ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team added two talented signees this week as high school senior Brandyn Talbot and junior college product Fredelin De La Cruz each signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Mavericks.
 
Talbot will be a freshman with the Mavs, while De La Cruz will enter as a junior with two years of eligibility remaining, beginning in the 2020-21 season. Below is more information about both players, along with comments from UTA head coach Chris Ogden and both players' former coaches.
 
BRANDYN TALBOT
A native of Innisfil, Ontario, the 6-foot-5 Talbot is known for his shooting prowess. As a senior this past season playing for head coach Kyle Weaver at Dream City Christian High School in Glendale, Ariz., Talbot averaged 12.4 points, 2.9 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game playing against some of the best competition in the country.
 
Dream City was ranked as high as #21 in the nation by USA Today, and Talbot played a vital role in that success as he connected at a 44-percent clip from 3-point range for the year. Over the first two months of the season going up against top-level opposition, Talbot shot a gaudy 76 percent and averaged nearly five makes per contest from 3-point range.
 
He scored a season-high 25 points against nationally-ranked West Oaks Academy out of Orlando, and in another contest dropped 19 points on a perfect 5-5 from 3-point range against a team which featured three Division-I signees.
 
After moving to the United States and spending his sophomore season at Wesley Christian High School in Kentucky, Talbot spent his junior year in Scottsdale at Bella Vista Prep where he was not only teammates, but also roommates, with current UTA rising sophomore Nicolas Elame. That relationship played a crucial role in Talbot's decision to re-join his former teammate with the Mavericks.
 
Ranked as the 31st-best Canadian recruit by North Pole Hoops, Talbot played his AAU ball for Grassroots Elite Canada.
 
Anthony Ray, who has operated a scouting service since 1995 and is currently the Senior Editor for ArizonaPreps.com, stated that Talbot "is one of the best pure shooters of the basketball in the country."
 
Ogden's Thoughts: "Brandyn is a very skilled, hungry, thirsty gym rat who is committed and has come from two very good programs and a country that is invested in basketball. We're excited about his ability to make shots at an extremely high level."
 
Weaver's Thoughts: "Brandyn loves basketball; he's always in the gym working and is a competitive player who is a terrific person both on and off the court. He is one of the best shooters in the entire 2020 class, and he's played some of the best competition to prepare him for the next level."
 
FREDELIN DE LA CRUZ
A native of the Dominican Republic, the 6-foot-7 De La Cruz – whose style of play is similar to that of Dennis Rodman's – will have two years of eligibility with the Mavericks after spending his sophomore season at South Plains College, 50 miles west of Lubbock in Levelland.
 
A reliable force in the Texans' lineup, De La Cruz was one of only two members of the South Plains team who played in all 31 games last season, averaging 7.5 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds per contest – two boards better than anyone else – in only 17 minutes per game. Over 40 minutes, De La Cruz's point production averages out to 17.6 per outing and his rebounding numbers average an astonishing 16 per contest.
 
De La Cruz shot an effective 52.2 percent from the floor, registered a season-high 20 points on two occasions and reached double-figure scoring 11 times – 10 of those 11 came over the final 11 games of the year after achieving that mark once over the first 20 contests.
 
As a freshman, De La Cruz attended Los Angeles Trade-Tech where he averaged an eye-opening double-double for the season at the community college with 18.7 points and 11 rebounds in 25 games.
 
Ogden's Thoughts: "We're excited about Freddy's toughness, physicality and hunger for rebounding that he brings to the table. He comes from one of the most respected programs in the country at any level at South Plains with a Hall of Fame coach in Steve Green. We're also extremely excited about his winning mentality."
 
Green's Thoughts: "Freddy is an extremely intense player who plays with tremendous effort and people will notice that. There is not a rebound he will not go after – he'll make his mark on both ends of the floor as well; he's a guy an opposing team will have to block out. Freddy doesn't need to have the ball in order to be effective on the floor."
 
FOLLOW ALONG
For updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, be sure to follow the men's basketball program on Twitter (@UTAMavsMBB), Instagram (@UTAMavsMBB) and Facebook (/UTAMavsMBB).