The Texas Longhorns enter a very fascinating season in which certainties are few but potential is high.
The Longhorns are moving into the third year of head coach Shaka Smart’s tenure, knowing what they need to fix but being unsure how quickly a solution will emerge. Texas is armed with one of the elite recruits in the nation, but the team was so horrible last year, falling to the bottom tier of the Big 12 standings, that considerable improvements might not translate into a hugely successful season.
Offseason Changes
The arrival of Mohamed Bamba is what has Texas fans and Smart excited. Texas won a recruiting war with Kentucky for Bamba, which is an indication of Smart’s ability to recruit. Bamba should be a devastating defensive player, an elite shot blocker who will cause opposing offenses to settle for a lot of mid-range jump shots instead of being able to get the ball to the rim. Bamba’s offensive game is less of a certainty, but he should be able to have lot of success playing near the basket and feasting on putback dunks, getting a lot of the shots the Texas guards miss. Bamba offers a presence Texas last had with Myles Turner. The Longhorns were never a dominant team with Turner, but they didn’t have to worry about defense near the rim or in the paint.
Elsewhere on the roster, Jarrett Allen, Kendal Yancy, and other underachieving players are gone. In some ways, Texas might experience addition by subtraction this year. The players on last season’s team did not mesh well, and Smart could find better combinations on the court with a new group, instead of surrounding Bamba with defective parts. That is one of the bigger hopes for the Longhorns this season – that new blood will create a dramatic change, not merely a modest one, in the team’s performance.
Will Succeed If…
Bamba is the real deal. He has so much talent that if it unfolds, he could possibly have a Carmelo Anthony-like effect on college basketball. Melo, as a freshman, played only one year of college ball at Syracuse, but gave Jim Boeheim his only national championship. The ceiling for Bamba is that level of performance, but even if he does 75 percent of that, he will give Texas a satisfying season, with at least one win in the NCAA Tournament if not two.
Won’t Succeed If…
The backcourt can’t protect the ball or shoot the three-point shot better. Last year, Texas died because it lacked a point guard. There was simply no flow, rhyme or reason to the offense. Texas committed lots of turnovers, didn’t move the ball, didn’t create good shot opportunities, and didn’t function well late in close games. Bamba will mask many deficiencies on this team, but the guards have to make enough contributions that defenses will have to respect them. Otherwise, Bamba will always be double-teamed, sometimes triple-teamed, without penalty. Texas’s guards have to make teams pay for devoting so much attention to Bamba. If they don’t, this season won’t get off the ground.
Roster
James Banks
Andrew Jones
Matt Coleman
Jacob Young
Mohamed Bamba
Royce Hamm Jr.
Eric Davis Jr.
Kerwin Roach II
Jase Febres
Jericho Sims
Dylan Osetkowski
Isaiah Hobbs
Joe Schwartz
Ryan McClurg
Elijah Long
Outlook
The Longhorns mostly have an easy non-conference schedule but they will have a couple of important “warmups”. They’ll host the Michigan Wolverines on December 12th and then have a neutral-site affair with the Alabama Crimson Tide. And a visit to VCU might be a tricky spot on December 5th. Other than that, this team will be gearing up for a challenging Big 12 schedule.
The presence of Bamba and the removal of players who didn’t carry their share of the workload should refresh Texas basketball enough to create an NCAA Tournament appearance. Whether this team is complete enough to win a game or two in March Madness is the big point of uncertainty. A fourth- or fifth-place finish in the Big 12 sounds about right.
The 2018 March Madness futures are out. There has been plenty of news to keep up with in the offseason but keep an eye on the betting lines as they move around at Diamond Sportsbook! Get the latest college basketball betting lines right here.
