After making the final six of Illinois sophomore guard Alan Griffin, Texas has put their name in the running for two more guards. Tyrese Martin out of Rhode Island and Trey Murphy from Rice have recently announced they will be transferring and Shaka Smart has reached out.
Starting with Martin, he will also be entering his junior season after two seasons with the Rams. A decent scorer averaging 12.8 points per game, Martin brings length to the perimeter, standing at 6 feet 6 inches. His seven rebounds a game ranked 12th in the Atlantic-10 last season.
Martin does struggle behind the three-point line though, a huge part of Shaka’s offensive strategy. Shooting 32% from deep last season, Martin’s freshman year was worse, shooting 31%.
Source: Rhode Island transfer Tyrese Martin is receiving interest from the following programs.
Oregon
Georgia
Ole Miss
Texas
Louisville
Xavier
Nebraska
Seton Hall
Creighton
Arizona State— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 26, 2020
Murphy may be a more desirable option for the Longhorns going forward, especially because he is a better shooter. While he dropped off 6% from his freshman year to his sophomore season, Murphy still connected on 36% of his three-pointers, fourth-best in Conference USA.
Scoring just over 13 a game, Murphy is even bigger than Martin, coming in at 6 feet 8 inches. His rebounding isn’t as efficient, grabbing 5.5 per game, but Martin’s scoring is what makes him the more attractive transfer option.
Rice transfer Trey Murphy III has heard from Villanova, Alabama, UConn, Creighton, Arizona State, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Arizona, Texas, Cincinnati, Iowa State, DePaul, Stanford, amongst others, he told @Stockrisers.
20+ programs intrigued. Underrated transfer. 13.5 PPG scorer.
— Jake (@jakeweingarten) March 30, 2020
Between Griffin and now Martin and Murphy, Texas has a solid chance of adding a transfer guard this offseason to bolster the roster. The core three of Coleman, Ramey, and Jones is nice, but Shaka Smarts needs more behind them.
Those three and one of the transfers could even play on the court at the same time if the Longhorns wanted to go small ball. Either way, a transfer this offseason opens up opportunities for how Texas’ offense will look next season.
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