Texas Basketball: 3 biggest positions of need to tackle in the portal
Point guard
An interesting position to watch in the portal this offseason for the Longhorns will be at point guard. Texas is set to lose Carr since he’s running out of eligibility this offseason.
And I don’t know how confident Terry and his staff will be in handing the keys to the offense either to rising junior Tyrese Hunter or sophomore Arterio Morris as the floor general in the starting five. Hunter actually played most of his minutes this season at shooting guard, in more of a role of a combo guard.
Meanwhile, Morris still has to make some necessary strides in terms of the discipline and consistency he’s able to show on both ends of the floor before I’d confidently say he’s ready to be this team’s starting point guard.
And even Morris played the bulk of his minutes at the two during his true freshman campaign.
Texas does have the former highly touted four-star recruit and rising redshirt freshman Rowan Brumbaugh returning for the 2023-24 season. But Brumbaugh is still raw as he took a redshirt year during the 2022-23 campaign.
Last but not least, incoming freshman and the elite five-star Southern California Academy recruit AJ Johnson is more of a true combo guard than he is a floor general. Johnson is probably going to play the role of a secondary ball-handler/playmaker as a two during his true freshman campaign.
We saw how important it was for the Longhorns in the season that was to have a floor general that could efficiently command the offense and distribute the basketball, as Terry had in Carr. The former Pitt and Minnesota transfer had one of the three best assist-to-turnover ratios in the Big 12 among guards in 2022-23.
Texas needs to find the answer at the point guard position this offseason, whether it is someone like Hunter or Morris stepping up at the one or Terry and his staff scouting out the options in the portal.
But it does appear as if Texas has already shown interest in the former blue-chip recruit and North Carolina Tar Heels junior guard Caleb Love. A report from Gerry Hamilton of Inside Texas on March 28 (paid content) notes that Love has also shown interest in Texas since entering the portal last week.
Love is a bucket-getter that scored in the double figures in each of his three years in Chapel Hill. He also can make an impact on the glass while posing a disruptive defensive force on the perimeter thanks to his vertical ability and 6-foot-4 frame.