I took a phone call from a listener upset with the lack of UTEP basketball coverage in the El Paso Times. The caller brought up some excellent points, ranging from the curious placement of UTEP game articles in the Sunday paper to omitting the Miners entirely in Monday's edition. Today's paper, for example, has a story about Randy Culpepper earning C-USA Player of the Week honors. However, the article was written by "Times Staff" and has no comments from Culpepper, teammates, or UTEP coaches on winning the award. Monday, the UTEP softball team drilled rival NMSU 22-5 in Las Cruces, and there wasn't even a mention of the score anywhere in Tuesday's paper.
As bad as UTEP's lack of information in El Paso's daily newspaper, there are other ways to get the Miner scoop which the El Paso Times lacks. And best of all, it's free. Here are the other UTEP websites that can keep you covered:
1. MinerIllustrated.com - Two Notre Dame grads, Chris Avila and Danny Levario created this UTEP fan site to keep people updated with recruiting and other Miner topics. The site features a weekly podcast and both Chris and Danny conduct live blogs from UTEP sporting events. They also attend Miner practices and write recaps. Good stuff.
2. Official Sports Report - This free daily e-mail is sent to subscribers via officialsportsreport.com. Just click on the find your team link and select UTEP, then register, and you're ready to go. Carlos Silva, who had worked with Rivals.com handles the OSR for UTEP. In today's e-mail, Carlos had a big write-up on the UTEP softball thrashing of NMSU with postgame comments. It's a must have for any Miner sports fan.
3. Rivals.com - If you go to Minerdigs.net, you can access the oldest UTEP fan page. Eddie Delgado took over for Carlos and does a nice job with the site. Like MinerIllustrated, the Minerdigs site is great for recruiting and its message board is a must-bookmark for Miner fans.
4. Kyyotesden.com - Another original fan site, this unofficial UTEP fan site also advertises itself as a fun site. The site's founder, Craig Evans attends most UTEP events with his camcorder and has become a popular member of the UTEP media community. Their message board is also a must-bookmark and Craig has also archived every Don Haskins radio show which he videotaped in person.