Depending on who you ask about the first year of the Chris Beard experience, some fans are content while others were left wanting more.
The team had garnered major expectations even with it being Beard’s first season as the head coach due to the fact that he was able to bring a handful of the top transfers available last season. Headlined by the No. 1 overall transfer, Marcus Carr, the Longhorns started the season ranked No. 5 in the country.
At first, the team was easily handling lesser teams, but would struggle against teams with size, like Gonzaga. It also didn’t help that Texas was a very inefficient three-point shooting team, and would often go minutes at a time without scoring as we saw in their tournament loss to Purdue where they went nearly 10 whole minutes without a bucket.
While adding talented transfers that had a ton of individual accolades seemed great at the time, the team took all season to figure out how to play with each other. It also didn’t help that big man Tre Mitchell left the team for what was deemed “personal reasons” by coach Beard and never returned. He was the closest thing to a center that Texas had, and even with him on the court they struggled against bigger players.
Texas’ season came to an end about a week ago, after advancing to the second round for the first time since Rick Barnes was the head coach. Beard is looking to build on that momentum with a fantastic 2022 class consisting of two five-stars and one four-star.
Due to the fact that the class is currently at three people, Beard will likely have to go back to the transfer portal to make up for the expected losses of Andrew Jones, Courtney Ramey, Marcus Carr, Tre Mitchell, Jase Febres, and Timmy Allen. It is worth noting that should they choose, Jones, Ramey, Carr, and Allen have a chance to return to use their extra COVID year.
However, according to 247Sports, it is unlikely that they will all choose to do so. As of now, only two players in Brock Cunningham and Christian Bishop have announced that they will take advantage of the extra year and return for next season.
Along with the two known returners, this leaves the roster with forward Dylan Disu who was recovering from surgery and was never really as available as many had hoped, and offensively deficient guard Devin Askew. The team will also rely on five-star forward Dillon Mitchell and five-star guard Arterio Morris.
This likely means Beard and Texas will have to go back to the portal to help fill out the roster, and now that he knows the players strengths and weaknesses, the Longhorns should be able to build accordingly.
Here are a few players that Texas should pursue for the next season.