Texas Basketball: 3 most exciting players from Longhorns 2019-20 team

3. Kai Jones, Power Forward

There were two promising freshman forwards that stood out for the Longhorns last season before the season was called to an abrupt end. The first of the two, and the one that made this list, is the former highly touted four-star recruit and 6-foot-11 and 210 pound power forward Kai Jones. The other is a big man that came on late, fellow former four-star recruit Brock Cunningham.

A Nassau, Bahamas, native and Brewster Academy product got to play in 27 games during his true freshman campaign. In those slightly over two-dozen games played, Jones averaged 3.6 points per game, 3.2 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 1.1 blocks, and 0.5 steals, while shooting 50.0 percent from the field, 29.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 63.6 percent from the charity stripe.

As the season moved along, Jones started to become a more capable floor spacer. But his offensive play was inconsistent at best. What stood out most about the offensive play of Jones was how emphatic he was at finishing around the glass. According to Barttorvik, Jones had just as many field goal attempts that were dunks as he did three-point attempts. He also had 37 attempts at the rim, making just over 75 percent of them.

Moreover, Jones had one of the best block rates (6.9 percent) and offensive rebounding rates (7.4 percent) on the team last season. That type of play is a nice change of pace for any team that got outrebounded on a regular basis. Texas shored up their frontcourt down the stretch, and really just played with more spark in the waning games of the regular season. Jones was a big help on the glass on both ends of the floor, though.