Tag: Texas Longhorns mens basketball

What Texas head coach Shaka Smart said after the Iowa State win

The Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team was able to hold off Iowa State on Tuesday, Shaka Smart addressed the media after the game.

On Tuesday night the Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team was back on the court for another Big 12 matchup with Iowa State. This coming off the heels of the biggest win in recent memory for the Horns and head coach Shaka Smart.

This could have been a ‘trap game’ for the Longhorns after beating Kansas on the road, and before the team heads to Morgantown to face the No. 14 West Virginia Mountaineers in another huge Big 12 showdown. Smart met with the media following the game to discuss the effort from his guys in this hard-fought matchup with the Cyclones.

“It was a really weird feeling in there with no fans”, Smart stated as he opened the press conference. “I really felt we missed Kamaka [Hepa] and Royce [Hamm] as well. Just their spirit that both bring to our team both on the court and on the bench.”

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After a slow start to this game, Smart felt that the team did a good job of settling in. He spoke about building the lead at halftime which was key due to the fact that they didn’t defend as well coming out of the break. You can hear the full press conference from Shaka Smart following the game with the video provided.

https://youtu.be/pR3ts6eI-GA

Texas Basketball Recruiting: Longhorns sign their first recruit of 2021 class

The Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team inked the first recruit of the 2021 class. Power forward Keeyan Iterjere signed his LOI Wednesday.

The early signing period has now arrived with the first signing for Shaka Smart and the Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team. The team announced the signing of Keeyan Itejere of Grace Christian School in Raleigh, North Carolina. The 6’9″ power forward becomes the first signing of the class after the Longhorns only signed one player in 2020 class with five-star power forward Greg Brown.

Itejere is the No. 11 ranked player in the state according to 247Sports rankings. He likely will eventually fill the void on next year’s team after Brown leaves for the NBA. Brown had an opportunity to head to the NBA’s developmental league but chose to stay home in Austin to play for Texas.

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Iterjere earned the nickname “Slinky” due to the fact that his tall and skinny. He could probably use a little more weight on him. Especially if Iterjere is going to be playing the four in the Big 12 where it can be a bit physical. The 2021 class has three more commits who have yet to sign their Letter of Intent, but Longhorns will keep you updated as the signings roll in.

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