Texas Basketball: 2 big Rodney Terry vs. Chris Beard portal battles

A busy offseason in the NCAA Transfer Portal for newly-hired full-time head coach Rodney Terry and the Texas basketball program began a few weeks ago. Texas got right down to work in the transfer portal to try and rebuild a roster that is losing a lot of key pieces from last season’s squad.

Terry and the Longhorns had some of their early efforts in the portal paid off late last weekend by landing a commitment from the former Virginia Cavaliers redshirt junior center Kadin Shedrick. The fourth-year North Carolina native big man gives the Longhorns a starting-caliber big man that can be a cornerstone to help rebuild this roster along with fellow senior big man Dylan Disu.

Yet, Texas still has quite a few outstanding portal priorities that Terry and his staff are pushing for this spring. Texas still has at least half of the remaining scholarship spots on the roster to fill, including what will likely be a couple of spots left in the starting five to fill with portal players.

Texas basketball and Ole Miss battling it out with a couple of key portal targets

It is critical that Texas is able to seal the deal with at least a few of these portal recruitments they’re prioritizing this spring. And there is one competitor that Terry and his staff have to duke it out with to land some of these portal priorities.

Former Texas head coach Chris Beard is competing for some of the same portal targets as Terry and the Longhorns. Now with the Ole Miss Rebels, Beard has already added two blue-chip-rated portal commits so far this offseason (per 247Sports Composite).

Here’s a look at two key portal recruitments that could boil down to a battle between Terry and Beard this spring.