Texas Basketball: 3 players with most to lose from lost season

1. Kamaka Hepa, Forward

A much smaller case of what could’ve been will exist for the Texas basketball program with sophomore forward and the former four-star recruit Kamaka Hepa than it will Cunningham. The Longhorns saw one of the more volatile seasons from anyone in the frontcourt rotation this year out of Hepa than anyone else.

Some of the calling cards of the 6-foot-9 and 225 pound Hepa coming out of high school included his shooting range and two-way skill set. But Hepa didn’t show consistency in any of those respects during his sophomore season. His defensive box plus/minus rating did climb up to 4.3, though, which was a good sign to cap his sophomore campaign.

In 22 games played in the season that was, Hepa averaged just 2.9 points per game, 2.0 rebounds, 0.6 assists, and 0.6 blocks. He did that while shooting 36.1 percent from the field, 29.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 66.7 percent from the charity stripe. Almost every single one of those per game numbers or shooting percentages is a step back from his freshman season.

The progress that Hepa showed on the defensive end of the floor didn’t get a chance to parlay into offensive success down the stretch. Hepa did show a bit of improvement near the end of his freshman season, but that was cut short this year. Maybe we’ll see these more focused areas of Hepa’s game make strides during his junior campaign.