Texas Longhorns News: Women’s hoops stalls, a new portal visitor

A big couple of days for the Texas Longhorns in terms of news around the athletic programs continues on Jan. 20. Texas has a lot going on right now with men’s and women’s hoops in the midst of Big 12 play for both teams.

On Jan. 18, Texas women’s hoops had its winning streak ended at two games as it fell to the unranked Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road on Jan. 18 by a close score of 68-64. Despite a big game from redshirt senior guard Sonya Morris, with a team-high 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Morris is on a roll for the Longhorns in the last four games. She’s scored in double figures in each of the last four outings. Morris leads the team in scoring now at a clip of 12 points per game. If Texas wants to get back to its winning ways in Big 12 play, Morris will be one of the catalysts.

Another important piece of Longhorns news this week is that head coach Steve Sarkisian and this staff hosted the former Georgia Bulldogs sophomore wide receiver Adonai Mitchell on a visit to campus. Mitchell was on the Forty Acres on Jan. 19, which came less than 24 hours after his name initially surfaced in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Mitchell is clearly the top target for Sark and the Longhorns in the portal after the window closed for underclassmen to enter the transfer market on Jan. 18.

Other Texas Longhorns news on Jan. 20

https://twitter.com/TexasMBB/status/1616152840103231488

• Senior Texas guard Marcus Carr was named to the midseason watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy on Jan. 19. Carr is having a stellar super senior campaign, highlighted by his career-best 9.1 box plus/minus and 22.7 player efficiency rating.

https://twitter.com/TexasFootball/status/1616114687971840000

• Texas football got winter workouts underway this week with all the players back on campus for the start of the spring semester.

• On Jan. 18, Texas athletic director Chris del Conte announced that the annual Orange-White Spring Football Game will be played at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on April 15. This is a bit earlier than usual with last year’s spring game being held on April 23. And in 2021, it was held on April 24.

https://twitter.com/TexasWTN/status/1616412834836975618

• The regular season opener for Texas women’s tennis is on Jan. 20, as the Longhorns take on the North Texas Mean Green in Austin, beginning at Noon CT.

https://twitter.com/TexasMTN/status/1616443276357210114

• Texas men’s tennis also has its home opener on Jan. 20. The men’s squad is set to take on the UTSA Roadrunners at the Texas Tennis Center in Austin after the women’s team finishes up at 4 p.m. CT.

News around the Big 12

• A piece from Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News on Jan. 19 discusses how the Big Ten delaying further expansion plans out west in PAC-12 country is also limiting what the Big 12 can do in terms of conference expansion at the moment.
• Earlier this week, ESPN’s Chris Harden detailed how the Big 12 is “top to bottom” the best conference in college hoops. The Big 12 reportedly has the highest average net rating of any conference in college basketball, at No. 11.

• The Ole Miss Rebels snagged one of the biggest transfers that is now leaving the Big 12, in the former senior Oklahoma State Cowboys starting quarterback Spencer Sanders.

https://twitter.com/rj2martinez/status/1616118545477140483

• The Baylor Bears continue to load up on the quarterback transfers with the former Northern Arizona Lumberjacks sophomore RJ Martinez. Baylor now has 11 transfer commits in the 2023 class and has the highest average transfer ranking among all the Big 12 schools in the 247Sports Composite.

What we’re interested in around FanSided

• The US Women’s National Team kicked off 2023 on a high note with a 4-0 win in a strong second-half performance against New Zealand this week.
• Denver Broncos veteran quarterback Russell Wilson is apparently trying to recruit the former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton to come to the Mile High City. Wilson had a rough first season in Denver to say the very least. Maybe this will help?

• An interesting piece after the Florida Gators lost the commitment of the elite five-star quarterback Jaden Rashada earlier this month.