UTEP Men’s Basketball Will Have New Look in 2019-20 Season

Last night, the UTEP men's basketball team lost another heartbreaker at the Don Haskins Center. This time, Old Dominion escaped with a 50-48 win over the Miners. The loss dropped the team to 6-12 overall and 1-6 in C-USA play. As tough as the loss was for the team, they received some good news this morning.

One year ago, Archie was rated the third best high school basketball prospect in the state of Texas by 247sports.com and he was being recruited by schools like Kansas, Texas, Virginia, Florida, Arkansas, SMU, and TCU. He ultimately chose to play for the Horned Frogs, but the four-star prospect left the program earlier this month because he was not happy with the minutes he was getting. Programs like Georgetown, Texas A&M, SMU, and Vanderbilt all had interest in Archie, but he visited UTEP and was convinced that El Paso is the best place for him.

Archie's addition now means that head coach Rodney Terry has nine new players for next season. That amounts to a starting lineup and bench full of players to help transform UTEP into one of the most talented rosters the program has ever seen. Here is the complete list of newcomers that will be ready to contribute in 2019-20:

Guards
Souley Boum - 6'3" 160 LBS SO TR San Francisco
Anthony Tarke - 6'6" 220 LBS JR TR New Jersey Institute of Technology
Deon Stroud - 6'5" 190 LBS FR Fresno (Prop 48)
Brendan Wenzel - 6'6" 180 LBS FR San Antonio
Jesse Zarzuela - 6'3" 175 LBS FR Houston

Forwards
Bryson Williams - 6'8" 225 LBS JR TR Fresno State
Tydus Verhoeven - 6'9" 215 LBS SO TR Duquesne
Eric Villa - 6'10" 210 LBS JR TR NW Florida State
Kaden Archie - 6'6" 205 LBS SO TR TCU (eligible December 2019)

The addition of nine players for next season means that two scholarship players on the current roster will have to transfer in order to make room for everyone. The Miners have a max of 13 scholarship players and six of them are currently playing for the team. Even hardcore Miner fans will have tough time recognizing all of the new talent on the court. Freshmen Nigel Hawkins, Jordan Lathon, and Efe Odigie have proven to be excellent prospects for the next few years. It will be interesting to see who will leave the team in a few months since Coach Terry will have so many more impact players to choose from in his second season with the Miners. Regardless, the 2018-19 season will not even be a topic of discussion in eight months when UTEP takes the court for the first practice of the upcoming campaign. Instead, hoop fans will focus on the Miners stacked roster, who will get minutes, and the team ending their long postseason drought.