Should Texas basketball pursue Saint Peter’s transfer G Doug Edert?

The NCAA Transfer Portal is already starting to heat up in a big way for head coach Chris Beard and the Texas basketball program this offseason. Texas just finished up the 2021-22 season, also the first for Beard with this men’s hoops program, following a Round of 32 loss at the hands of the three-seed Purdue Boilermakers in the Round of 32.

Yet, Texas was able to advance past the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament this season for the first time since 2014. That is still marked progress for Beard and the Longhorns heading into his first full offseason on the Forty Acres.

Moreover, with the transfer portal commanding so many headlines for Beard and the Longhorns last offseason, expect the same to be true in the weeks and months ahead. And one of the potential names to watch early on this offseason around the college hoops landscape in the portal is one of the true breakout names of the NCAA Tournament.

Former Saint Peter’s Peacocks point guard and NCAA Tournament darling Doug Edert promptly put his name in the transfer portal following the National Championship Game earlier this week. Edert officially put his name in the transfer portal back on April 5, which was some pretty big news around college basketball.

Does it make any sense for Texas basketball to pursue Saint Peter’s transfer G Doug Edert in the portal?

The question remains for a team like the Longhorns, though, does it make sense to pursue Edert in the portal this offseason?

There are two big factors that can help answer this question as to whether it makes any sort of sense for the Longhorns to pursue Edert’s services out of the portal.

The first has to do with the backcourt depth that the Longhorns could lose/have already lost this offseason from the 2021-22 roster. And the second is the scoring/shooting woes that Beard and the Longhorns would undergo at key times of the postseason this year.

To hit on this initial point, Texas has already lost a few key players presumably from this season’s squad. Texas is likely going to lose guards such as senior Courtney Ramey, redshirt senior Andrew Jones, and senior Marcus Carr.

But Texas will be able to replace the departing depth with key incoming recruits such as the five-star point guard Arterio Morris and four-star guard Rowan Brumbaugh. For that reason, I don’t believe that pursuing Edert really checks a lot of the boxes for the Longhorns this offseason.

Yet, the second factor I mentioned here could be a driving force for Texas to pursue Edert out of the portal. Texas had some stretches during the postseason (i.e. the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament) where they went completely dry in terms of scoring/shooting spark.

For instance, Texas went multiple stretches of more than five minutes without knocking down a single field goal in their Round of 32 loss to Purdue.

Adding a solid shooter and a spark scorer that really showed out in the NCAA Tournament this year such as Edert might be able to help Texas get over the postseason hump in this regard next season. Edert was a postseason stud this year, highlighted by his 20-point performance in Saint Peter’s unlikely Round of 64 upset win over the two-seed Kentucky Wildcats.

But Edert showed more than just a couple of postseason scoring sparks this season. He’s a legit and lethal sharpshooter that hit his looks from beyond the arc at a clip of around 42 percent and form the free-throw line at a clip of around 89 percent in the season that was.

And it wasn’t just that Edert shot the ball from the charity stripe at an effective clip, he was able to draw contact at a high rate too.

Edert was also able to get to the free-throw line often, boasting a free-throw attempt rate this season around .438 (a career-high for him).

Meanwhile, Texas ranked outside of the top 230 teams in the country this season in terms of three-point shooting percentage (at a clip of just 33 percent). Texas also only had one guard this season that boasted a better free-throw attempt rate than Edert, which was the former Texas Tech shooting guard transfer Avery Benson.

In this regard, it’s easy to see why Edert could bring some value to the table for the Longhorns. Purely in terms of the postseason spark and efficient shooting ability he can bring right away to the Forty Acres, adding Edert to the roster could make some sense for Beard and his staff ahead of next season.

All in all, the question of whether Texas should legitimately pursue Edert out of the portal this offseason boils down to how many roster spots could be left in the backcourt unit. You figure that the likes of Ramey and Carr will be replaced by the incoming freshmen Morris and Brumbaugh.

But any further losses for the Longhorns (i.e. Jones and any potential transfers) could mean open roster space that makes room for Texas to pursue Edert. This does seem like a longshot, but Beard was active in the portal last offseason pursuing some impact players to change the culture in this program right away.

It seems like that is the type of presence that Edert can bring for Texas hoops from the time he would hypothetically arrive on campus.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 22-12 (10-8 Big 12) following their Round of 32 loss to the Boilermakers. But the Round of 64 win over the 11-seed Virginia Tech Hokies did see the Longhorns break their four-game losing streak in the NCAA Tournament dating back to 2014.