Texas Basketball: Analyzing 3 difference-makers that are off to hot starts

Dylan Disu, PF/C

Another returning upperclassman for the Longhorns that is taking his game to a new level out of the gates this season is the 6-foot-9 and 220-pound senior big man Dylan Disu.

We’ve started to see the difference that a healthy Disu makes for this starting frontcourt. He looks to finally be healthy in that knee that ended his season prematurely a couple of years again when he was still playing for the Vanderbilt Commodores.

And for much of last season, it looked like that knee was still bothering him after surgery the prior offseason.

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But there aren’t many limitations that Disu is facing on either end of the floor so far this season from what we can see. Disu is protecting the rim again at a really high level, posting a career-best block percentage of 9.7.

Rim protection is something that Beard and the Longhorns were in dire need of coming into this season. This is a huge emergence for Disu to be so effective at the rim on defense.

Disu is also helping Texas draw turnovers and he’s boxing out effectively to let the guards gather the boards. He’s back up to averaging just shy of one steal per game. And while his total rebounding percentage is down year-over-year, that number can be a bit deceiving since his role has shifted in this regard.

Since Disu is playing most of his minutes at the five, Texas is wanting him to box out the bigger centers that this team is facing to allow the athletic wings and forwards to clean up the boards (i.e. Dillon Mitchell and Sir’Jabari Rice).

One of the major shifts in Disu’s game, though, is the number of shots he’s getting at the rim. According to Barttorvik, Disu is taking a career-high 56 percent of his field goal attempts at the rim. That has led to Disu posting a career-best 67.6 field goal percentage since he is getting so many easy shots around the rim.

But that hasn’t taken away from the efficiency in his mid-range game. Disu is still making his mid-range field goal attempts at a clip north of 57 percent.

Disu is proving to be a real force to be reckoned with within the arc on both ends of the floor, which is a pretty big adjustment to his game. He’s shined through the first half-dozen games of the season, which shows in his career-high 8.1 box plus/minus.