UTEP Men’s Basketball Adds Guard Chris Barnes for 2016

The UTEP men's basketball team has been working around the clock over the last few weeks, hoping to add some hidden gems to their recruiting class for the 2016-17 season. Just a few weeks after 7-1 center Roman Silva signed with the Miners, 6'4 guard Chris Barnes announced that he would play his college basketball for head coach Tim Floyd.

"We have lost some perimeter players and we are hopeful that Chris will be able to help our basketball team," Floyd said in the official school release. "We feel like he’s a good athlete. Any time you have a guy with great athleticism who plays hard, you know he’s going to get better. It remains to be seen how much he’ll play next season. It will depend on his learning curve and adjustment period, but we don’t sign guys unless we think they can help us. He comes from a good program at Compton High School and has a nice reputation in southern California. We look forward to welcoming him to our program."

Barnes averaged 12 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game last season with Compton. According to his profile at ESPN.com, he played at four different high schools over the last four years. As a sophomore in 2014, he won a state championship as a member of Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrence, California.

The Miners are not done with late additions to the roster. There could still be multiple players signed in the next two weeks before the late signing period ends. Coach Floyd has also not addressed his current roster, which currently has ten returning players on scholarship. UTEP has currently signed four players, bringing the total number of scholarships to 14. That is one over the maximum number a team can offer, which means that if the Miners sign any additional players, we could see more roster turnover or the team will need to get creative and offer academic scholarships. If UTEP goes Prop 48 for any of their four signees, then they could avoid putting them on scholarship for one season. Either way, the next few weeks should be very interesting for UTEP hoop fans.