UTEP 2003 victory: Miners end Harlem Globetrotters win streak in exhibition thriller
The 2003-04 UTEP basketball team, coached by Billy Gillispie, tied the NCAA record for turnaround season, finishing 24-8 after the previous year’s 6-24 season. They garnered an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they lost 86-83 to Maryland in the first round.
Gillispie was named the WAC Coach of the Year.
That year, UTEP opened with an exhibition game against the Harlem Globetrotters. UTEP broke the Globetrotters 288 game winning streak beating them 89-88.
Following is Bill Knight’s Nov. 17, 2003, report on the Miners’ victory over the Globetrotters:
Conquering the Globe
Miners return to glory days with win
In the record books, it will forever go down as simply an exhibition game. Nothing more. Nothing less.
But, for the 8,294 UTEP fans who were at the Don Haskins Center Saturday night, it was more live a revival — a revival of Miner basketball glory days.
UTEP outhustled, outbattled, outscrapped and outscored the Harlem Globetrotters 89-88 on Saturday night. The Miners were playing men, a squad with huge players from the NBA and the European professional leagues.
And they won. And the crowd was noisy, crazy.
“I thought it was great; I don’t even know how to describe it,” Miner fan Mike Munden said. “I was impressed with how we played and, even though it was high scoring, I thought we played great defense. I was setting my kids up on the way to the game, telling hem this was a great team we were playing, that we might not win. That was college guys against men, and it was amazing. We really went after them and that was so great to see.”
"It was great"
And Miner fan Oscar Leeser said, “It was great. The thing that impressed me the most was the quality of coaching. The kids were disciplined, they moved the ball around and they played with a mission. When they came out, you could see it was boys against men. But we weren’t intimidated and that was a tribute to coach (Billy) Gillispie’s coaching. Our guys played about as hard as anyone could play.”
UTEP’s junior college transfers were the key, Jason Williams had 19 points and eight rebounds. Point guard Filiberto Rivera had 16 points, making 11 of 14 free throws. And Omar Thomas had 16 points and seven rebounds. Senior Roy Smallwood was strong, scoring 13 points, and Sophomore Giovanni St. Amant had 11 points.
But no line was more impressive or more important than Rivera’s assist to turnovers — five assists, no turnovers. And few things were more impressive or more important than something Williams did that will not be in the line — he defended well all evening, defended with a passion and forced talented Globetrotter Darrick Martin to give up the ball on the last possession, then heave up a bad, off-balance, errant shot at the buzzer.
“What a game, what a good test for us,” Gillispie said. “And we passed. We made about a million mistakes, but our guys battled, battled as hard as they could.”
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How impressive was this game?
The Globetrotters, playing their final game of the college tour, came in at 7-0 – with victories over defending national champion Syracuse (83-70), over nationally ranked Michigan State (97-83) and over always-tough Massachusetts (77-68). No team has even played within single digits, save their nine-point loss by UMass. They also had lopsided wins like 108-75 over Siena and 95-67 over North Dakota.
On the one hand, it was like old-time Miner basketball — players defending for all their worth, diving on the floor for every loose ball and simply keeping the intensity knob cranked too high for 40 minutes. On the other hand, it was something new — a fast flurry of up-tempo basketball.
“We always want to try to push it,” Gillispie said of the tempo. “We’ve got a point guard who doesn’t turn it over much. We’ve got guys who can get out and fill the wings. And we’ve got big men who can run down the middle of the floor.”
Talking about the talented Globetrotters, Williams said, “I just wanted to come out and play and play as hard as I could. I was so focused I didn’t know who I was playing against.”
Rivera said, “I have no words for this right now. It’s unbelievable. We beat them. But now it’s over. Right now we are 0-0 going into the season. So we’ve just got to continue to work hard in practice and continue to play hard.”
The 8,294 fans continued to raise the decibel level as the Miners continued to cling to their second-half lead. When it ended and victory was theirs, the crowd found an even louder level.
It was just an exhibition game. Yes.
It was just an exhibition game. Hardly.
Special moment with Haskins
In a column on the same day, Knight described a “special moment” that happened prior to the game:
The applause began slowly and spread around the arena. It was one of those special moments, something to warm the insides — even on a warm desert November night.
The Harlem Globetrotters stopped on the way back for their second half warmup and requested a picture with Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins. They wanted to do it in the center of the Don Haskins center court, but the coach still cannot walk much yet after having a toe amputated. So they gathered around him in the tunnel for the picture.
And the fans loved every special moment of it.
The more than 8,000 fans also loved every minute of the second half, found a special joy in one of the city’s most prized treasure — UTEP basketball. They discovered a new team, a group that will scratch and battle and claw for victory…
Toward those final moments, when the crowd was getting louder and louder, there was the old coach in the tunnel – smiling and clapping. That too, was one of those special moments.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP ends Globetrotter winning streak; special moment with Don Haskins
