Texas Basketball: Terry visits USC transfer target Reese Dixon-Waters

Texas basketball and new full-time head coach Rodney Terry have a busy schedule at the moment dealing with the turbulence surrounding the NCAA Transfer Portal. Texas lost its first player to the transfer portal of the 2023 offseason early this weekend, with the news emerging on April 7 that freshman guard and former blue-chip recruit Rowan Brumbaugh plans to enter the portal.

Terry and the Longhorns have also stayed busy scouting out potential portal pickups early this offseason. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard about a multitude of portal targets for the Longhorns that Terry and his staff have made contact with.

The portal target for Terry and the Longhorns that we’ve heard the most about this spring is the reigning PAC-12 Sixth Man of the year and former USC Trojans junior shooting guard Reese Dixon-Waters. We talked on the site last week about Texas making contact with Dixon-Waters.

And it looks like Terry didn’t waste much time getting out to see Dixon-Waters on a coach visit this week. Gerry Hamilton of Inside Texas tweeted a picture of Terry visiting Dixon-Waters and his family in southern California on the night of April 6.

A report from Inside Texas’ Hamilton on April 9 (paid content) mentions the visit that Terry and assistant coach Brandon Chappell took to California a few days ago to see Dixon-Waters and his family. It sounds like this visit was a rousing success for Terry and the Longhorns from what we’ve heard in the last few days since the trip concluded.

Rodney Terry visits top Texas basketball transfer target Reese Dixon-Waters

Dixon-Waters is reportedly expected to make an official visit to Austin in the near future, although we don’t have a specific date for the trip as of the writing of this article on the morning of April 9.

Texas’ biggest competition in the recruitment of Dixon-Waters out of the portal this offseason is reportedly the reigning National Champion runner-up San Diego State Aztecs and the UCLA Bruins. Texas is the program that Dixon-Waters is considering that is clearly the furthest from home.

If leaving home isn’t a huge factor in Dixon-Waters’ decision out of the portal this offseason, Texas should have a leg up in this recruitment.

Texas looks to be targeting Dixon-Waters as either a sixth-man that could fill a similar role to what senior shooting guard/wing Sir’Jabari Rice did coming off the bench as a valuable offensive spark during the 2022-23 season, or as a starter at the two or the three.

What Dixon-Waters could bring to Texas

Dixon-Waters could provide Texas with some length and experience in the backcourt unit. At 6-foot-5 and 210-pounds, Dixon-Waters could play at the two or the three for the Longhorns.

The three-year USC shooting guard is an adept scorer, as he averaged a career-best 9.8 points per game with the Trojans last season. He’s also a decent rebounder as he’s got good length and vertical ability. Dixon-Waters averaged more than three rebounds per game for the first time in his collegiate career last season.

There isn’t much of an outside shooting game that Dixon-Waters brings to the table, but he is a potent scorer from the mid-range and in the paint. He averaged six points per game in the paint and at the basket last season at USC, shooting well over 50 percent on attempts within eight feet of the rim.

But the most impressive part of Dixon-Waters’ shooting efficiency from two-point range last season was how well he shot the ball from the mid-range. Dixon-Waters ranked in the 89th percentile among Division I shooting guards last season, shooting 48.4 on mid-range field goal attempts.

All in all, it looks like Dixon-Waters could be a nice fit to help replace some of the departing guards for the Longhorns this offseason. Terry and the Longhorns are set to lose Rice, Brumbaugh, senior guard Marcus Carr, and potentially sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter.

Texas finished up the 2022-23 season with a record of 29-9 (12-6 Big 12) following an Elite Eight loss to the five-seed Miami Hurricanes. Terry led Texas to its first Big 12 Men’s Tournament crown since 2021 and its deepest NCAA Tournament run in more than a decade during the 2022-23 campaign.