Feast or Famine: What to make of FIU basketball?

The Florida International Panthers enter a crucial C-USA road trip on Thursday at UTEP after dropping down to .500 (9-9, 2-5) after four straight losses.

Both FIU and UTEP sit slightly above the conference cellar at 2-5. Unlike UTEP, the Panthers looked like an elusive winning season was within reach.

Not every college basketball team enters the season with the same realistic goals. The system dictates that only winning the conference tournament matters in all but six conferences. However, for many mid-major teams, finishing the season with a winning record would qualify as a success.

Jeremy Ballard has been the FIU head coach since 2018, but the Panthers haven’t finished above .500 since his second season. However, the current college sports system allows coaches like Ballard to pick a new roster each year, hoping to find the right combination of talent and experience to end FIU’s postseason drought.

The entire FIU starting five arrived in Miami via the transfer portal. Corey Stephenson has given the Panthers an identity on offense with his 17.5 points per game on 46.6 percent shooting. Only four other players in the C-USA have scored more this season.

Stephenson, a senior transfer from Cal-State Bakersfield, has had his best games against the toughest opponents. He scored 23 points and a season-high six assists against Miami and dropped 25 against LSU and James Madison earlier in the season.

Entering the conference slate of the 2025-26 season, FIU looked like it was trending towards its first winning season since 2019-20. Winning two of their first three conference games had the Panthers trending upward. The only game they lost during that stretch came against C-USA leading Liberty and went into overtime.

The Panthers have proven that they can certainly play with the best of them. FIU enters Thursday’s matchup having averaged the third most points (83.7) in C-USA with the third highest field goal percentage (46.0). While they also allow the most points on defense in C-USA, the Panthers are fifth in rebounds and second in blocks behind Hamed Olayinka and Eric Dibami.

FIU will travel to New Mexico State on Saturday to take on an Aggies team that has lost seven of its last 11. FIU previously defeated NMSU at home 89-74 on Jan. 2, behind Stephenson’s 21 points and Dibami’s 10 rebounds.

Despite their current skid, the Panthers are only a slight turnaround away from vaulting back into contention.