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Five Big 12 teams landed within the Top 25 of the Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll this week.
Chris Beard’s squad is coming off wins over Stanford and Alabama State over the last week. Continue reading “Texas drops one spot in latest Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll”
Chris Beard and Vic Schaefer have their squad’s in the Top 25.
Basketball at the University of Texas is headed in the right direction under men’s coach Chris Beard and women’s coach Vic Schaefer.
Texas is one of only 11 schools that are ranked inside the Top 25 in both men’s and women’s basketball.
RT if your school is ranked in both men's and women's basketball! 🙌🔥 pic.twitter.com/C8RAzUrjZn
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) October 19, 2021
Chris Beard has his team 9-2 and ranked No. 17 in the nation in his first season as the Longhorns head coach. Beard was able to give the program a shot in the arm over the offseason with the acquisition of many high profile transfers.
On the women’s side, Vic Schaefer has been nothing short of phenomenal in his second season in Austin. After revamping a roster that reached the Elite Eight a season ago, Schaefer’s squad has the look of a national championship contender yet again. Texas is 9-1 with notable wins over Stanford and Texas A&M.
The excitement around the basketball programs on the 40 acres is extremely high.
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Freshman Jaylon Tyson to transfer after just eight games.
The lone high school signee of Chris Beard’s first class as the head coach of Texas has decided to enter his name into the transfer portal.
Jaylon Tyson, the former four-star forward out of Plano, Texas, decided to enter his name into the transfer portal on Monday according to reports by Horns247.
Source confirms to @Horns247 that @TexasMBB F Jaylon Tyson is in the NCAA transfer portal. Former @247Sports Composite four-star recruit (No. 36 overall in 2021) averaged 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds per game in 8 games for the #Longhorns #HookEm
— Jeff Howe (@JeffHowe247) December 27, 2021
The freshman had a hard time cracking the lineup that is loaded with experienced transfers, as he has played in a team low eight games, and only played about seven minutes per game. His low volume of minutes and opportunities led to him averaging just 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.
At one point in the offseason, Beard expressed a belief that Tyson would be able to be an immediate contributor, but the freshman was never really apart of the rotation, and the emergence of Dylan Disu who was recovering from an injury for the first eight games had only bumped him further out of the rotation.
Before committing to Texas, Tyson had received interest from schools such as Oklahoma, TCU, Xavier, and Houston.
Texas comes in at No. 17 in the updated AP Top 25.
Texas (9-2) has held fairly steady in the AP Poll’s Top 25 rankings over the past couple of weeks. The Horns are now ranked No. 17 in the nation after victories over Stanford and Alabama State.
The Longhorns have yet to play up to their preseason expectations but remain in a good position nationally with Big 12 conference play approaching.
The Big 12 is once again one of the top conferences in college basketball with five teams ranked and two more inside the top 30.
Here is the full updated AP Top 25 Poll:
Up next for Texas is a matchup with Incarnate Word on Tuesday before West Virginia comes to town to start the new year on Saturday.
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Dylan Disu with the SportsCenter Top-10!
While struggling to get any offense going early in Texas’ matchup against Alabama State, Texas forward Dylan Disu took it upon himself to get the Horns back into the game.
Disu took a Marcus Carr pass and charged in from beyond the arc to throw down a dunk over two Alabama State defenders, igniting the energy on Longhorns bench.
DYLAN DISU CAUGHT BODIES 🔥 🔥🔥#SCTop10
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) December 22, 2021
Disu is playing just his third game of the season after recovering from a knee injury he suffered at Vanderbilt a season ago. The forward averaged 15 points and 9.8 rebounds per game last year in the SEC.
Chris Beard believes Disu is a future NBA player who can help Texas break out of their offensive struggles.
Disu currently leads the Texas team with eight points as they try to erase an early deficit.
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No. 17 Texas charges past Stanford behind big days from Jones and Allen.
It is better to win ugly than to lose pretty and that is exactly what Texas did on Sunday against the Stanford Cardinal.
For the first 17 minutes of the game, the Longhorns and Cardinal showed very little separation. Texas then put their foot on the gas to close out the half up 34-27.
The Horns kept that momentum and came out of halftime firing. Texas took advantage of a few turnovers to go on a 13-0 run, taking a commanding lead into the 10-minute mark.
Stanford clawed back into the game as Texas went on a six-minute scoring drought.
Texas held on to win 60-53 despite the late surge from Stanford.
The story of the game was the turnovers. Texas played aggressively on defense and it showed as they forced 22 Standford turnovers. While the Texas guards did not light it up in the box score, they did a good job of playing clean basketball and limiting turnovers of their own.
Key stats:
W.#HookEm pic.twitter.com/qZRuZFNNJV
— #17 Texas Men’s Basketball (@TexasMBB) December 19, 2021
Texas will have two more games before entering Big 12 conference play against West Virginia on New Years Day.
Very encouraging injury news for Texas basketball.
