Perhaps warmer weather can help the NIU men’s basketball team when they take on host Texas-El Paso Friday at 10 p.m. in the first round of the Metromobile Tournament.

The visiting Huskies (1-1) will be looking for their first road win following Tuesday’s 87-77 loss at Wisconsin. NIU will face a Miner squad that last year made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing 84-82 to Big Ten power Iowa.

UTEP (1-0) got 15 points from 6-foot-5 senior guard Chris Blocker in its season-opening 59-46 win over St. Mary’s (San Antonio). Guard Tim Hardaway (5-11, Jr.) added 13 for the Miners who trailed 30-28 at halftime.

NIU coach Jim Rosborough sounded apprehensive about playing UTEP on its home court. “If you’re the first-round foe for the tournament host, you know you have your work cut out for you,” he said.

Friday night’s game will be the Huskies’ first meeting with the Miners, who are ranked 29th by the UPI this week. UTEP has won six consecutive Western Athletic Conference titles under Don Haskins who enters his 27th year as Miner head coach.

The winner of the NIU vs. UTEP contest will face either Wisconsin-Green Bay or Howard University Saturday night for the tournament championship. WGBU takes on Howard following the Huskie game Friday.

Wisconsin-Green Bay enters the tournament with a 1-0 record after beating Illinois State 60-53 in the Phoenix’s home opener. Senior guard Frank Nardi led WGBU with 21 points over the Redbirds, who nearly defeated Purdue in their first game.

Nardi tallied 19 points against NIU in the Huskies’ 77-65 win at DeKalb last year. The Huskies are 4-3 overall against WGBU who missed reaching the NCAA tournament last year by losing a heart-breaker to Southwest Missouri State.

Howard opens its season against WGBU led by guard George Hamilton. The 6-foot-2 senior is the Bison’s leading returning scorer (12.8 ppg) from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s regular season champions. Despite posting a 25-5 record last year, Howard was left out of the NCAA Tournament when North Carolina A&T beat the Bison in the MEAC post-season tourney.