Texas Basketball: 3 players ready to become stars in 2020-21

2) Potential Texas basketball stars in 2020-21

Since the Longhorns bring back such an experienced team this coming season, a lot of the names that could encompass a list like this will be that of upperclassmen that hoops fans on the Forty Acres are very familiar with. I also want to note that this is a list comprising more of potential breakthrough stars, not necessarily of impending five-star talents like the power forward Greg Brown.

That’s where we arrive at the former highly touted four-star recruit and junior guard Courtney Ramey on this list. This 6-foot-3 and 185 pound St. Louis, MO, native saw a high degree of improvement down the stretch last season. And while Ramey was pretty inconsistent for Smart and the Longhorns over the last two seasons, he’s shown real flashes of brilliance.

There was some part of me that felt like Ramey was on the verge of a true breakthrough down the stretch last season. He was figuring out his game on both ends of the floor, and really helped push the envelope on Texas’ hot streak to round out the 2019-20 regular season. In 18 games in Big 12 play last season, Ramey averaged 11.4 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.1 blocks. He shot 39.3 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 74.2 percent from the free-throw line.

You could tell as last season moved along that the on-ball defense and shot selection for Ramey were really coming together. In four games of that five-game winning streak that the Longhorns put together down the stretch last season, Ramey scored in double figures (three times with more than 20 point). And he had a whopping nine steals and 23 rebounds in that stretch.