Tag: Texas Longhorns

Texas’ Kai Jones selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the 2021 NBA draft

Texas’ Kai Jones is taken off of the board in the first round!

The dreams for a young man out of The Bahamas just came true. Former Texas forward Kai Jones was taken with the 19th pick in the 2021 NBA draft, who the Charlotte Hornets acquired from the New York Knicks for a future first-round pick.

The sophomore had a breakout season that saw his numbers take a tremendous leap in every major statistical category. Jones averaged almost 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block per game. His shooting percentages also increased going from 50% in 2019 to 58% from the field in 2020, and his three point percentage rose from 29% to 38%. Jones came off the bench most of his career, but after Shaka Smart gave Greg Brown III as many chances as possible, Jones earned a starting role. Jones has a great upside, as he only started playing basketball four years ago.

His improved shooting along with his fantastic athleticism is very much valued in the NBA, as even if he does not start right away, which he likely won’t due to still being very raw, he will be able to come off the bench provide a rim running big that can space the floor.

Jones very much needs to get stronger and fill out his lanky frame, as he only weighed in at 218-pounds. He showed flashes of being able to guard around the perimeter, especially in the three matchups against Oklahoma State where he was tasked with guarding number one overall pick Cade Cunningham.

The former Longhorn has also shown the ability to make plays off the dribble, which is a great sign as he can maybe transform into a point-forward, but he does need work on his decision making as sometimes he would try to do too much with the ball and turn it over. Jones averaged 1.4 turnovers a game, but again he is newer to basketball, and utilized correctly will allow him to flourish.

Jones running the floor with LaMelo Ball is a dream for the Hornets. He can help in spacing the floor, and he will have two guards in UConn’s James Bouknight and Ball that will feed him and give him opportunities to score. The Hornets are a team that has depth at the forward position, so Jones will have time to develop.

This is a great fit for him.

Report: SEC Presidents unanimously vote yes for Oklahoma and Texas’ invitation

The SEC presidents voted yes for the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns to be invited to the conference.

In the least shocking vote in college football, the SEC has unanimously voted yes to officially extend an invitation to Oklahoma and Texas. Continue reading “Report: SEC Presidents unanimously vote yes for Oklahoma and Texas’ invitation”

Steve Spurrier on Texas joining SEC: ‘They can’t win the Big 12 anyway’

With the SEC expected to vote on whether to accept Texas and OU into its league Thursday afternoon, Steve Spurrier spoke about the shift.

There aren’t many coaches in college football that understand the SEC better than Florida and South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier. His Florida teams in the late 90s practically ran the conference back then. On Wednesday, Spurrier addressed the possibility of Oklahoma and Texas linking up with the SEC. He said he understood why the Longhorns made the leap.

“They get to play Texas A&M again,” he said, according to Sports Illustrated. “They get to, they can’t win the Big 12 anyway. I think they’ve only won in the last 30 years or so. So I can see Texas jumping over — more money, playing A&M, this, that and the other.”

[exco_embed id=”e5869bc6-faf6-4b7a-8c06-b5610c96a8fe”]

Spurrier was slightly off about how many times Texas has won the Big 12. It won the first Big 12 conference championship game in 1996 and took home the title in 2005 and 2009. But the Longhorns have struggled recently.

He also spoke about the Sooners potentially leaving for the SEC, too.

“They are the champion of the Big 12. I mean, they win it almost every year. They’ve won what 4, 5 in a row, something like that,” Spurrier said. “I just don’t think they are going to come over to the SEC and win with any regularity the way they win the Big 12. Their fans, they may say, ‘Yeah, now we can beat Alabama and LSU and all these dudes.’ It may not happen like that.”

It’s likely for the first couple years in the SEC if accepted that the two programs will have to adjust the way they recruit because the conference is a line of scrimmage league.

However, Spurrier understood these shifts were all about the money. He added that he feels for the other Big 12 schools because they need Texas and Oklahoma.

The SEC is expected to vote on whether to accept the Longhorns and the Sooners Thursday afternoon.

[lawrence-related id=47792,47790,47782,47762,47760]

Five Texas targets, commits that could benefit by enrolling early

With the report that Quinn Ewers is looking to forgo his senior season, here are five Texas prospects that could benefit from a similar move.

College football may be right in the thick of the craziest month in the history of the sport.

With players now being able to profit off their NIL, the rapid news of a major conference realignment, and now current Ohio State commit Quinn Ewers potentially enrolling early to benefit off of NIL has sent shockwaves through the college football landscape.

Ewers is not the first person to do this as people reclassify all the time, for example, J.T. Daniels skipped his senior year at Mater Dei to enroll early at USC.

However, the reason for Daniels and Ewers wanting to enroll early is quite different. Daniels as a person is a lot different than most, especially his maturity level. The Athletic stated how Daniels was extremely mature for his age as result of reading sports psychology and human biology books that had very dense topics for a high schooler. It was a good indication that Daniels was ready for new challenges mentally and athletically.

On the flip side, Ewers very well could be just as ready from a maturity  standpoint, but there are reports that NIL is a very major factor into his decision to forgo his senior season at Southlake Carrol.