No. 17 Texas was as active as anyone in the transfer portal during Chris Beard’s first offseason as the head coach.
One of the seven transfers that the Longhorns brought in was former Vanderbilt forward Dylan Disu.
Disu has missed the first eight games of the season up to this point while nursing a knee injury he suffered in February of last year.
The Longhorns and Disu received good news on Tuesday as the forward has been medically cleared to return to play ahead of Texas’ matchup with Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Texas' Dylan Disu (knee) has been medically cleared to play in tonight's game against Arkansas Pine-Bluff, per release. Transfer from Vanderbilt. Averaged 15 PPG and 9.2 RPG last season.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) December 14, 2021
Disu could provide a spark to Chris Beard’s squad before conference play. Last season at Vanderbilt, he averaged 15 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in his 17 starts before the injury.
Expect Beard to keep Disu on a minutes restriction as Texas eases him into the frontcourt rotation alongside Timmy Allen, Tre Mitchell and Christian Bishop.
Texas will look to bounce back on Tuesday night against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Longhorn Network.
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Chris Beard is finding creative ways to increase student engagement.
When Chris Beard took the Texas job during the offseason, one of his main priorities was to improve the home-court advantage. His goal was to start by finding ways to engage both him and the team with the student body, who has been lacking interest for some time now.
On Monday night against Sam Houston, the Horns played in front of the first “student only” crowd in program history. Beard started the night by hosting a “party at the tower” with free music, food and photo ops before the game.
The first-year head coach personally walked the students from the tower to Gregory Gym. Over 3,000 students packed the building creating an amazing atmosphere for a college basketball game.
Chris Beard leading students from the tower to Gregory Gym. He’s shaking hands with a student just behind the two in burnt Orange on the sidewalk. pic.twitter.com/W6TIPQKCtG
— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) November 29, 2021
On Wednesday, the Texas Men’s Basketball Twitter account began to have some fun with a specific fan wearing a Hawaiian shirt who was sitting behind the goal during Monday’s game.
WANTED: Hawaiian shirt kid
Twitter do your thing and help us find this guy 🤘 pic.twitter.com/gyrBZ3fxuH
— #7 Texas Men’s Basketball (@TexasMBB) December 1, 2021
Through the power of social media, the student was identified and invited to team practice on Wednesday by assistant coach Chris Ogden.
Get to practice today. 2:30pm Erwin Center. Push-ups if you’re late.
— Chris Ogden (@Coach_Oggie) December 1, 2021
The “Hawaiian shirt kid” made it to the Erwin Center where Chris Beard analyzed some of his best reactions with the entire team. Beard thanked him for his support of the program and was treated to a nice standing ovation from the team.
Watch the full film breakdown here:
Hawaiian Shirt Guy film session 😂🤘 pic.twitter.com/yS9LkO4Iih
— #7 Texas Men’s Basketball (@TexasMBB) December 1, 2021
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No. 7 Texas takes down Sam Houston in its first game at Gregory Gym since 1977.
No. 7 Texas played a game at Gregory Gym for the first time since 1977. Over 3,000 students watched the Horns take down Sam Houston 73-57.
Texas guard Marcus Carr finally snapped out of his slump. Carr paced the Longhorns with 19 points, four assists and three rebounds. In his previous three games, Carr only had nine points on 4-14 shooting.
Texas G Marcus Carr after his best game yet in burnt orange: “It's nice to see the ball go in the net. I might have to ask coach to play a couple more games in Gregory.”
— Brian Davis (@BDavisAAS) November 30, 2021
Carr was not the only Texas guard to play well. Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey each had 14 points of their own. The seniors have been a big part of the early success Texas has had thus far.
Timmy Allen had another double-digit scoring night. Allen was effective in getting to the free-throw line where he went 8-10 at the line. He finished with 12 points and a team-high seven assists.
The Longhorns will need better interior play if they want to compete against elite competition. The Bearkats were able to make some plays in the paint vs the Texas defense and even won the rebounding battle 29 to 27.
Notable stats:
Texas will move back over to the Frank Erwin Center on Friday night to take on the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros.
Chris Beard’s squad moves up to No. 7 in the AP Poll Top 25.
First-year head coach Chris Beard has the Longhorns ranked No. 7 in the latest AP Poll’s updated Top 25 rankings.
Texas is 4-1 on the season and coming off of a three-game sweep in the Abe Lemons Classic where the Longhorns took down Northern Colorado, San Jose State and Cal Baptist.
The Horns are now the second-best team in the Big 12 conference behind Baylor (No. 4) but in front of Kansas (No. 8) and Iowa State (No. 19). The Big 12 is the only conference with three teams in the top 10.
Here is the full updated poll:
Texas has regular-season games remaining against five ranked opponents, next up is No. 25 Seton Hall on Dec. 9.
The Horns will be in action on Monday night for a special game. Texas will be playing Sam Houston State at Gregory Gym. The game is for students only and will be the first time Texas has played basketball at Gregory since 1977.
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