Texas Basketball: 3 reasons why the Longhorns will make the Final Four
Returning upperclassmen are getting more comfortable in their roles
I can’t say enough about how valuable a healthy Dylan Disu is for the Texas starting unit this season. Disu is proving to be the missing piece for Texas in the frontcourt since last season.
With Disu thriving on the inside, Texas has a legitimate two-way floor spacer at the five.
Disu is also a very capable rim-protector, an underrated rebounder, a gritty on-ball defender, and a very versatile scorer with good court vision.
There’s not much that Disu doesn’t do well when he’s healthy. And he’s putting that on display throughout the first three games of the season.
But it’s not just Disu that’s thriving among the returning upperclassmen for the Longhorns so far this season. Senior big man Christian Bishop is making some valuable contributions early this season in ways that he wasn’t last season.
Bishop is averaging 1.5 blocks per game and three rebounds, all while essentially playing mistake-free basketball in limited touches and minutes on both ends of the floor. It’s also worth noting that Bishop is posting a sky-high 11.1 block percentage to lead the team, along with an impressive 3.9 steal percentage.
Moreover, we have to give some props to senior guard Marcus Carr, who is off to a fantastic start this season while having to make one of the biggest adjustments of any returning player on this team out of the gates. Despite his usage rate dropping and his role as the primary ball-handler being taken away, Carr is still moving the ball around effectively and knocking down his shots at a high rate out of the gates this season.
He’s averaging an impressive 13 points per game, five assists, and two steals through three games.
All in all, this trio of returning players in Disu, Bishop, and Carr are all surpassing expectations out of the gates this season in various ways. The only returning player that I would like to see more out of in the next few games is senior forward Timmy Allen.