiting against UTEP. Two, that's no excuse. Maybe some of the article was fabricated, but reading the quotes from the athletes things weren't near as egalitarian as they needed to be. We should have been better.
5. After going 28-1 and 22-6, 14-9 in 1967-68 is a downward trend? Sorry, that is the normal ebb and flow of sports. Tom Izzo is one of the most successful coaches around, with the third most Final Four appearances in history. Still, in between some of his great seasons he's had records of 18-12 (about the same percentage record as 14-9), 19-15 (a worse percentage record), and 15-13, the latter was just last year. John Calipari went 9-16 last year. Going 14-9 isn't the sign of a downward trend, it's just a down year, which happens to everybody.
6. With the exception of 1976-79, which were horrible, the 70s weren't that bad. Certainly not near bad enough to dump the coach that brought your school it's biggest claim to fame. I mean 20-6, 20-7, 19-7, and 18-7, for example, are not bad records. We made the NCAA Tournament in 1970 and 75, and the NIT in 72. I wish that we could say that we've experienced the same level of success same for the past decade.
7. While there were some whispers in the late 70s that Haskins had lost his touch, he proved in the 80s that he just needed assistants that could recruit to El Paso, which, as has been pointed out, is not an easy thing to do. If it hadn't been for the NCAA sanctions in the 90s that decade would have looked similar to the previous one.
8. We did indeed lose a close one to Iowa State in 1987. I remember telling everyone before that tournament that we would beat Arizona and play Iowa State in the 2nd round, and that the winner of that game would beat Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen and lose to UNLV in the Elite Eight. Iowa State, the winner, did exactly that. I've always wondered if I would have been just as prophetic if we had won that Iowa State game.

Great post! Just to correct you on number 8. It was Iowa, not Iowa St.

 

[MinerManiac]

Great post! Just to correct you on number 8. It was Iowa, not Iowa St.

Thanks, you're correct, of course. A correction for a correction: Hardaway was a sophomore on that '87 team. And I agree with you, that team was a lot of fun to watch.

 

[TxRdKiller]

You are correct. Both Sandle and Blocker were on that team. That was my favorite team. They were loaded. Jeep Jackson, Mike Richmond, Quintan Gates, Soup Campbell, and a couple of freshmen Tim Hardaway and Antonio Davis To name a few. I have that game on a DVD and enjoy watching it.

That was an incredibly stacked team. GREAT memories of that team, man. What a rush to reminisce about the old days.

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

My thoughts:

1. Right after we won the National Championship we changed our name to UTEP. How stupid was that? We immediately took away the one thing for which we had any fame.
2. Everyone always talks about how Haskins was a poor recruiter. That was certainly not always the case. He was tireless in his recruitment of Bad News Barnes and David Lattin, for example. That scene in Glory Road where he followed Harry Flournoy in his car, only to scare him away, until Harry came home to find Coach in his house: it really happened. Over time Haskins found recruiting more and more distasteful, eventually turning the vast majority of it over to his assistants, but young Haskins was a tireless recruiter.
3. In part Haskins was a victim of his own success. Prior to 1966 teams in the South didn't recruit Black players, and while teams in the North, Midwest, and West did, most, if not all, had limits to the number of Black players that they could sign. Haskins said that confused opposing coaches were always asking him what his quota was. He was able to take advantage of a largely untapped source of quality basketball players. The 1966 team changed that. There was a lot more competition for the players that Haskins used to be able to sign.
4. Opposing coaches use negative recruiting all of the time, so it's no surprise that the SI article caused Haskins so many problems. BTW, has anyone besides me read that article? I have a couple of thoughts on it. One, it is my guess that Black athletes at UTEP were treated better than their counterparts at most other institutions, including the ones that used the SI article to employ negative recruiting against UTEP. Two, that's no excuse. Maybe some of the article was fabricated, but reading the quotes from the athletes things weren't near as egalitarian as they needed to be. We should have been better.
5. After going 28-1 and 22-6, 14-9 in 1967-68 is a downward trend? Sorry, that is the normal ebb and flow of sports. Tom Izzo is one of the most successful coaches around, with the third most Final Four appearances in history. Still, in between some of his great seasons he's had records of 18-12 (about the same percentage record as 14-9), 19-15 (a worse percentage record), and 15-13, the latter was just last year. John Calipari went 9-16 last year. Going 14-9 isn't the sign of a downward trend, it's just a down year, which happens to everybody.
6. With the exception of 1976-79, which were horrible, the 70s weren't that bad. Certainly not near bad enough to dump the coach that brought your school it's biggest claim to fame. I mean 20-6, 20-7, 19-7, and 18-7, for example, are not bad records. We made the NCAA Tournament in 1970 and 75, and the NIT in 72. I wish that we could say that we've experienced the same level of success same for the past decade.
7. While there were some whispers in the late 70s that Haskins had lost his touch, he proved in the 80s that he just needed assistants that could recruit to El Paso, which, as has been pointed out, is not an easy thing to do. If it hadn't been for the NCAA sanctions in the 90s that decade would have looked similar to the previous one.
8. We did indeed lose a close one to Iowa State in 1987. I remember telling everyone before that tournament that we would beat Arizona and play Iowa State in the 2nd round, and that the winner of that game would beat Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen and lose to UNLV in the Elite Eight. Iowa State, the winner, did exactly that. I've always wondered if I would have been just as prophetic if we had won that Iowa State game.

