Pregame shootaround: Marble to start

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- Iowa senior guard Devyn Marble participated in the team's shootaround and will start tonight against UTEP, Iowa associate sports information director Matt Weitzel confirmed Friday.

Marble left Iowa's game against Xavier with 2:06 remaining after experiencing heavy cramps. Twice before he left the game only to return. After the last cramp, he couldn't make it back in.

"I felt myself cramping," Marble said. "I knew I had limited time left personally. I knew that. I didn't know I was going to spend the rest of the time out."

Marble set a Battle 4 Atlantis record with 23 field-goal attempts against Xavier, a 77-74 Iowa victory. His 30 points were the second-most scored in a Battle 4 Atlantis game and it was his third career 30-point game, the most among Big Ten active players.

The Marble family has a tournament history with UTEP. In the 1987 NCAA tournament, the Hawkeyes beat UTEP 84-82 in the second round. Roy Marble, Devyn's father, scored 28 points in 36 minutes. He outdueled UTEP's Tim Hardaway Sr., who scored 11 points and six assists. They ended up rooming with one another at the NBA rookie combine two years later.

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Tonight's game is the first meeting between the schools since 1987. They've played four times historically and the series is tied 2-2. During the Miners' legendary run to the 1966 NCAA title, then-Texas Western beat Iowa 86-68 at the Sun Bowl Tournament in El Paso. That group of Hawkeyes finished 17-7 overall and 8-6 in the Big Ten.

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Iowa now is 6-0 for the first time since 2003-04. That year the Hawkeyes lost their seventh game to Northern Iowa. The last time Iowa started 7-0 was in 2000-01 when the Hawkeyes opened 9-0. That was also the last time Iowa posted an NCAA tournament win.