Texas Basketball: Why landing 5-Star PF Greg Brown shifts Horns fortunes

The biggest possible get for the 2020 Texas basketball recruiting class arrived on April 24 with the commitment of 5-Star Vandegrift PF Greg Brown.

What could likely be the biggest news for the entirety of this offseason for the Texas basketball program dropped on the afternoon of April 24. The highly anticipated commitment decision date of five-star Vandegrift and Austin, TX, native power forward Greg Brown arrived. And head coach Shaka Smart and his Texas men’s hoops squad awaited eagerly to find out where Brown would be taking his talents to at the next level.

It looked as if the Texas Longhorns basketball program would be the front runner to land Brown’s commitment on Thursday afternoon. But an impending threat to the Longhorns getting Brown to the Forty Acres was a potential path to the NBA Draft through the G-League.

Fellow five-star 2020 high school prospect Jalen Green wound up taking his talents to the G-League earlier this month, and that was a common thought that Brown could too. Brown was also deciding between the likes of the Auburn Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Kentucky Wildcats, and Memphis Tigers, if he chose the college route.

However, the 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions were trending heavily in the Longhorns favor on the morning of April 24. Every single one of the 13 expert Crystal Ball Predictions in for Brown had him committing to Texas.

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Brown would announce that he would be taking his talents to Texas, and that Smart would be able to keep the top ranked prospect in state. Ranking as the nation’s No. 9 2020 high school prospect, top overall power forward and prospect out of Texas, Brown is obviously a game-changing pledge for the Longhorns 2020 men’s hoops recruiting class.

Other significant offers that Brown held prior to announcing his commitment to Texas came from the Baylor Bears, Florida Gators, Kansas Jayhawks, LSU Tigers, North Carolina Tar Heels, Oklahoma Sooners, TCU Horned Frogs, and Texas A&M Aggies. Brown held 17 schools on his offer sheet in total as of April 24.

Furthermore, there are two major reasons why landing Brown is so crucial to Smart and the Longhorns.

The first being that he is the first commitment to the 2020 recruiting class. Texas was the lone Big 12 program that was without a single 2020 commitment prior to Brown’s pledge on Thursday afternoon. Even after landing Brown, Texas still ranks second from the bottom in the Big 12 and 90th in the national class rankings (per 247Sports Team Composite Rankings).

Brown can be a polarizing force that now gets more commitments into the Longhorns 2020 recruiting class in the near future. Four-star Hopkins shooting guard Kerwin Walton, three-star Vanier College combo guard Karim Mane, and three-star Little Elm point guard KJ Pruitt, could all now have more interest in joining Brown and the Longhorns.

Pulling together a decent 2020 recruiting class could be a huge difference maker on the Forty Acres for this men’s hoops team next season. Texas does return a lot of talent and production next season, but the added depth is going to help out a lot.

And the second big reason why landing Brown is so important to Texas is the hot seat that Smart sat on for much of last season. Smart looks to be returning for his sixth year as the Texas men’s basketball head coach, likely due to the ultra-unusual ending to the 2019-20 season thanks to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak domestically cancelled most of the Big 12 Tournament and the entirety of the NCAA Tournament even before Selection Sunday. With that, pretty much the only way that Smart would be returning as head coach for a sixth season without making the Big Dance has circulated.

A major factor working in Smart’s favor amid the discussion of whether to keep him around with the Longhorns was his relationship and recruitment of Brown. Getting his commitment does prove a lot of the faith that Texas athletic director Chris del Conte had in him at the outset of the early on-set offseason.

Brown is going to immediately fill a depth need in the frontcourt rotation next season on the Forty Acres. He should be starting alongside rising senior center Jericho Sims right at the outset of the 2020-21 season. Brown should be the best big man/forward Texas got to campus since Jaxson Hayes in 2018.