MIAMI (March 5, 2016) – The FIU men's basketball team will be the No. 11 seed in the upcoming Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament, which begins on Tuesday, March 8 and runs through March 12 at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala.
FIU, who finished the 2015-16 regular season with a 13-18 overall record and a 7-11 slate in conference play, will face No. 6 seed UTEP on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. (ET) in the second round.
The Panthers lost their final regular season game against Middle Tennessee, 61-58, on Saturday night.
Earlier this season, FIU split its two games with the Miners, defeating UTEP, 79-69, on Jan. 23 in El Paso, before the Miners returned the favor, 84-74, on Feb. 11 in Miami.
UTEP finished the regular season with an 18-13 record and a 10-8 slate in league play.
FIU comes into this year's C-USA Tournament with a 1-1 record all-time in the event. Last season, FIU, seeded No. 10, stunned No. 7 seed UTSA when
Dennis Mavin drained a halfcourt shot to defeat the Roadrunners, 57-54. The next night, the Panthers had their season ended when UTEP handed FIU an 83-71 loss.
FIU is 17-21 all-time in postseason conference tournaments.
The winner of the FIU-UTEP second round game will face No. 3 seed Marshall on Thursday, March 10 at 9:30 p.m. (ET).
The Panthers have been led this season by the trio of
Donte McGill,
Daviyon Draper and
Adrian Diaz. McGill and Draper finished the regular season atop the team statistics in the scoring column, averaging 15.8 points-per-game apiece. Diaz is third, netting 15.3 points-per-game. The two are reversed as Diaz paces the team on the glass, grabbing 7.7 rebounds-per-outing, while Draper is pulling in 7.1 boards-per-game.
All Conference USA Championship first round, second round and quarterfinal games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, will be televised live on the American Sports Network (ASN) and streamed on the ASN website. In addition, both of Friday's semifinal games (3/5:30 p.m.) will be televised live on the CBS Sports Network, while the championship game can be seen live nationally on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
For Conference USA Tournament men's basketball ticket information, contact the FIU Ticket Office at 305-FIU-GAME.
Fans are encouraged to follow @FIUHoops on Twitter, and "Like" FIU men's basketball on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/FIUMensBBall) for the latest Panther basketball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and at the FIU Football Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
