Texas Basketball: Evaluating 3 scorching hot players ahead of Big 12 play

Arterio Morris, G

Among the most exciting and surprising emergences in the last couple of games for the Longhorns is that of the former five-star recruit and true freshman guard Arterio Morris.

The improved play of Morris came at a good time too, with Hunter struggling to find his offensive game throughout the last few weeks. For his improved results on the stat sheet, Morris received more minutes off the bench in the last two games, playing 35 minutes combined.

The results speak for themselves in the last two games. Morris’ two highest-scoring games of the season came in the last two outings. And his best individual performance of the campaign thus far came against UL on Dec. 21, where he put up a career-high 25 points on a sparkling 9-of-11 shooting from the field, 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free-throw line.

I don’t think there’s a better stat that illustrates Morris’ magnificent outing against UL than the obscene 32.2 box plus/minus he posted in that game.

Morris is seeing a similar impact on his offensive game from the free-flowing, fast-paced brand of basketball that Texas is playing in the last few weeks. He’s getting more open looks and baskets in transition as Texas has continued to be disruptive with its perimeter defense.

It truly looks like Morris found his role in this offense as an explosive off-ball scorer that can also make things happen as a secondary playmaker in the backcourt. As a secondary or tertiary initiator (depending on the five-man combination on the floor at the time), Morris is finding space and knocking down his looks from the mid-range and deep, all the while avoiding untimely turnovers. He’s turned the ball over just once in the last two games.