UTEP one win from C-USA title?

Make it 11 consecutive wins. 

The UTEP men’s basketball team continued its winning ways Wednesday night with a 59-56 win against Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Derrick Caracter and Randy Culpepper were once again big for the Miners. Each player collected 17 points. 

UTEP got off to a stunningly slow start and even went into halftime down by a point. But the Miners exploded offensively in the second half, taking a double-digit lead and doing enough to hold off the Eagles in a wild final minute for the win. 

UTEP remains atop Conference USA. And with Houston’s upset of Memphis on Wednesday night, a delightful scenario is presented. 

Win two of the next three games and the Miners own the Conference USA regular season title. 

One win makes things tricky, but, the Miners can potentially get only one win during their remaining three games and still clinch the regular season crown. 

It would help if that one win was against UAB or Marshall. 

Explanation:

Memphis and UAB are behind UTEP with three conference losses each (the Tigers are, for now, the official second-place team by virtue of their win over UAB on Feb. 3). Both teams will face each other next Wednesday in Birmingham in what could be a de facto playoff for the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. 

Here are the possibilities:

If Memphis wins out and UTEP loses two of its next three, it means UAB will have four conference losses and UTEP will be even with Memphis but own the head-to-head tiebreaker. 

If UAB wins out and UTEP loses two of its next three (and one of those is to the Blazers), it means Memphis will have four conference losses and the Miners and Blazers will have split their series. 

According to Conference USA, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head, which would be null in this situation. The second tiebreaker is each team’s record against the team with the highest winning percentage in the final regular season standings (or in the case of a tie for the championship, the next highest winning percentage in the regular season standings) continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage. 

That essentially means the title will be decided by both teams’ record against the next conference team in line in the overall standings. That likely will be Memphis (20-8) or Marshall (21-7). 

UTEP has a higher winning PERCENTAGE against Memphis (1-0) this season then UAB (1-1, with the scenario of UAB beating Memphis and winning out). 

Should the Miners beat Marshall next Wednesday, they’ll have a higher winning percentage (1-0) then the Blazers (1-1)

Confused yet? I sorta am, too. Here’s hoping the Miners put it away with two wins and set up a finale in El Paso against UAB on March 6 that’ll be more monstrous than the Monster Jam truck show that’ll be in the Sun Bowl that same night. 

Conference USA standings (updated Feb. 24)

School Conf. (W-L) All (W-L)
UTEP 12-1 21-5
Memphis 10-3 20-8
UAB 10-3 22-5
Marshall 9-4 21-7
Tulsa 8-5 19-8
Southern Miss. 6-7 16-11
Houston 6-7 14-13
SMU 6-7 13-14
UCF 5-8 13-14
East Carolina 3-10 9-18
Tulane 2-11 7-19
Rice 1-12 8-19

Wednesday’s other C-USA games

UAB 53, UCF 49
SMU 59, East Carolina 54
Houston 92, Memphis 75
Marshall 77, Rice 54

Comments

[Manny]

PHEW! Tonights game was a close one! But a win is a win! I'll take that every day over a loss! Pablo thanks for the good blogs you post not like JOE ON UTEPIA! His sorry a** doesnt know how to write or make up his mind! here are some of his examples: A "team" team now! Romp! UTEP wins, but disappoints!OK, a win! UTEP loses to itself! JOE needs to retire and call it quits on his wannabe writing skills!

[Lowercase Ray]

Pablo, if I follow the argument you've put forth, there might be one scenario where UTEP wouldn't win the conference if they only win one more game in the last three games. What if UAB and Marshall both win out and UTEP only wins against Rice. In this scenario, if Marshall has the next highest winning percentage in the regular season standings, then UAB would be 1-1 against Marshall and UTEP would be 0-1 against Marshall; UAB wins. Not sure my logic is sound but it seems that the important factor would be which team ends up with the next highest winning percentage, Memphis or Marshall. What do you think?

[neptalla]

I don't understand why "UTEP DISAPPOINTS." if you win the game you did what you needed to do. All teams have days where they don't shoot or play well. I don't see anyone saying anything about Texas and the games they loss being a disappointment. This is madness, I believe that Joe just wants UTEP to loose because he is a big ten and big 12 person, he needs to blog for them. Joe you need to stop trying to get the miners out of the tournament and into the Mountain West conference, we don't want anything to do with the MWC. Joe it is sad that you and some of the old farts would rather see this program fail because you don't like the coach and don't like the fact that we are in CUSA, get over it - it is what it is. Joe if you can't at least be non biased, then stop working here on a miner blog, go work for the big 12, big ten or MWC. I just want to say to all the real miner fans that are on this blog, I hope you are onto Joe, I am. Give him hell! The miners are a lock for the tournament at this point, ESPN and all the analyst seem to think so, what they are playing for is seeding now, that is the real deal! There are so many BCS schools that are getting in that just don't deserve a bid, they just play in a conference that has all the advantages with the Media and NCAA, we all know this. The media here needs to start pointing that out instead of acting like these mid level teams in BCS leagues are better than upper tear teams in CUSA. Ask Joe this question. Why won't teams like oklahoma state or Minnesota give teams like UTEP and Memphis a home and home game if they are so much better? I know he won't answer it - the truth is they are afraid of loosing and looking bad since they play in a so called better league.

[minerfaninflorida]

has anyone seen that Marshall has been taken off the schedual?!!!! The MINERS only have two games left, Rice and UAB. Whats the deal? The MINERS beat rice and they win it all!!!!!

[Dave]

I was also wondering what happened to the Marshall game?????????

[Manny]

FIRE JOE NOW!!!! STOP HIS BLOGS!!!

[Jay Koester]

Just checked, and you are right, Marshall has fallen off the schedule I found on ESPN.com. But it must just be some glitch. It's still on the schedule elsewhere, including CBS Sports:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/teams/schedule/TXEP/?tag=untagged

[Pablo Villa]

Lowercase Ray, you are spot on with your assessment. If UTEP wins only one game out of the next three, it has to come against Marshall or UAB if it hopes to claim the regular season title. Losses to both of those teams mean the Miners will need help to win it.

To those concerned with the disappearing Marshall game, not sure where you're looking but I've never counted on ESPN.com for stats and schedules when it comes to non-AQ schools. The Web site is always minutes behind on score updates and will fudge other clerical stuff every now and then.

The Marshall game is going on as scheduled. I urge you to try Yahoo! Sports for your sports info on Conference USA.

[Manny]

but.. wouldn't lowercases scenario still equal a split title? yes uab might get the 1 seed if that happens but there would be a split title since both teams would have the same record, right?

[weatherbuddy]

Marshall game Tuesday night will be the one that sneaks up on UTEP. Then UTEP will come back home and defeat UAB, still winning the regular season in Conference USA. Then it's on to the tourney in Tulsa.