Texas Basketball: 3 players who must step up in place of Jericho Sims

It is about time that the Texas basketball program finally get the most out of junior forward/center Royce Hamm Jr. that they can. This is the third year on the Forty Acres for Hamm, and he’s actually setting a career-best by averaging 2.3 points per game this season.

Hamm has the ability to make more of a consistent impact on both ends of the floor, but he hasn’t been able to pull through yet. The career player efficiency rating of Hamm of 8.7 shows why he never got consistent playing time in the past.

The physical tools and defensive ability of Hamm can also help replace the production lost in the frontcourt rotation with the Sims injury. Hamm combined for around a 3.0 defensive box plus/minus rating over the last two years. But his box plus/minus rating dropped below -2.5 once again this season.

The defensive impact Hamm is having is staying around the same that it did last season. His defensive rating didn’t improve all that much in his three year college career. He’s got his defensive rating down below 97 for the first time in his career, but it hasn’t even improved by even an entire point since his sophomore season.

Hamm doesn’t really even attempt three-point looks for the Longhorns, but he’s shooting well under 50 percent from the field. He needs to make a bigger impact on the offensive glass and get more involved in the transition game to make the most of his physical tools and fill the gaps of his lapses in offensive impact for the rest of his time on the floor.