EL PASO, Texas -- UTEP men's basketball coach Tony Barbee was named the Conference USA coach of the year and junior guard Randy Culpepper accepted the conference player of the year award.

Barbee joins Don Haskins and Billy Gillispie as the only UTEP coaches to win a conference coach of the year award.

Only Tim Hardaway has won a conference player of the year award for UTEP, when he accepted the WAC player of the year trophy in 1989.

UTEP is 24-5 on the year, 15-1 in conference play and ranked in the top 25 in both national polls for the first time in 18 years.

"That's the only thing that we have around here is our team, our local college teams, UTEP football, basketball, so anytime there is something good with our basketball team, especially with the history we have here related to basketball, it's great," said UTEP student Cary Lawson.

There was more good news about the Miners on Wednesday. The team is firming up their schedule for next season and are one of four teams to host regional round games in the well-respected Legends Classic Tournament, with UTEP playing in the championship rounds on Thanksgiving weekend in Atlantic City.

The other three teams hosting regional games are Syracuse, Michigan and Georgia Tech.

UTEP's next game this season is on Thursday night in the Conference USA tournament, taking on either SMU or UCF at 8 p.m.