UTEP Men’s Basketball Announces Two More Signees

One day after adding one of the top point guards from Texas, the UTEP men's basketball team announced two more top high school seniors will play basketball in El Paso next season. Evan Gilyard, a 5'9 point guard from Simeon Career Academy in Chicago and 6'9 forward Tirus Smith from Petal (Mississippi) High School.

UTEP Head Coach Tim Floyd is excited about landing the 13th best player in the state of Illinois and San Antonio point guard Kobe Magee. "Look at Evan and Kobe’s teams last year in Chicago and San Antonio, how successful they were [61-6 combined record], and know that they are playing the most important position on the floor in terms of affecting winning," Floyd said in the official school release. "They bring a lot of speed, quickness and know-how to the floor and they are the kinds of guards that make others better."

Meanwhile, Smith could add the kind of size inside that the Miners have been longing for. He averaged 16 points, 11 rebounds, 2.5 blocks per game as a junior.

"Tirus is closer to 6-9 than 6-8," Floyd said. "We haven’t had an interior player who shoots it like he does from three-point range but make no mistake, he can also post. We feel like if he were here right now, he would help us as a high school senior. Like the rest of the guys we have signed, he has incredible potential and I believe he will reach it because of his high character. He has never had great point guards around him and I feel like that is going to help lift his game beyond where it is now. This is the best group of high school players in the state of Mississippi in the last 15 years, and he was ranked among the top-six seniors in the state."