Texas Basketball: Projected early starting 5 for 2021-22 season

Sixth Man: Christian Bishop

It looks like there could be a very heated competition for the Longhorns to see who the sixth man will be this coming season. Texas is getting pretty deep in their wing/forward rotation, depending on where Beard wants to play some of the returning pieces for the 2021-22 campaign.

The sixth man could form to be a competition for minutes between former Utah Utes junior forward Timmy Allen, junior forward Brock Cunningham, senior sharpshooting guard Jase Febres, the four-star 2021 commit, and Plano, TX, native Tyson, among others. But my pick for who could be the sixth man at the outset of the season is another big-time get for Beard and the Longhorns out of the transfer portal.

Former Creighton Blue Jays 6-foot-7 and 220 pound Lee’s Summit, MO, native and standout junior forward Christian Bishop might be the most underrated find out of the transfer portal so far for Beard. Bishop was one of the first trio of transfer portal additions that arrived for Beard in his first 10 days after getting hired as Texas head coach (back in early April).

Creighton was a really good team last season, and Bishop proved that he could handle an elevated role with a dark horse title contender. If he can do the same in this type of role for Texas, he will make some extremely valuable contributions right away.

What Bishop brings to the table for Beard and the Longhorns is a career-best 7.3 box plus/minus rating from last season, along with nearly a 25 player efficiency rating, and .205 win shares per 40 minutes.