Texas Basketball: 4 players that will breakout in 2020-21 season

3) Who could breakout for Texas basketball: Greg Brown

The most obvious name on this list among the potential breakout candidates for the Longhorns is the former five-star recruit, and lone signee in their 2020 recruiting class, freshman power forward Greg Brown. This is about as highly touted as they will come in terms of incoming freshman recruits landing on the Forty Acres.

Brown is the highest rated big man since the former five-star recruit and elite center Mo Bamba, back during the 2017 recruiting cycle. Brown is one of the seven highest rated signees in the history of recruiting rankings for the Longhorns. Coming out of Vandegrift High School in Austin, TX, Brown ranked as the nation’s No. 9 2020 high school prospect, No. 2 power forward, and the top overall prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite).

And the Top247 ranked him as the nation’s No. 11 high school prospect, No. 2 power forward, and the top overall prospect out of Texas.

Brown is the lone true freshman on this roster, hence he is in a unique spot for the 2020-21 season. Barttorvik projects him to round this coming season out with 5.8 points per game, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.0 assists. If Smart trusts him to get more playing time early on in the 2020-21 season, then he could be closer to averaging a double-double per game.

It does play to Brown’s detriment that his skill set could still use some polishing and he doesn’t get a full offseason and regular season of games to get settled in before the postseason spotlight hits him. In fact, the spotlight will hit Brown right away, playing in the Maui Invitational with teams like the North Carolina Tar Heels and Indiana Hoosiers.