The UTEP men’s basketball team is going to look completely different next season in every sense, and as Joe Golding puts it, “It’s time.”
After bottoming out at 11-20 in 2025-26 with a budget player payroll, UTEP’s head coach completely emptied the roster and built a new one with expanded resources.
Joe Golding: ‘Exctitement and hope’ with new class
These numbers aren’t public or official, but a year after spending $600,000 on its payroll, or about half what Texas Tech plays its best softball player (NiJaree Canady), UTEP had about $1.5 million this recruiting season, a solid, median number in the new Mountain West it joins on July 1.
With that as ammunition, Golding has assembled a 13-player class (12 have been announced, the last one will be announced in the coming week) that is significantly taller, bigger and better compensated than what UTEP put on the court last year.
“This has given us some excitement and some hope,” Golding said of his newest recruiting class. “When you look at our roster, what we were able to do, it should be exciting for our fans. We’ve gotten a better caliber of players. Our basketball IQ has gotten better, our size has gotten better.”
The evaluation process also was quite a bit different. When he normally would have been preparing for, then taking a team to a conference tournament, UTEP didn’t qualify for the CUSA tournament and that gave Golding and his staff two weeks to get a jump on recruiting.
“What was probably the low-light of my coaching career, not making the conference tournament, it was a humbling experience,” Golding said. “But it gave us two weeks to really get in there and attack the portal.
“The portal wasn’t open yet, but it gave us the opportunity to talk to agents and get a good feel of who was going in the portal. So we basically bunkered down in the conference room, watched a ton of tape and came up with a game plan. We had plan A, plan B, plan C, we attacked it early, and I think you saw that success early with the signings we had right off the bat.”
After that initially flurry when UTEP quickly signed 10 players, some late money came in and Golding went back after some players they weren’t able to afford before.
“We thought we were basing our budget on one number, and then we were able to get some more money,” Golding said. “We got to hit the pause button, get back and reevaluate some other guys at a different price point that we didn’t think we were going to have the opportunity to go get.”
Looking at the roster: Bigger, smarter
So what did UTEP put together? The Miners will be a bigger team, they should be much better on offense and they will be changing dramatically on defense. The way Golding has always coached defense, the heavy pressure, attacking style of play that looks to create turnovers and hide its lack of height, is out.
Exactly what the news defense will look like will be determined in a busy summer (starting June 8) when Golding and his team figure out a new defensive scheme.
“It’s night and day from what I’ve done,” Golding said. “I don’t know what it looks like. As you grow in your career you have to look yourself in the mirror and adapt with the college game.
“It’s changing and I have to do a good job of adapting with it. It’s time. We have a good team this year to do that. It will be different this year but I’m excited about it.”
He elaborated on the tradeoffs he’s making in lifetime philosophies.
“When we went into this thing, we wanted our positional size to get better,” he said. “We’ve checked that box. We wanted our shooting and our offensive skill and our offensive IQ to get better. And I think we checked that box. Then we wanted size inside. We wanted some traditional bigs and I think we’ve checked that box.
“Defensively what does it look like? That will be a big deal, figuring out how we can stop people. When you have better offensive players and you’re better skilled, then you’re probably not as good of a defensive player.
“I think that’s kind of the deal, but we’re going to play defense around here, we’ve always played defense, that’s something I believe in. We’re gonna defend, so it’s just figuring out how we can defend.”
UTEP Miners will change defensive styles
An example of all of this is, on paper, one of the most exciting member of this new class, Leif Moeller, a 6-foot-7 point guard who averaged 10.8 points and 4.0 assists last year as a top player at Evansville.
UTEP at times could put a lineup on the floor that goes 6-5, 6-7, 6-8, 6-9 and 6-11.
“It’s going to change,” Golding said. “When you look at our roster with our positional size, we’re not going to be able to pressure the way that we’ve pressured in the past. We’re going have to make some adjustments. We’ll figure that out this summer. Then how do we guard ball screens with our bigs?”
He doesn’t have the answer to that yet, that’s something to figure out in July, August and September. Here are the weapons UTEP will take to the floor.
Division I transfers (7)
Leif Moeller, 6-7, So., PG, Evansville
The big point guard from Wedel, Germany, who played for professional organizations at the youth level in his native country, averaged 10.8 points, 4.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 32.4 minutes per game as a true freshman at Evansville. While he’s not eligible for NIL money as a foreigner not on a work visa, he can get revenue sharing money.
“We’re hoping his second year he’s more adjusted to the speed, the athleticism, the physicality of the game,” said Golding, who started his roster rundown with Moeller. “But you look at his resume after one year, as a freshman, he excites us.
Jace Whiting 6-3, Sr. G, Weber State
The well-traveled Whiting is coming to his fourth school, partly because of some injuries, but is healthy now. Last year at Weber State he averaged 11.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists. He had previous stops at Boise State (2022-24) and UNLV (2024-25 when he was injured) so he has familiarity with the Mountain West.
He also is familiar with new assistant coach Dan Russell, who was at Weber last year.
Reese Miller 6-5, Sr., G, William & Mary
The Round Rock native Miller led William & Mary in scoring last year as the sixth man when he averaged 12.1 points.
Ryan Jackson Jr., 6-6, Jr, G/F, William & Mary
One of two transfers from William & Mary (half of the 10 players were teammates with someone on the roster last year), Jackson averaged 7.0 points in 31 games off the bench last season.
Augusto Cassiá, 6-8, Sr., F, Ole Miss
The Brazilian started four SEC games last season (he started five total) and averaged 2.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 10.3 minutes. He spent his first two years at Butler.
Reid Cason 6-10, Jr. C, East Carolina
Cason started 12 games last season for the Pirates when he averaged 3.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game.
Janusz Ratowski 6-11, So. C, Stetson
He began his career at Texas A&M in 2024-25 when he redshirted, then transferred to Stetson where he average 2.2 points per game on 63% shooting.
Junior College transfers (1)
Camron McDaniels 6-5, So., G, Logan College (Ky.)
A second-team Junior College All-American, McDaniels averaged 17.4 points and 5.1 rebounds as a freshman for a conference championship team. He was the second player Golding mentioned when going over the roster.
“I think his body will remind our fans of Otis Frazier: He big, he’s thick, he’s got great size, he can play multiple positions on the floor,” Golding said. “He can go get his own baskets. You’ve got to have guys on the floor, when stuff breaks down, can go one-on-one. We think Cam can do that. And he can really, really shoot to basketball.”
High school signings (4)
Donovan Criss 6-5, Fr., G, San Antonio Brennan High
The four-star guard, the big high school coup for UTEP, averaged 14.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals while leading Brennan to a state-runner-up finish.
“He’ll have a chance to help us right away,” Golding said.
Isaiah Ward 6-6, F, San Antonio Brennan
A 3-star recruit, Ward averaged 12.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals for the state runner-ups.
Delano Tarpley 6-11, Fr., C, San Antonio Brennan
Tarpley averaged 10.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists for a state runner-up team.
Kaleb Jackson, 6-7, Fr. G, Kingdom Collegiate Academy
A small-school product from Dallas (Golding said his graduating class was 12), he averaged 16.7 points and 7.1 rebounds while playing everywhere on the floor.
Coaching staff
Dan Russell, assistant coach
Russell was at Weber State the last four years, including the last two as the associated head coach (No. 1 assistant). The Wyoming native was head coach at Casper College in his home state for six years.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP Miners men’s basketball looks to new era with taller roster
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
