Question for anyone who might have some insight. Why haven't 247sports or ESPN even come close on 2018 basketball commits and signees?
ESPN had two UTEP supporters who have been positive about UTEP hoops to a small certain degree. Katz and Jeff Van Gundy. Van Gundy actually wore a UTEP t shirt during a daytime ESPN show. Now that was because he was bud with Floyd. Katz has given UTEP good props but Floyd just kept taking UTEP south and support waned. Losing to teams like Norfolk State is a hard pill to swallow. My point is there is national support of UTEP.
To dove tail that, networking with competitive sports sites at the street/ground level in EP is getting better (Miner Rush just hired someone to replace Alex), HS football is well reported and local HS football sites are online but it does not appear there is networking with national sites. Speaking from personal experience, Rivals planted their flag on UTEPlandia years ago for the casual to hardcore online sports fan. This was possible because of former admin Darren Hunt who did a great job reaching out to UTEP fans all over, especially north Texas/Dallas fans and some SoCal UTEP fans. But now getting Rivals in depth info is spotty. Miner Rush crushed the Rivals flag thanks to Alex, who gave real empirical data (actual charts and graphs), analysis on player position needs and wants, instant recruiting info (Alex scooped everyone. Rivals, EP Times, and local sports media by constant social media analysis, and staying in the loop with real good sources, etc) and he thus became the go to source. 247 started as a bit of a college and pro rumor site news site and UTEP is too much of a "regional interest" entity (a term told to me by a Jim Rome associate years ago) and has no national interest. If CRT is the second coming of The Bear and brings back Billy Clyde style excitement, that will change. Kind of like the building up of Wichita State basketball to national interest.
So...
A) Better networking
B) Solid street trustworthy sources (where UTEP recruits).
C) Keeping and building people like Alex. Those who are not afraid of talking to anyone other than just the coach. The coach(es) makes the product. The fans buy it (ticket sales, merchandise, advertising, etc).
IMO, with this "they will come".