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After a few weeks of exciting votes, we have finally decided on the UTEP Miners Men's Basketball Dream Team. The starters were decided by the MinerRush fan votes. The rest of the team was decided by the MinerRush team. With so many amazing players in Miner basketball history, there were bound to be some excellent players left off the final roster. We had trouble just keeping it to a 15-man team. Without further ado, here's the team you voted on:
Starters
| Position | Name | Years played | FG% | PPG | RPG | APG | BPG | SPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG | Tim Hardaway | 1985-1989 | 0.51 | 12.8 | 2.6 | 4.54 | 0.202 | 2.113 |
| SG | Stefon Jackson | 2005-2009 | 0.448 | 19.8 | 5.2 | 1.653 | 0.089 | 1.129 |
| SF | Omar Thomas | 2003-2005 | 0.519 | 18 | 5.8 | 1.27 | 0.27 | 1.388 |
| PF | Jim Barnes | 1962-1964 | 0.534 | 24.2 | 17.8 | |||
| C | David Lattin | 1965-1967 | 0.484 | 14.6 | 9.3 |
Off the Dream Team Bench
| Position | Name | Years played | FG% | PPG | RPG | APG | BPG | SPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | Bobby Joe Hill | 1962-1967 | 0.393 | 10.6 | 4.4 | |||
| G | Nate Archibald | 1967-1970 | 0.507 | 20 | 2.9 | |||
| G | Antoine Gillespie | 1992-1995 | 0.423 | 18.1 | 4.1 | 1.915 | 0.17 | 0.926 |
| G | Randy Culpepper | 2007-2011 | 0.428 | 16.9 | 2.7 | 1.986 | 0.254 | 1.819 |
| F | Willie Cager | 1965-1968 | 0.405 | 8.5 | 5.3 | |||
| F | Juden Smith | 1981-1986 | 0.458 | 10.1 | 4.8 | 2.08 | 0.26 | 0.829 |
| F | Antonio Davis | 1986-1990 | 0.54 | 9.2 | 6.1 | 0.483 | 0.852 | 0.442 |
| F | Brandon Wolfram | 1997-2001 | 0.579 | 16 | 6.4 | 1.009 | 0.519 | 0.745 |
| C | Dave Feitl | 1982-1986 | 0.501 | 11.5 | 5.8 | 1 | 1.1 | 0.304 |
| C | Greg Foster | 1988-1990 | 0.473 | 10.8 | 6.7 | 0.8 | 1 | 0.328 |
We went ahead and chose 2 bench players for each position on the bench. It's important to note that we as writers at the Rush did not consult each other about our choices. So the bench was not so much chosen based on what team-roles were missing but rather who got the most votes to be on the team period. If I were choosing to build a team from the ground up using only former UTEP players, I probably would've gone with guys like Julyan Stone, Jason Williams, and maybe David Van Dyke on my bench because of their unique skill sets. As our team stands, it's heavy on the scoring machines with DJ, RC3, Antoine, and Tiny as guards. In any case, this is a hell of a team that I think would be a sleeper if there were such a thing as an All-Time Teams' NCAA Tournament. You'd have to believe that the Kentuckys, Carolinas, UCLAs, and Kansases of the world would probably be the favorites in such a tournament, but I think our All-Time Miners could pull a Cinderella run. I'd venture to say only Memphis's and Houston's all time teams would challenge us in C-USA and only a few from the old WAC could compete with these Miners.
I've included the stats one more time to illustrate the greatness of these players' individual careers. With the exception of the 70's, every decade in the Haskins-post Haskins era is represented: 5 players from the 60's, 5 from the 80's, 2 from the 90's, and 3 from the 2000's (roughly). Only 3 of our Dream Team players never made it to the Big Dance (Jackson, Wolfram, and Gillespie).
So that's our team. Let us know what you think in the comments. How good is the team compared to other potential All-Time teams? Who's the biggest snub? Did the voters select the right starters? Did we get the right bench players?