The Least Substantive Recruiting Article Ever, 2020 Edition

The roster construction is being handled in other pieces, this is going to be just about recruiting and thus fairly short because lolllllll I am not the guy for this. As per my yearly reminder, if you want to keep up with recruiting follow guys like Dustin McComas, Kevin Flaherty, & Jeff Goodman. They keep better tabs on this stuff than me. God bless them for it, because I do not have the mental or emotional bandwidth to keep up with this beyond the random things I absorb through the osmosis of being in the general orbit of college basketball. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite things about players committing is that I get to unfollow all of the ones who don’t pick Texas. There was one player who kept retweeting what I can only describe as the Twitter equivalent of chain email, where if you “didn’t retweet this in 7 days you would <insert random injury here>” with a photo of said injury. Teenagers are the worst. I mean, uhh, except for the ones who go to Texas. They’re great.

I won’t delve too much into politics here except to say that Tamar “Scoop” Bates seems like he’s very socially conscious. He committed this summer during the George Floyd-inspired protests and has said he’s going to use his NIL earnings to donate to the highly-rated Equal Justice Initiative and specifically mentioned his connection with Shaka Smart and wanting to play for a black head coach. I can imagine a coach like Smart appealed to the young man on multiple levels; I don’t know if this will become a pattern, but I can’t imagine it hurts as at least a secondary selling point behind “look at all these guys I sent to pro basketball”. Bates had offers from Creighton and half the Big 12, so there’s a decent chance he contributes sooner than later.

Projects To: Tej Parker

Opinions vary as to how much Ellis will contribute when he gets to Texas; he has a bit of a stroke and a solid handle, and his long-term potential seems good. His offer list is pretty small, but with the COVID landscape killing the chance for coaches to roll through the various AAU events there’s a marginal gain for staffs willing to dig. Based upon limited film, I suspect in a normal year Ellis would have popped up on the radar of more programs. He’s 6-5, handles the ball reasonably well, and there’s a fluidity to his game that makes me think he might be significantly underrated when things are said and done. Is he a sure-fire contributor as a freshman? No, but again the ability to divine ‘potential’ from ‘actual’ is a skill I am not paid enough to tease out. I can see why Texas offered him though, and he might be better than I realize. He also might be worse than I realize, I think we’re all aware just how little I understand about teenagers. I might as well sign up for Facebook again, I’m basically a Boomer stuck in the body of a younger AND I’M EXPLICITLY ACCENTUATING YOUNGER Gen-X person.

Projects To: Han Seoul-Oh

Max Preps Link because video on this guy is harder to find than positive reviews of the Poltergeist remake.

Itejere is very much the project take, a guy who is likely going to spend most of next year on the bench building strength and getting up to Big 12 speed. He might be the Jericho Sims of this class, though I hesitate to put that on him as Sims was a bit different in his early years. Itejere in interviews seems to understand he has work ahead of him, and maybe he ends up redshirting as the depth chart ahead of him dissipates. There’s a bunch of athletic potential, and with the roster as it stands now Texas should be able to let Itejere come along at his own pace.

Projects To: Rico Santos

Y’all wanted a shooter, well that’s the rep on Joplin coming out of high school. One source said he can “shoot the shit out of it”, which is one of those phrases that sounds better the less you think about it. If he’s going to contribute as a freshman, the word is it’s going to be on offense.

Projects To: Dominic Toretto

Daimion Collins (6-8, Atlanta, TX)

Collins is a 5-star center who was probably ending up at Texas prior to Jai Lucas heading to Kentucky. It’s possible he still ends up at Texas, but at this point I would expect him to ply his trade at Oklahoma or Kentucky. Maybe Texas can make up ground with his lead recruiter elsewhere, but thus far I haven’t heard that’s happening.

UPDATE: You’ll never guess where he ended up.

Yes, it’s Kentucky

KJ Pruitt (6-4, Ashburnham, MA)

Pruitt has offers from a ton of places; Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma State, LSU, TCU, etc. Judging by the roster construction Texas has right now and the incoming commits, I would guess Pruitt is likely to head elsewhere but that’s just a guess.

Chet Holmgren (7-0, Minneapolis, MN)

I do not expect this ultra-unicorn to come to Texas, he has 32 offers and everyone on the planet wants this guy on their squad. I’m mainly mentioning him so you’re aware of his existence before he lights up the NBA in 3-4 years; he’s basically a Mark Few fever dream taken human form, so maybe go watch his highlights and marvel at what he’s been doing since he was 14.

The Grad Transfer Market

The only grad transfer I’m aware of Texas is looking at is Paul Atkinson (6-10, Jr, Yale), a former Co-Player of the Year in the Ivy league. There are undoubtedly others, and they tend to bubble up quickly enough that I’m sure I’m missing some names here.

Texas ‘theoretically’ has four spots open this year, though with potential early entries it could be more. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Texas take 1-2 more players in this class, but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see them stand pat. Have I mentioned I don’t know much about recruiting? Because I don’t. Follow the people I mentioned earlier, they’re better at this than me. Add in people like Eric Bossi & Justin Wells and you’ll probably start to understand the recruiting landscape as well as I do.