For rather obvious reasons (15 newcomers, zero returners), the UTEP men's basketball team isn't flying super high on preseason radars as the Miners maneuver toward their Nov. 2 opener against Northern Kentucky.
They were just picked to finish ninth out of 10 teams in their inaugural Mountain West Conference season and didn't have a player make the 11-person preseason All-Conference team.
UTEP coach Joe Golding: 'What an identity of winning basketball looks like'
As the team hits its second week of official practice, coach Joe Golding likes what a bigger recruiting budget has assembled and how its coming together as it begins the scrimmage portion of October.
"It's a daily process
trying to get better each and every day," said Golding, who left in middle of the week with senior forward Augusto Cassia and sophomore point guard Leif Moeller for MWC media days in Las Vegas. "We're on Week 2 at practice, the guys are working extremely hard. There are things we have to get a lot better at, but we have time, three weeks until our first game."
He can already see this team coming together and what it's going to look like when November arrives.
"We're trying to get to what an identity of winning basketball looks like, what we believe it does," Golding said. "We have to get these guys to defend, get these guys to rebound, get these guys to take care of the basketball and play together. We have three scrimmages before our first game so we'll figure out a lot more about how everything works, what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are.
"We're trying to become a tougher basketball team, a more together basketball team. There are good signs. One thing that has been positive, they care about each other and they care about winning. That's been obvious through the first couple of weeks of practice."
One thing Golding pointed out is that for all the newcomers, this isn't a young team. There are four seniors and two juniors, so six of the 15 are upper classmen, then there are three sophomores and six freshmen, most of whom are considered developmental players (they aren't taking up a big chunk of NIL resources).
Augusto Cassia: 'I love this group of guys'
While the whole experience of bringing an entirely new team together is new for UTEP, it isn't new for some of their best players, such as the 6-foot-10 Cassia. The senior is at his third school (he started five games and was a rotation player at Ole Miss last season), has played his native Brazil on age-group national teams and has had academy stops in Australia and Mexico.
"Since I started basketball, every year is a different team so you get used to it," Cassia said. "Also, I love this group of guys, we get along really well. I love the freshmen.
"I came here because of coach Golding. So far I like it here. I like the experience city, I like the team, I like the court, the practice facilities, I like the practices. I've been liking it all."
Redshirt senior guard Reese Miller is on his fourth collegiate team (Abilene Christian, Blinn College then William & Mary last year where he averaged 12.1 points per game) and feels this group is coming together quickly.
"We're all starting to learn each other, starting to go more live," Miller said. "It's all coming together and going well. The hardest part, not having any returners, we have to learn the identity of the team. We came to that really early, in the summer. That was a good thing."
So what is that identity?
"Toughness. That's UTEP basketball," he said.
Here is what UTEP's starting lineup might look like when the team has a closed door, non-promoted scrimmage against UTSA on Sunday, Oct. 11.
UTEP Miners men's basketball potential starting lineup
PG Leif Moeller, 6-7 sophomore, transfer from Evansville
The native German had a big true freshman year for Evansville last season, averaging 10.8 points, 4.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds as an every-game starter averaging 32.4 minutes for a team that went 7-25 in the Missouri Valley.
G Reese Miller, 6-5, senior transfer from William & Mary
The sixth man for 21-11 William & Mary last year averaged 12.1 points per game. He score 16 in 24 minutes in William & Mary's win over UTEP in the Jacksonville Classic last November.
G Jace Whiting, 6-3 senior transfer from Weber State
After previous stops at Boise State and UNLV (both then Mountain West schools), Whiting averaged 11.2 points 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists as a regular starter for a 16-16 Weber State team in the Big Sky Conference.
F Youssouf Traore, 6-10 freshman from the Mali national team
The last addition to UTEP's roster has been a revelation in practice. The 19-year-old (he looks older) averaged 12.8 points and 16.2 rebounds to lead Mali to the U18 AfroBasket title in 2024. He played for Casademont Zaragoza last year in Spain’s Liga Endesa, one of the top professional basketball leagues in the world, where he averaged 3.6 points and 2.8 rebounds. He has played in Spain for three years at various levels.
F Augusto Cassia, 6-10 senior transfer from Ole Miss
The Brazilian was a rotation player at Ole Miss last year and averaged 2.2 points, 1.6 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game while getting five starts for a 15-20 team. He was at Butler the two years before that and has also played for Corinthians, a professional team in Brazil.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: New faces, new league, big questions for UTEP Miners men's basketball
