Texas Basketball: 3 gifts Shaka Smart would really want for Christmas

1) Christmas gifts for Texas basketball HC Shaka Smart

Spark on the recruiting trail for the 2022 class

The final spot on this list for hypothetical gifts that Smart would like for Christmas for his Longhorns team and program this year was a difficult decision. It would also be really nice to see Smart finally get a Round of 64 NCAA Tournament win for the first time as Texas head coach. But we go with a spark on the recruiting trail here since an NCAA Tournament win is always a given.

Considering the Longhorns brought back so much of their roster from last season for the 2020-21 campaign, they didn’t have much room in their 2020 recruiting class for incoming freshmen. In fact, the lone signee in the Longhorns 2020 class was about as good as it could get for Smart, by hauling in the Vandegrift product and Austin native power forward Brown.

Smart is really showing his stuff on the recruiting trail for his 2021 class, though, hauling in four blue chip commits. With all of four of the Longhorns 2021 commits signed down since the Early Signing Period last month, Smart can put a lot more attention into building a foundation now for his 2022 recruiting class.

Two key targets that the Longhorns could really use some gained ground with on the trail for the 2022 cycle are the elite five-star prospects: Montverde Academy small forward Dariq Whitehead, and iSchool Entrepreneurial Academy shooting guard Keyonte George. Whitehead and George are two of roughly three or four key five-star targets for the Longhorns 2022 class.

George is not only the top ranked 2022 high school prospect out of Texas, he also ranks as the nation’s No. 12 prospect (247Sports Composite). Meanwhile, Whitehead ranks as the nation’s No. 7 2022 high school prospect, No. 3 small forward, and No. 2 prospect out of Florida (247Sports Composite).