Joe on utepia

Hardaway Miner assistant?

Word is Tim Hardaway has told acquaintances he'd like to be an assistant basketball coach at UTEP.

There are no openings on Head Coach Tony Barbee's staff ... now. They may be an opening before next school year.

Imagine the plusses ex-UTEP star Hardaway could bring to the Miners: Tremenous work ethic. Heart. Leadership ability.

Also coaching experience. After his long career in the NBA, Hardaway served as a head coach in the NBA's developmental league.

Hardaway was an NBA superstar for well more than a decade after being the first-round pick in the 1989 draft by the Golden State Warriors.

Imagine the recruiting asset he'd be. He is from Chicago, where he is a hometown hero. Chicago is full of major college-level talents. He played more than half a decade with Golden State (San Francisco/Oakland), and more than half a decade with the Miami Heat.

I'm not predicting Hardaway as the next Miner assistant. But if he really wants the job, as he's told some in El Paso, I'm betting Barbee will be willing to consider one of UTEP's all-time best players if there is an opening on his staff.

How C-USA Tournament bidding works

Now that both the county, city and Convention & Visitors Bureau have agreed to underwrite UTEP hosting a future Conference-USA Basketball Tournament, here's how the bidding works:

El Paso will bid this year to get the 2010 tournament. It won't get it. Tulsa will. Tulsa is in line. And no, it's not ALWAYS going to Memphis. The other schools don't want Memphis to have that home-court advantage EVERY year.

The protocol: You bid and make a good presentation to the conference (hotel rates, etc.). Then you're placed on the waiting list. That happened when El Paso first bid for the U.S. Bowling Congress Women's Championships. The city had to wait, and now the tournament is coming here in 2010. That's the big one, the $50 million economic payday for El Paso's economy.

We were put up front on a list of cities in waiting, because we made a good presentation.

For the basketball tournament, the strategy is to bid on 2010 and then get it for 2011.

It looks like we are going after 2010 as a long shot, in case something happens with Tulsa. Or we're the prime candidate for 2011. Notice that nobody is mentioning other cities other than Memphis next season and probably Tulsa in 2010.

Horton doesn't hear any Who in Birmingham, Dallas, Houston or wherever else asking to be a host site.

Some posters earlier suggested that our local governments would mess this up because they can never work together. They don't have to. UTEP and the CVB will be doing the work. The county and city are just the insurance that UTEP won't lose money. If UTEP doesn't break even, hotel-motel tax money will be the off-setter. And that's not even our tax-paid money. That's tourism money.

On the average, the tournament annually breaks about even. No taxpayer dollars are likely to be spent on this event that will bring in an estimated 2,000 people over four or five days.

The next step is to make a good presentation, as El Paso did when convincing the Bowling Congress to put its biggest women's tournament of the year way out here in El Paso. Women bowlers and their families will come here from every state, staggered on weekends, usually from late February into late spring.

We'll bid on Conference USA Tourney

Word is, via a joint effort, El Paso/UTEP will bid on being host for the 2010 Conference USA men's and women's basketball tournaments.

It's good news. It's a good joint effort in this city.

Here are the players who would join UTEP: Sports Commission, County, City and Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The general thinking is that the tourney host (UTEP) would probably break even. But, just in case, the other entities would agree to foot any expenses. Word is the other entities seem favorable to such an arrangement.

Having the tournament, of course, means some 2,000 out-of-towners in our hotels over a five-day period That guarantees a tourist-dollar boost.

The finals are shown nationally on CBS.

Spring football podcast

With the UTEP Miners having played their spring football game, it's time to start talking about the coming season.

To listen to or download a UTEP football podcast featuring Beau Bagley of KTSM, and Joe Muench and Pablo Villa of the El Paso Times, click here.

Stefon's agent

Could it be that UTEP basketball star Stefon Jackson will hire his landlord to be his agent for the NBA draft this June?

Jackson has been living at a place in the gated community of Camelot Townhomes. His pad is owned by former UTEP and NBA player Greg Foster, who's now a successful investments man in El Paso. The two have been seen together often of late.