Yeah, changing the name wasn’t very smart. There was no google back then. Not that they did it with the basketball team in mind either.

I agree with a lot of what you said and I stand by my opinion that the SI article wasn’t the sole reason UTEP couldn’t keep it going. Probably had little effect, but it used as an excuse for lack of additional success in that period. I mean, the 1970 Final 4 was UCLA, Jacksonville, St Bonaventure, and NMSU. It was an open tournament back then, with less teams. UTEP is lucky they won it when they did.

 

[Cube Jack]

My thoughts:

1. Right after we won the National Championship we changed our name to UTEP. How stupid was that? We immediately took away the one thing for which we had any fame.
2. Everyone always talks about how Haskins was a poor recruiter. That was certainly not always the case. He was tireless in his recruitment of Bad News Barnes and David Lattin, for example. That scene in Glory Road where he followed Harry Flournoy in his car, only to scare him away, until Harry came home to find Coach in his house: it really happened. Over time Haskins found recruiting more and more distasteful, eventually turning the vast majority of it over to his assistants, but young Haskins was a tireless recruiter.
3. In part Haskins was a victim of his own success. Prior to 1966 teams in the South didn't recruit Black players, and while teams in the North, Midwest, and West did, most, if not all, had limits to the number of Black players that they could sign. Haskins said that confused opposing coaches were always asking him what his quota was. He was able to take advantage of a largely untapped source of quality basketball players. The 1966 team changed that. There was a lot more competition for the players that Haskins used to be able to sign.
4. Opposing coaches use negative recruiting all of the time, so it's no surprise that the SI article caused Haskins so many problems. BTW, has anyone besides me read that article? I have a couple of thoughts on it. One, it is my guess that Black athletes at UTEP were treated better than their counterparts at most other institutions, including the ones that used the SI article to employ negative recruiting against UTEP. Two, that's no excuse. Maybe some of the article was fabricated, but reading the quotes from the athletes things weren't near as egalitarian as they needed to be. We should have been better.
5. After going 28-1 and 22-6, 14-9 in 1967-68 is a downward trend? Sorry, that is the normal ebb and flow of sports. Tom Izzo is one of the most successful coaches around, with the third most Final Four appearances in history. Still, in between some of his great seasons he's had records of 18-12 (about the same percentage record as 14-9), 19-15 (a worse percentage record), and 15-13, the latter was just last year. John Calipari went 9-16 last year. Going 14-9 isn't the sign of a downward trend, it's just a down year, which happens to everybody.
6. With the exception of 1976-79, which were horrible, the 70s weren't that bad. Certainly not near bad enough to dump the coach that brought your school it's biggest claim to fame. I mean 20-6, 20-7, 19-7, and 18-7, for example, are not bad records. We made the NCAA Tournament in 1970 and 75, and the NIT in 72. I wish that we could say that we've experienced the same level of success same for the past decade.
7. While there were some whispers in the late 70s that Haskins had lost his touch, he proved in the 80s that he just needed assistants that could recruit to El Paso, which, as has been pointed out, is not an easy thing to do. If it hadn't been for the NCAA sanctions in the 90s that decade would have looked similar to the previous one.
8. We did indeed lose a close one to Iowa State in 1987. I remember telling everyone before that tournament that we would beat Arizona and play Iowa State in the 2nd round, and that the winner of that game would beat Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen and lose to UNLV in the Elite Eight. Iowa State, the winner, did exactly that. I've always wondered if I would have been just as prophetic if we had won that Iowa State game.

