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Tim Floyd blasts radio host during contentious press conference

When Tim Floyd spoke to reporters in El Paso on Tuesday afternoon, it began as a typical business-as-usual news conference.

Only after El Paso sports radio host Steve Kaplowitz asked his first question did it become clear that Floyd's true purpose was an ambush.

Floyd pounced on Kaplowitz immediately, first turning the radio host's question about why players transfer back around on him and then calling him "uninformed" and "irresponsible." Floyd then handed out copies of a 17-page document containing data that meant to show that UTEP's high transfer rate during his tenure mirrored the trend in college basketball nationally.

What apparently upset Floyd is Kaplowitz's on-air criticism of UTEP's struggles to retain players in recent years. This offseason alone, UTEP's leading scorer Lee Moore turned pro with eligibility remaining and three other players chose to transfer.

The public flogging might have stopped there except that Kaplowitz opted to respond. He further angered Floyd by noting that he has attempted to reach out to the UTEP coach for comment numerous times and seldom gotten any response.

"I don't respond to journalists that just throw things out, just throw it against the wall and see what sticks," Floyd said. "I've been around a lot of great journalists in Chicago, in New Orleans, in Los Angeles. In my opinion, you don't know what the hell you're talking about, so I don't respond to that. People who know not and do not know that they know not are fools and you shun them. That's what I've done with you."

The confrontation reached a climax when Floyd said that he regrets previously going on Kaplowitz's show 10 times as a favor to former UTEP coach Don Haskins.

FLOYD: Don't shake your head. You know I'm dead-ass right.

KAPLOWITZ: "That's wrong and you're classless for saying that in front of the media."

FLOYD: I'm dead-ass right.

KAPLOWITZ: No, you're not."

FLOYD: "Your show is fiction."

KAPLOWITZ: "How about the pulse of El Paso? How about all the fans, all the season ticket holders that are upset, that they've been upset with the lack of results over the last six years, and they're tired of not going to the postseason. They're tired of not going to the NCAA Tournament. How about that?"

FLOYD: "We were in the NIT a year ago."

KAPLOWITZ: "Yeah that really means a lot to El Paso right now."

FLOYD: "Is that right?"

KAPLOWITZ: "Yeah."

FLOYD: "Well, we lost four starters, we didn't quite get there this year."

KAPLOWITZ: "So every year it's gonna be the same thing, coach? Every year? Is that how it's going to be?"

FLOYD: "If you're upset about us not winning games and you want me fired because of not winning games, that's your prerogative."

Pretty awkward, right? Every other reporter and UTEP administrator in the room had to be cringing through that whole exchange.

What's interesting is that Floyd's not entirely in the wrong here. Hundreds of college basketball players transfer each season and UTEP is in a particularly vulnerable spot in the sport's pecking order, susceptible both to players transferring up to high-majors in search of a greater platform or down to low-majors in search of more playing time.

What's more, while UTEP hasn't made the NCAA tournament during Floyd's six-year tenure, his results have hardly been embarrassing. He's reached the NIT twice, finished in the top three in the league three times and won 18 or more games all but one season. The trouble is that Conference USA has been a one-bid league more often than not during that stretch and UTEP has not won the conference tournament under Floyd.

Where Floyd is wrong, however, is in his decision to publicly call out Kaplowitz in a misguided attempt to shame him. This is a matter that should have been handled during a closed-door meeting between the two men. A shouting match in Floyd's office would have saved both parties the embarrassment of having this video spread across social media the past 24 hours.

The other culpable party here is UTEP's athletic administrators. They had to have an inkling this was coming, yet nobody had the gumption to tell Floyd it wasn't a good idea?

This is a coach who has previously had public confrontations with USC coach Andy Enfield, then-New Mexico coach Steve Alford and other reporters who have covered him previously. Surely someone in UTEP's athletic department could have either had the foresight to realize this wasn't a good idea or the nerve to end Floyd's news conference before it got too heated.

Kaplowitz wrote about Floyd's tirade on Tuesday, again raising the question whether the transfers are a result of the impatience of today's players or an inability to relate to Floyd.

"Coach Floyd made things personal today and took aim at me for the way we have handled the roster merry-go-round at UTEP," Kaplowitz said. "Sadly, he believes that I am the root of the problem since Sportstalk has been “misinforming” the public all this time. Despite everything that was said about me earlier today, my stance on Tim Floyd and the UTEP men's basketball program has not changed. I endorsed him more than six years ago when he was hired and believed that he was the right man for the job.

"Many people have been patient with Coach Floyd and still see him as the man to turn around the program. They just need to accept the fact that each year, it gets tougher and tougher to keep players happy on a roster, and some will not stick around with hopes to get more playing time. That, coupled with playing in C-USA each year, has made advancing to the NCAA Tournament a long shot each year for Miner fans."

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!