UTEP Basketball: Exhibition win over Texas Tech increases 2019-20 hype

UTEP Basketball’s win over Texas Tech didn’t count but still made national noise. Could the Miners be even better than originally thought?

Between now and the official start of the season, there will be hundreds of preseason exhibition games that will be meaningless in the bigger picture. Outside of fans of those teams and national college basketball analysts, the results of those games wouldn’t be widely known. Unless it’s a notable victory for smaller over bigger programs – such as what happened to UTEP Basketball this past weekend.

It was a charity exhibition game for the Miners at home against the reigning national runner-up Texas Tech Red Raiders, with the proceeds benefitting the victims of the recent Wallmart mass shooting in El Paso. That fact in itself should be very much noted when discussing the on the court product, which ended with UTEP winning 70-60. Credit to the NCAA, which has allowed these kinds of charity preseason matchups for two years now.

It’s true that the Red Raiders are a vastly different team from last year’s title contender and they could very well be overrated a tad in preseason polls themselves. But the Miners have to be happy with what they saw, particularly from a few new players. LSU grad transfer Daryl Edwards, who just joined the team around a month ago, led all scorers with 24 points in just 26 minutes played. On a team filled with talented guards, Edwards made a huge statement that he not only deserves rotation minutes but potentially a starting role. He, guard Jordan Lathon (16 points) and Fresno State transfer Bryson Williams (19 points and nine rebounds) combined for 59 of the team’s 70 total points in the win.

Although UTEP Basketball had just eight wins all of last season (3-15 in Conference USA), a number of talented transfers eligible to play combined with three of their top four scorers returning made them an intriguing team to watch for 2019-20. Head coach Rodney Terry is respected in the x’s and o’s part of the game and has rivaled Western Kentucky’s Rick Stansbury as an elite mid-major recruiter. Look for both the Miners and Hilltoppers to battle it out for the best of Conference USA.

There still are plenty of questions about the rotation and roles of the newly meshed Miners. But assuming it’s not a one-hit-wonder, it’s good to see Edwards take the spot of a possible go-to scorer. No one scored more than 13.6 ppg last season and while depth is as positive for this year’s squad, they still need a guy or two to lead the way on a consistent basis. The 1-2 punch of Edwards and Williams can be very effective, while former four-star point guard recruit Lathon will have much more talented pieces of the offense to work with.

That doesn’t even include the other notable transfers such as Anthony Tarke and Souley Boum, while Efe Odigie, who averaged a double-double last season and should benefit greatly from the presence of Williams in the frontcourt with him. Eric Villa struggled in this one but showed a willingness to spread the floor from the power forward spot.

Considering that the team turned the ball over 20 times and is still in just the beginning stages of finding their best rotations going forward, UTEP Basketball might just be ahead of schedule in their development. And while the win over Texas Tech means nothing for their resume, positive momentum will part of their practices for the next few weeks. What also will be there are increased expectations for the Miners this season that they’ll have to live up. Let’s see if this new group will be up to the tasks.