'Good pressure': UTEP men's basketball eyes CUSA championship with veteran team

‘Good pressure’: UTEP men’s basketball eyes CUSA championship with veteran team

Posted by Admin November 2, 2024 Basketball

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The UTEP men’s basketball team understands this is not a year of downplaying expectations.

The Miners roll into Monday’s season-opening game against Sul Ross in the Don Haskins Center with 10 returners, including three starters, and that rarely happens in this new transfer portal era.

After struggling through much of the 2023-24 season, UTEP staged a late charge and made it to the finals of the Conference USA tournament. Everyone in the program sees this as a turning point in the fortunes of a team that hasn’t won a league title since 2010.

The Miners added a projected starter and star from the transfer portal in Devin Barnes; the other new starter should be last season’s CUSA freshman of the year, David Terrell.

As for all those returners, most had other options, yet none of the regular players opted to transfer.

There’s a reason for that.

“We want to compete for championships,” said head coach Joe Golding as he prepares for his fourth year at UTEP. “There’s no question with so many guys back and the guys we’ve brought in, we want to compete for a championship.”

“We don’t talk about that all the time; we talk about the journey, but that’s the reason they came back. They didn’t come back to play for fourth or fifth. They came back to finish off what they did last year,” Golding said.

Barnes scored 13.0 points per game with Tarleton State last year. Golding’s expectations are why he came to El Paso.

“It’s pressure, but it’s good pressure,” Barnes said. “We’re held to a standard, and we’re higher than the standard we’re held to.”

As UTEP points out on their practice jerseys, which bear the number “10:33” across the chest, the Miners were tied with Western Kentucky in the CUSA title game shortly before the midpoint of the second half. The Miners were that close to the NCAA tournament.

To make that last step, UTEP will have to improve on offense, particularly at the 3-point line, where they ranked 284th in 3-point percentage out of 351 teams last year.

The Miners will have to rebound as well as they did last season, which will be a challenge as the few roster changes they have undergone have made them shorter.

They are also going to have to be better on the road, where they were 0-9 until winning their last two as part of that late charge.

That will all be especially important early as UTEP looks to capitalize on the vibes it generated last March.

“You’ve got to keep the momentum going, especially early,” Golding said. “We need to continue that early in the season to take advantage of that.”

“It’s no secret, the Don is a tougher place to play when there are butts in the seat and it’s crowded and there’s a lot of passion. It’s one of the best home courts in the country when people are there,” Golding said.

The starting lineup figures include returning starters Corey Camper as guard, preseason All-CUSA selection Otis Frazier as forward, Kevin Kalu as center, and last year’s sixth-man Terrell running the point, with Barnes as another guard. Golding touted Barnes as a potential all-conference player.

Trey Horton will reprise his role as the 3-point shooting sniper off the bench and Golding said he improved over the offseason. Derick Hamilton and Elijah Jones provide depth to the front court. Another top newcomer who could contribute is freshman guard KJ Thomas from Canyon Randall.

“This is our best team depth-wise,” Golding said. “It’s easier to hold kids accountable when they aren’t doing what they are supposed to do because there is so much competition. It will also allow us to play 10 or 11 guys.”

Terrell said the key to this team is how all that depth fits together.

“I’ve never been with a team that’s so connected,” Terrell said. “We have a lot of newcomers, but the guys coming back, we’ve brought them in nicely. We’ll all hang out, we all have fun, it’s a brotherhood.”

Golding is confident this team will be better at scoring.

“We returned some guys who can shoot the basketball and we’ve recruited some guys who can shoot the basketball,” he said. “The guys coming back have worked on that – Corey Camper, David Terrell, Baylor Hebb, Otis Frazier, Trey Hornton. Trey’s an elite shooter, we need him to shoot at a 40% clip, he’s made a ton of improvement.”

The biggest question in Golding’s mind is rebounding. They were killed on the boards in an otherwise promising exhibition against a New Mexico team that made the NCAA tournament last year. UTEP lost the exhibition 74-70; it lost rebounding 56-30.

“Rebounding is our biggest concern, especially coming out of the exhibition,” Golding said. “I’ve been worried about it all summer. We’re going to have to be careful with our lineups. Sometimes we play lineups, and we are just small.”

“We have to figure out how to navigate that. Obviously, a lot of it starts with toughness and competing. Our guards are going to have to a better job of rebounding down. That’s going to be a factor we’ll be talking about all season,” Golding said.

If that works out, if UTEP shoots better, rebounds better and turns that into road wins, the Miners could be in for the special season they envision.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.

UTEP Miners basketball schedule 2024-25

HOME GAMES ALL CAPS

Date	Day	Opponent	Location
Nov. 4	Monday	SUL ROSS	Don Haskins Center
Nov. 9	Saturday	at Utah Valley &	Orem, Utah
Nov. 12	Tuesday	UT PERMIAN BASIN	Don Haskins Center
Nov. 20	Wednesday	at UC SANTA BARBARA	Santa Barbara, Calif.
Nov. 25	Monday	vs. San Jose State $	Las Vegas, Nev.
Nov. 26	Tuesday	vs. Long Beach State $	Las Vegas, Nev.
Nov. 27	Wednesday	vs. UNC Greensboro $	Las Vegas, Nev.
Dec. 7	Saturday	Seattle U	Don Haskins Center
Dec. 11	Wednesday	at Louisville	Louisville, Ky.
Dec. 16	Monday	Tarleton State &	Don Haskins Center
Dec. 20	Friday	Jackson State ^	Don Haskins Center
Dec. 21	Saturday	Akron/Yale ^	Don Haskins Center
Dec. 28	Saturday	Northern New Mexico	Don Haskins Center
Jan. 2	Thursday	LOUISIANA Tech *	Don Haskins Center
Jan. 4	Saturday	SAM HOUSTON *	Don Haskins Center
Jan. 11	Saturday	NEW MEXICO State *	Don Haskins Center
Jan. 16	Thursday	at Liberty *	Lynchburg, Va.
Jan. 18	Saturday	at FIU *	Miami, Fla.
Jan. 23	Thursday	JACKSONVILLE STATE *	Don Haskins Center
Jan. 25	Saturday	KENNESAW STATE *	Don Haskins Center
Jan. 30	Thursday	at WKU *	Bowling Green, Ky.
Feb. 1	Saturday	at Middle Tennessee *	Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Feb. 8	Saturday	at NM State *	Las Cruces, N.M.
Feb. 13	Thursday	FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL *	Don Haskins Center
Feb. 15	Saturday	LIBERTY *	Don Haskins Center
Feb. 20	Thursday	at Kennesaw State *	Kennesaw, Ga.
Feb. 22	Saturday	at Jacksonville State *	Jacksonville, Ala.
Feb. 27	Thursday	WESTERN KENTUCKY *	Don Haskins Center
March 1	Saturday	MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE *	Don Haskins Center
March 6	Thursday	at Sam Houston *	Huntsville, Texas
March 8	Saturday	at Lousiana Tech *	Ruston, La.