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

New Texas basketball head coach Chris Beard was forced to make some sweeping changes with this program right from the moment he was hired. The former Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach inherited a volatile situation at Texas, after the departure of the now-former Texas head coach Shaka Smart (who took over as the next Marquette Golden Eagles bench boss).

Beard and the Longhorns do have a more promising outlook in the couple of months since he was first hired. Some key NCAA Transfer Portal additions were able to bring stability to this roster, but there’s still a long way to go for the rest of the offseason.

At the moment, it appears that less than half of the roster to be for next season is filled out. Texas could fill one additional spot when they sign the talented four-star John Paul II small forward and 2021 commit Jaylon Tyson.

How the Texas basketball roster is looking ahead of the 2021-22 season?

Texas currently sits with seven scholarship players on the roster, if you include their four transfer portal additions up to this point. But there’s likely more on the way out of the portal in the very near future for Beard and the Longhorns. They’ll have to fill out the roster from some source.

However, it is interesting to project what the starting unit for next season could look like as it stands now. Clearly, putting together a projected starting unit for the 2021-22 campaign takes some level of guessing and speculation as to what other additions the Longhorns could get out of the portal, or by way of retroactive additions to their 2021 recruiting class.

With that in mind, here’s a look at a way-too-early projection of how Texas’ starting five could look for the 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.

Point Guard: Devin Askew

There are really two ways that the Longhorns could go here. In their starting unit, the point guard will likely be one of two high-usage ball handlers that will be expected to facilitate the offense. That’s the way that a lot of the offensive units were run when Beard was the Texas Tech head coach. And that was often the style for Smart during his tenure as Texas head coach.

Texas often ran a system were two different guards were high usage ball handlers on the offensive end. For the last few seasons, those two guards were Matt Coleman and Courtney Ramey. And While Ramey is set to return for his senior campaign with the Longhorns, Coleman is taking his talents to the next level.

But there’s another incoming potent guard for the Longhorns this year that could make a big impact both in the short and long-term for this program. The former five-star recruit and Kentucky Wildcats freshman transfer guard Devin Askew will have one of the higher ceilings of any player on the Forty Acres this coming season.

Reaching that elusive ceiling of his will be the main challenge for Beard and this newly formed Texas coaching staff. Askew has the ability to command this offense effectively, as he did at times for head coach John Calipari and the Wildcats down the stretch in SEC play last season.

Yet, there are a lot of inconsistencies for Askew to work out on the offensive end of the floor. He should come in as one of the better perimeter defenders in the Big 12 out of the gates, though.

Shooting Guard: Courtney Ramey

The ability of the Longhorns to rally around some of the key returning players for this coming season could largely determine their fate in the Big 12, and for the NCAA Tournament in 2021-22. And there might not be a more important returning player for the Longhorns this season than the former four-star recruit and rising senior Ramey.

Although he’s spent time between the two guard positions during his three years playing for Texas thus far, he could find more stability under Beard this season. At 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, and as one of the better two-way guards in the Big 12, Ramey should be one of the core pieces of this starting unit this coming season.

Ramey wasn’t great for Texas near the end of last season. In the two games of the Big 12 Tournament last season, Ramey registered just three total points on 1-of-14 shooting from the field and 0-of-7 from beyond the arc.

Texas needs Ramey to be consistent for them this season starting at either the one or the two. He’s their most experienced and proven two-way guard that will be coming back this season.

Despite a down run down the stretch last season, Ramey still had a mostly solid group of counting stats and shooting percentages. He averaged a career-best 12.2 points per game, 3.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.1 blocks. And Ramey shot 38.3 percent from the field, a solid 41.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 83.1 percent from the free-throw line.

Wing: Andrew Jones

We shouldn’t ignore what the Longhorns are going to get back out of the return of the redshirt junior shooting guard/wing (to-be senior) Andrew Jones. It was anticipated that the Longhorns were going to get Jones back for the 2021-22 campaign, but that was definitely no guarantee following the departure of Smart back in late March.

Jones was really good on the offensive end of the floor for the Longhorns down the stretch last season, and he continually improved on defense. The defensive proficiency of Jones was always the big hurdle for his game, but he’s smoothed that out over the course of the past season and a half.

How he’s able to hold up on the defensive end of the floor as a potential undersized three could be interesting in the new Beard scheme. But Jones definitely has the quickness and athleticism to take care of business defending on the perimeter and wing. It’s just the length and off-ball awareness that will be called into question heading into next season.

Jones was the Longhorns scoring leader last season, and he showed more efficiency in his offensive game than ever before over a complete regular season slate. He averaged 14.6 points per game, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.1 blocks. And Jones shot 40.4 percent from the field, 33.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 77.5 percent from the free-throw line.

Dylan Disu, PF

Among the most exciting additions for the Longhorns by way of the recruiting trail or out of the transfer portal so far this offseason is the former Vanderbilt Commodores sophomore power forward and four-star recruit Dylan Disu.

The way that Disu elevated his game last season for the Commodores in a greater role with the team was truly impressive. He nearly doubled each of his per-game stats, and his shooting stats and advanced metrics greatly progressed too.

In 17 games played with the Commodores last season, Disu averaged a career-best 15.0 points per game (also second-best on the team), a team and career-high 9.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.2 blocks. And he shot 49.2 percent from the field, 36.9 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.6 percent from the free-throw line.

It looked like the Longhorns found their next starting power forward to replace the likes of the departed sophomore breakthrough star Kai Jones and freshman former five-star recruit Greg Brown right away. Disu can’t replace parts of what Jones and Brown provided for this team. But he’ll be a stable force for this frontcourt and make key contributions right out of the gates.

Tre Mitchell, C

The lone player on this list that I’ve projected to be in the starting five in this way-too-early prediction for next season is the former UMass Minutemen star transfer sophomore center Tre Mitchell. There’s not much better at this point in time that Beard and the Longhorns could do in terms of adding a center out of the transfer portal than with the 6-foot-9 and 240 pound Mitchell.

Texas was named in the top six finalist schools for Mitchell out of the transfer portal this offseason. The other five schools to watch are the Georgia Bulldogs, Bryant Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Florida State Seminoles, and Illinois Fighting Illini. If Texas can pitch a clear path for a big role and a spot in the starting unit right away to Mitchell, that might be enough to lure him to the Forty Acres when it’s all said and done.

Thinking about what the Longhorns could do with a starting frontcourt unit of Disu and Mitchell would be truly cumbersome for the rest of the Big 12. That would put them among the most potent frontcourt units in the entire country if these two transfers were to both land in and pan out well together in Austin (which would be a strong likelihood).

The two-time All-Atlantic 10 Conference Team selection and 2019-20 A-10 Newcomer of the Year is one of the best remaining available players in the transfer portal at this point of the offseason. Texas needs to put their best foot forward to see if they can get him to Austin.

Especially if Texas winds up losing senior center Jericho Sims to the NBA, they need to find depth to replace him at this spot in the rotation.