The name change was brought about by the UT System Board of Regents. In 1967 the state legislature approved the regents' proposal and had all schools under the University of Texas System follow suit so Texas Western College of the University of Texas System became "UT El Paso".

Similarly, Arlington State College became UT Arlington.

 

[centex-miner]

The name change was brought about by the UT System Board of Regents. In 1967 the state legislature approved the regents' proposal and had all schools under the University of Texas System follow suit so Texas Western College of the University of Texas System became "UT El Paso".

Similarly, Arlington State College became UT Arlington.

I'm wondering if the Championship accelerated the regents proposal.

 

[utep2step]

My thoughts:

1. Right after we won the National Championship we changed our name to UTEP. How stupid was that? We immediately took away the one thing for which we had any fame.
2. Everyone always talks about how Haskins was a poor recruiter. That was certainly not always the case. He was tireless in his recruitment of Bad News Barnes and David Lattin, for example. That scene in Glory Road where he followed Harry Flournoy in his car, only to scare him away, until Harry came home to find Coach in his house: it really happened. Over time Haskins found recruiting more and more distasteful, eventually turning the vast majority of it over to his assistants, but young Haskins was a tireless recruiter.
3. In part Haskins was a victim of his own success. Prior to 1966 teams in the South didn't recruit Black players, and while teams in the North, Midwest, and West did, most, if not all, had limits to the number of Black players that they could sign. Haskins said that confused opposing coaches were always asking him what his quota was. He was able to take advantage of a largely untapped source of quality basketball players. The 1966 team changed that. There was a lot more competition for the players that Haskins used to be able to sign.
4. Opposing coaches use negative recruiting all of the time, so it's no surprise that the SI article caused Haskins so many problems. BTW, has anyone besides me read that article? I have a couple of thoughts on it. One, it is my guess that Black athletes at UTEP were treated better than their counterparts at most other institutions, including the ones that used the SI article to employ negative recruiting against UTEP. Two, that's no excuse. Maybe some of the article was fabricated, but reading the quotes from the athletes things weren't near as egalitarian as they needed to be. We should have been better.
5. After going 28-1 and 22-6, 14-9 in 1967-68 is a downward trend? Sorry, that is the normal ebb and flow of sports. Tom Izzo is one of the most successful coaches around, with the third most Final Four appearances in history. Still, in between some of his great seasons he's had records of 18-12 (about the same percentage record as 14-9), 19-15 (a worse percentage record), and 15-13, the latter was just last year. John Calipari went 9-16 last year. Going 14-9 isn't the sign of a downward trend, it's just a down year, which happens to everybody.
6. With the exception of 1976-79, which were horrible, the 70s weren't that bad. Certainly not near bad enough to dump the coach that brought your school it's biggest claim to fame. I mean 20-6, 20-7, 19-7, and 18-7, for example, are not bad records. We made the NCAA Tournament in 1970 and 75, and the NIT in 72. I wish that we could say that we've experienced the same level of success same for the past decade.
7. While there were some whispers in the late 70s that Haskins had lost his touch, he proved in the 80s that he just needed assistants that could recruit to El Paso, which, as has been pointed out, is not an easy thing to do. If it hadn't been for the NCAA sanctions in the 90s that decade would have looked similar to the previous one.
8. We did indeed lose a close one to Iowa State in 1987. I remember telling everyone before that tournament that we would beat Arizona and play Iowa State in the 2nd round, and that the winner of that game would beat Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen and lose to UNLV in the Elite Eight. Iowa State, the winner, did exactly that. I've always wondered if I would have been just as prophetic if we had won that Iowa State game.

In all fairness and not stated on here, but in the mid or late 80’s or so, SI did have an article on the top 50 programs in the country, UTEP was on it. I can’t find though.

 

[FiliUTEP]

Okay what about when the movie came out?? Why hasnt UTEP Basketball capitalized after the movie?