And word is Foster taking the necessary steps to become a sports agent.

If Jackson changes his mind and pulls out of the NBA draft, he can return to UTEP for his senior season — if he has not signed with a professional agent.

Stull and Washington job

Bob Stull's name has resurfaced as a candidate for athletic director at the University of Washington, where he was once a football offensive coordinator and later an athletic department fund raiser — a raiser of millions of dollars.

Long shot for UTEP's AD? I don't think so.

Last week UW Interim AD Scott Woodward, a favorite for the full-time position, said he was not interested. And UW President Mark Emmert said the qualifications for the job have changed since the last time it was open, and given to the now-departed Todd Turner.

The job description seems to have changed to favor Stull, if he's interested.

According to Bob Condotta at the Seattle Times:

The job had been to reunite an athletic department wracked by scandals and inside confusion. Now, Emmert is saying the job description calls for someone who can reunite the fan base and raise a lot of money, especially for a needed renovation of the school's old football stadium. That will require many millions.

Condotta's list of possible choices would be the last list of possible choices when the job had been open:

Mike Cragg, an assistant AD at Duke, who's a Washington grad.

Chris Hill, the Utah AD who reportedly turned down UW the last time.

Jim Phillips, the Northern Illinois AD.

And Stull.

Note: Stull was the final engineer of the Larry Durham Center, turning it  from talk to a reality. Under Stull there's the new softball complex and now the construction of a new basketeball practice facility.

I'd say if Stull still wants that one more big challenge before he retires, he'd be going after the Washington job big time. It would be a chance for a big feather in his cap and a whole lot more money than he's making at UTEP in his pocket.

Stefon Jackson suspension lifted?

Apparently UTEP has lifted its "indefinite" suspension of junior basketball player Stefon Jackson. Must have ...

... Otherwise why would UTEP have honored Jackson Thursday as its' Male Athlete of the Year during its annual sports banquet?

Surely they wouldn't bestow the  highest honor — save Hall of Fame — on a guy who's suspended from the team?

If he's still actually suspended, UTEP sent a bad message to kids.

Jackson is/was suspended pending an investigation that he may have lied to authorities about a man they wanted to arrest on several charges in Pennsylvania. Jackson, himself, was arrested and is now out on bond.

 

Time Warner/Comcast & UTEP on TV

Perhaps the new partnership between Comcast and Texas Time Warner Cable could be the link to getting more UTEP football and basketball games on TV?

Comcast-Charter Sports Southeast will televise three Marshall football games this fall. That was announced today (Thursday).

Both Marshall and UTEP are in Conference USA, which has that TV deal with CSTV, which is owned by CBS ...

Just thinking now:

The Brut Sun Bowl on CBS could be the Brut Sun Bowl on CSTV after the contract with CBS Sports runs out after the 2009 game.

When the Sunnies signed their present deal with CBS some felt it would be the last. (We'd figured ESPN would pick up the game).

CBS takes a hit when it interrupts its soap operas to televise the Sun Bowl at noon on Dec. 31, often a weekday. This year it's a Wednesday.

We've seen ABC use it's myriad of ESPN channels to do some of its sports ventures. And it has worked out well. Most homes get at least ESPN and ESPN2 on their basic cable package.

This could be the wave of the future — networks using their sports arms for games that have been on the main network all these years.

The problem with Time Warner/CSTV is that CSTV is not offered on TWC's basic package.

Maybe the Time Warner/Comcast technology can overcome that?

More Miner games on TV?

Inside word is the feud between local Time Warner and CSTV is abating, and that could mean Time Warner and UTEP could get together and televise more Miner road games. It should be imperative that the Miners be on TV as much as possible.

Because CSTV has a solid deal with UTEP's Conference USA, it has a big say in what games can be televised. CSTV pays C-USA big money for that right.

Last season it got so heated, it's said, that both Time Warner and CSTV had lawyers involved. And CSTV basically told Time Warner to stand back and shaddup.

It's good to hear that the two may work something out because basic cable subcribers of Time Warner cannot access CSTV.