Video: MTSU 69, UTEP 53 Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times
The tone for the UTEP men's basketball team's last-place 2018-19 season was set early.
"I came in here and looked at the team, 'Where's the varsity?'" first-year coach Rodney Terry quipped in a mid-season press conference. "We got the JV we're working with right now. You gotta go build a varsity."
This past season wasn't going to be about winning, which adds up because they didn't win. Their 3-15 league record was two games adrift of 13th, and given that they had seven scholarship players eligible, four of whom were freshmen and five more tied up on a practice squad, that should have been expected.