Texas basketball likely to whiff on 5-Star CG Cason Wallace

There was once a ton of hope for the 2022 Texas basketball recruiting class, which has largely faded in the last few months. New head coach Chris Beard had a really busy offseason both on the recruiting trail and in the NCAA Transfer Portal. But Texas is likely to only see the fruits of that labor from the work done in the transfer portal.

Beard and the Longhorns have struck out with most of its top targets for the 2022 class. And at this point it looks like the Longhorns staff has mostly turned the attention to evaluating some top early targets in the 2023 class.

One of the top targets that Beard and the Longhorns went after in the 2022 class this summer was the elite five-star Richardson combo guard Cason Wallace. Texas even hosted Wallace for an official visit back on Sep. 4.

Texas will likely be the last official visit that Wallace takes prior to his decision date. Wallace set his commitment date for Nov. 7 and it looks like there is an emerging frontrunner at this point to land him.

All of the latest expert 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions for Wallace project his commitment to land with head coach John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats over the rest of the field.

Texas basketball really falling behind Kentucky with 5-Star CG Cason Wallace

Kentucky has put in a huge effort on the recruiting trail in the last few months. The Wildcats hosted Wallace on an official visit back on Aug. 26. Wallace subsequently included Texas and Kentucky among his top four finalist schools in an announcement back on Sep. 1.

The other two finalist schools that Wallace had in his top four earlier this month were the UTSA Roadrunners and Tennessee Volunteers.

Moreover, the recruiting effort that will likely lead to Kentucky landing Wallace’s commitment in early November came courtesy of former Texas assistant coach Jai Lucas. As the primary recruiter going after Wallace, Lucas did great work to establish Kentucky as the apparent frontrunner at this point of his recruitment.

Texas and Tennessee are technically still alive in the race to land the commitment of Wallace. Tennessee hosted Wallace for a visit on Sep. 17. But it’s going to be really challenging for either program to make up this much ground against a blue blood in Kentucky in such a short span of time.

It is good that Beard and the Longhorns got at least one of their top guard targets committed in the 2022 class this offseason. Five-star Kimball (TX) point guard Arterio Morrs did commit to Texas back on July 17.