Is This the Best College Basketball Team You’ve Never Seen?

Welcome to the University of Texas at El Paso, home of the best basketball team you never will see.

In 234 seasons under Don Haskins, the UTEP Miners have won 433 games and lost 197, a winning percentage of .686. They have won an NCAA championship. In the last five seasons they won 104 games and lost only 42, beating such teams as Indiana, Michigan, Houston, Wake Forest, Clemson and LSU, but not once did they play to a national television audience.

And you thought Brigham Young’s football team had a recognition problem.

Haskins, who was just 35 when the Miners (UTEP then was known as Texas Western) shocked the college basketball establishment by upsetting Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky Wildcats to win the 1963 national championship, is a true man of the West. You will not see him in three-piece suits and alligator shoes. He prefers blue jeans, western shirts and Tony Lama boots. And it rankles his western soul that UTEP--and the Western Athletic Conference--gets no respect east of the Mississippi, even though he knows exactly why.

“We don’t have any population centers in the WAC,” Haskins said. “El Paso is a long, long way from anywhere. We are in far, far west Texas, which is fine with me, but I just get sick and tired of that crap about basketball east of the Mississippi.

“I think any team in the West, with the exception of UCLA,” Haskins said, “can be good and still be unknown. We’re all sort of lost in the West, aren’t we?

“I understand the way the TV thing works,” Haskins said. “They go where the dollars are, but I still get sick and tired of turning on the tube every week and seeing another Big East (Conference) game. If we ever play one of those teams, I’ll have them scouted pretty darn good from all those TV games.”

“It all goes back to that population thing,” said the man known to friend and foe alike as the Bear. “Take the Georgetown and St. John’s game (last weekend). I’m sure an awful lot of TV sets in New York City (home of St. John’s) and Washington (home of Georgetown) were tuned in to that game, and that’s an awful lot of sets. I’m sure there are a lot more TV sets there than there are in the whole state of Wyoming.

“But that doesn’t mean that’s the only place good basketball is played.”

The point Haskins wants made is that WAC basketball is of high quality, and not just at the top.

“We probably don’t have a super team this year,” he said, candidly. “But we do have four or five very good teams, and any of the four or five are good enough to play in the NCAA tournament. But we are all scrambling to win the championship, because the WAC champion is probably the only one that is going to get into the (NCAA) tournament. And that makes me angry.”

Haskins said he has tried to schedule some eastern teams, but has had little success.

“Sometimes they’ll express interest, but they always want you to come back and play on their home floor. They’ll never consider coming out here to play.”

An exception was Indiana, coached by one of Haskins’ best friends in coaching, Bobby Knight. The Hoosiers ventured into El Paso last season and left with a 65-61 loss.

“I don’t think it would make any difference if we were to go back east and win,” Haskins said. “It still all comes back to population as far as exposure goes.”

Haskins’ good friend Gary Colson, coach of the New Mexico Lobos (and another member of the 400-win club, with 416), agrees the WAC does not get its due as an outstanding basketball conference, but does not get lathered about the situation.

“I don’t lay awake worrying about it,” said Colson, who is one of the more relaxed basketball coaches you will find. “If you’re good enough, you’re going to get in (the NCAA tournament).

“I’d like to see WAC teams ranked in the Top 20, but who determines that, anyway?” Colson said. “TV is the biggest obstacle. I think the conference does a good job of promoting our teams, but maybe they need a litle help. Maybe they need to hire a lobbyist type to work on the TV people to get some games on.”

Haskins also would like to see all conference games on Saturday scheduled for 1 p.m.

“Most of the other conferences do it, and they get on (national) TV,” he said. “I don’t know why we can’t do it. Plus, that would help with newspaper deadlines and we would get our scores in the papers back east. For that matter, why not play our weekday night games at 7 instead of 7:30? That would help our exposure, too.”

One of the sad things about UTEP’s lack of national exposure, according to Colson, is the fact Haskins remains an unknown to much of the nation, certainly lesser-known than such coaches as Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s or Digger Phelps of Notre Dame, neither of whom can match Haskins’ record.

“That is a shame,” Colson said, “because Don is no less than the Adolph Rupp of the Southwest. He is a legend.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that ‘legend’ stuff,” Haskins said. “And personally, I could care less what anybody back east thinks about me.

“I just wish they would recognize that the teams in this conference match up well with most of the teams in the East.”