Texas Basketball: 4 early portal targets the Longhorns are in contact with

We’ve arrived at the time of the year when the NCAA Transfer Portal dominates the news cycle around the college hoops landscape, which will also hold true for the Texas basketball program. Texas and new full-time head coach Rodney Terry could be looking at a pretty sizable roster reshaping this offseason, depending on how many players from last season’s squad return for the 2023-24 campaign.

There are a little less than a half-dozen players that Terry and the Longhorns are awaiting decisions from this offseason. And we already saw sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter declare for the 2023 NBA Draft while retaining the possibility of returning to Texas for another year at least.

A few of the other key players the Longhorns are waiting on decisions from are senior big man Dylan Disu, freshman forward Dillon Mitchell, and freshman guard Rowan Brumbaugh.

At the moment, senior forward Brock Cunningham and freshman forward Alex Anamekwe are the only two players we’ve heard that confirmed (either publicly or to Terry and the staff) they are returning to Texas for the 2023-24 season.

That could leave some sizable holes for Terry and his staff to fill on the roster. And the best way to plug those holes immediately ahead of the 2023-24 season will be the transfer portal.

Reese Dixon-Waters and the top Texas basketball portal targets the staff has already contacted

With that in mind, here’s a look at four portal players the Longhorns have already made contact with this offseason.

Reese Dixon-Waters, SG

The name that we’ve heard the most about in terms of Texas’ pursuit in the portal early this offseason is the reigning PAC-12 Sixth Man of the Year and former USC Trojans junior shooting guard Reese Dixon-Waters. The 6-foot-5 and 210-pound third-year shooting guard/wing had a career year for the Trojans in the season that was before entering his name into the transfer portal late last month.

Texas is one of well over a dozen schools that have reached out to Dixon-Waters in the last couple of weeks since he originally entered the portal on March 22. A few other schools that have shown interest in Dixon-Waters in the portal are the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, Mizzou Tigers, and UCLA Bruins, among many others.

We mentioned on the site roughly one week ago that Texas is showing some “real interest” in Dixon-Waters. And from what we’ve heard in the last few days, the interest remains mutual between both parties.

At the moment, I would consider Dixon-Waters one of the top two or three portal targets for the Longhorns. He could fill a need for Texas similar to what Terry and the Longhorns got out of the former New Mexico State Aggies senior shooting guard/wing Sir’Jabari Rice as a critical source of scoring off the bench.