Texas Basketball: Smart finds another gem with 2021 PG Emarion Ellis

The 2021 Texas basketball recruiting class got itself a nice addition on July 28, by landing a commitment from 3-Star Iowa native PG Emarion Ellis.

There was a big second addition to the 2021 Texas basketball recruiting class on July 28, as head coach Shaka Smart was able to snag a commitment from unranked Assumption 6-foot-5 point guard Emarion Ellis. As the potential gem second find in the Longhorns 2021 recruiting class, Ellis adds a lot to this group that has a lot of potential.

Texas now has two commits in the 2021 class, with the first coming from unranked Grace Christian School 6-foot-9 and 190 pound power forward and North Carolina native Keeyan Itejere. But Ellis does bring a pretty high ceiling to the table for the Longhorns, with a dynamic two-way ability and sizable frame at the point guard position.

Ellis was really starting to pick up a lot of steam on the recruiting trail in the last few months. In the last four months alone, he picked up the first four schools on his offer sheet. Those other offers came from the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, Bryant Bulldogs, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He also had a reported scout look from the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones.

Rivals did rank Ellis as a three-star point guard and as the No. 50 prospect in the nation at his position. He was really starting to get a lot of attention on the recruiting trail starting around early April. That’s when the offers started pouring in. And he would commit to Texas just a few days after he received his offer from this school.

The commitment of Ellis to the Longhorns came about on his Twitter timeline on the afternoon of July 28. He just received his scholarship offer from Texas in the first place back on July 24. Texas was the biggest offer he had received up to this point.

https://twitter.com/EmarionEllis23/status/1288188572449886209

From the little film that is out there on Ellis, he does look to be a very athletic and explosive floor general with solid two-way ability. He has the size and quickness to keep up on the defensive end of the floor on the perimeter with just about anyone he plays against in high school, and that could translate quickly in the Big 12.

You can view the game-by-game highlights of Ellis’ high school film, thanks to his Max Preps profile here.

He’s going to take some time to develop his outside shooting by all accounts, but his driving ability and distributing is already something special. This combination of size, quickness, two-way intelligence, and drive is really special in a point guard rising as fast as Ellis is.

This was good on Smart to get on him as quick as he did during the 2020 offseason. Ellis should only continue to get better from here, and it is worth seeing how his development comes along if the next high school basketball season in Iowa takes place.

Although Texas doesn’t have a class ranking yet for this 2021 group between Itejere and Ellis, this is some of the better work to pull in some gem finds that we’ve ever seen from Smart on the recruiting trail. Smart could use a headliner to start rounding out the 2021 class, but he’s off to a good start in terms of doing his homework on some solid prospects thus far.