Texas Basketball: 3 can’t miss 2021 prospects for the Longhorns

The 2021 Texas basketball recruiting class is mostly filled out, but might have space for one or two more highly touted commits before the end of the cycle.

So far for this cycle, the 2021 Texas basketball recruiting class found some very prominent results in a rejuvenated effort on the trail by head coach Shaka Smart and his staff. Texas has already landed commitments from four prospects in their 2021 recruiting class, with the most recent coming from four-star IMG Academy shooting guard Tamar Bates.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2021 Texas recruiting class ranks at No. 15 in the nation and in the second spot in the Big 12 behind only the Baylor Bears. Baylor ranks third in the national class rankings, after they hold one five-star commit in their 2021 class.

Texas holds a commitment from one other four-star prospect in their 2021 class. That other four-star commit is Assumption point guard Emarion Ellis, who gave his pledge to the Longhorns back on July 28.

The other two commits in the Longhorns 2021 class are three-star Brookfield Central power forward David Joplin (committed on Aug. 16) and three-star Grace Christian School power forward/center Keeyan Itejere (committed on June 22). Itejere was the initial commit in the 2021 class. He and Ellis were unranked in the 247Sports Composite rankings at the time when they gave their commitments to the Longhorns.

Texas already has four times that number of commits that they held in the 2020 recruiting class. But the lone commit in the 2020 signing class was the elite hometown five-star Vandegrift power forward Greg Brown. That was a good lone commit to get for Smart and his staff.

But the work is not done yet for Smart in the Longhorns 2021 class. Here’s a look into three other potential “can’t miss” prospects for the 2021 Texas hoops recruiting class.