Texas Basketball: Pursuit of 5-Star Keyonte George has ‘really intensified’

Among the top targets for the 2022 Texas basketball recruiting class and new head coach Chris Beard is the elite five-star iSchool Entrepreneurial Academy 6-foot-4 and 185 pound shooting guard Keyonte George. Texas was after the Lewisville, TX, product George for a good while now, sending him a scholarship offer back in June 2019.

It should also help the case of Beard and the Longhorns that the Texas Tech Red Raiders sent George an offer back on Feb. 16, 2021. That offer from the Red Raiders came before Beard took the head coaching job with the Longhorns. Beard was hired to be the next Texas head coach to replace Shaka Smart back on April 1.

The investment is certainly there for the Longhorns in pursuit of the commitment of George. But that won’t be any easy task for the Longhorns to keep the interests of George on them, with the complete change in coaching regime and the opportunity of going pro either overseas or through the G-League.

However, according to a 247Sports report on April 26, George isn’t considering the prospect of passing on playing college hoops for his future. He is also reportedly strongly considering the Longhorns as a landing spot for where he takes his talents to at the next level.

Keyonte George a priority for the Texas basketball program

George also mentioned over the weekend how Texas has “really intensified” their pursuit of him since Beard was hired a few weeks back. That along with the fact that he stated that he wants “to go to college”, means that Texas is really in the running to land George after all.

Here’s more on what he specifically stated on his recruiting process over the weekend.

"“I want to go to College. I want to play in the NCAA Tournament. I want all of that.”"

Texas has done well in the past recruiting elite in-state talent among five-star prospects. They signed the hometown product and former 2020 five-star Vandegrift power forward Greg Brown as the lone commit in the 2020 class for the former head coach Smart.

Landing a commitment for George would give the Longhorns the best building block possible in their 2022 class. As of the early afternoon of April 26, Texas doesn’t have any commits yet in their 2022 class.

George holds offers from Texas and eight other schools as of April 26. Some of the other notable schools on his offer sheet include the Arizona Wildcats, Baylor Bears, Kansas Jayhawks, NC State Wolfpack, Texas A&M Aggies, and TCU Horned Frogs.

Moreover, George ranks as the nation’s No. 6 2022 high school prospect, and the top overall shooting guard and prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranks him as the nation’s No. 14 high school prospect, and the top overall shooting guard and prospect out of Texas.

Texas also saw their 2021 signing class largely decimated from their original group of commits since Smart left for the head coaching job with the Marquette Golden Eagles. Since the departure of Smart and the subsequent hiring of Beard, Texas lost their original four signees from the 2021 class, including four-star shooting guard Tamar Bates and four-star power forward David Joplin.