Yahoo Sports stated that Ewers’ situation was delved into, and there is reportedly a kings ransom available for the bleach blonde mullet sporting quarterback if he leaves high school. In the state of Texas, high school athletes are not allowed to profit off their NIL. The article explained just how much money is within Ewers’ reach if he enrolls in college:

Ewers has emerged as such a precocious and recognizable star that he has the potential to earn nearly a million dollars in the next year by profiting off his Name Image and Likeness. A local company called Holy Kombucha is among those offering a deal to Ewers, and it includes cash and equity in the company. There are several other offers, including national brands.

His parents are worried about him missing out on his senior year, and the repercussions this type of decision could have. Although numerous players have reclassified before, none of them had the following or the legitimate potential to be a millionaire before even practicing with his college team. The article did include Ewers’ current mindset, which is:

“I don’t really know, I don’t have a final decision made quite yet,” Ewers said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I’m leaning toward leaving and going up to Ohio, just so I don’t have to deal with UIL stuff and can get comfortable with Ohio and Columbus and start to learn.”

Whether Ewers decides to skip high school or not, it sparks the topic of which Texas recruits could benefit by enrolling early, both to make an immediate impact for the team as well as cash in on NIL.

Here are five Texas targets and commits who I feel could benefit by reclassifying from their respective class.

Swinney a step ahead on conference realignment

Last week Dabo Swinney shifted gears from talking about the 12-team playoff to discussing potential changes to the structure of college athletics. “I think the bigger question is where is college football going from a structural standpoint?,” …

Last week Dabo Swinney shifted gears from talking about the 12-team playoff to discussing potential changes to the structure of college athletics.

“I think the bigger question is where is college football going from a structural standpoint?,” Swinney asked at the Clemson Football Media Outing. “If it’s a 40-team league but with 130 teams and one trophy it’s not like basketball where you bring in a couple of guys and all the sudden you make a run at it.”

He went on to suggest college football could operate like the Premier League in soccer with a smaller pool of elite teams competing for a title.

The comments seemed odd last Tuesday but as details emerged about the plan for Texas and Oklahoma to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC, Swinney’s questions about the structure of the sport seem much more realistic.

On Tuesday night at the annual Fisher DeBerry Coaches for Charity event Swinney dove deeper into the future of college football with conference realignment.

“I think the first dominoes are falling and ultimately the more expansion you have the more you are going to have super conferences somewhere down the road,” Swinney said in audio obtained by The Clemson Insider. “I don’t know when it is probably five years or 10 years there probably will be some kind of 40, 50, 60 team league that has their own commissioner or whatever with a 12 or 16 team playoff.”

At the beginning of the interview South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer joked that any questions about the College Football Playoff and conference realignment go to Swinney.

The Clemson head coach did not shy away from the questions but again emphasized that his focus remains on the Tigers’ opener against Georgia and that he will play in whatever structure shakes out at the top.

“I don’t know ultimately where it’s going and right now, we’re all about getting ready for Georgia,” Swinney said. “It is what it is and, in our roles, we don’t really have any input in that our job is to get our teams ready and play by whatever rules they give us.”

The SEC announced it received formal requests from Texas and Oklahoma to join the conference at the start of the 2025-26 academic year.

Clemson Variety & Frame is doing their part to help bring you some classic new barware and help one of the local businesses that helps make Clemson special.

Order your Nick’s barware and do yo

Bleacher Report has three Longhorns taken in final NBA mock draft

Bleacher Report’s final NBA mock draft of the year.

On July 29, the lives of 60 basketball players from across the world will change forever.

The 2021 NBA draft will begin on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. CST on ESPN. The Texas Longhorns have four prospects that are hopeful to hear their name called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

The draft process has gone differently for each of Texas’ draft prospects, as Kai Jones has consistently been viewed as a lottery pick, whereas Greg Brown III has seen his stock fall.

On the other hand, Jericho Sims likely had the best pre-draft process of any player in the class. He was once viewed as a player who should head back to Austin, but his performance at the combine and workouts has caused him to skyrocket up draft boards. Matt Coleman III has also garnered interest from teams for a potential summer league roster spot.

Bleacher Report released their final mock draft of the year, and it has three of the four Texas prospects being selected. Let’s see where the experts think the trio of Longhorns will land.

Former Alabama player reacts to Oklahoma’s SEC interest

Former Alabama Crimson Tide and current Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs provided his thoughts on the Oklahoma Sooners’ SEC interest

Everyone in the sports world has been talking about college football realignment in the last several days. Ever since the report came out from the Houston Chronicle, the sports world has been captivated by what’s going to happen with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns.

Even after a meeting with the Big 12, the schools made their intentions official when they announced yesterday that they would not be renewing their grant of rights agreement with the Big 12 when they expire in 2025.

Even at Dallas Cowboys training camp, the subject came up as The Athletic’s Jon Machota was talking with former Alabama Crimson Tide Cornerback Trevon Diggs.

The Oklahoma Sooners have won six straight Big 12 Championships. They’re the favorite to win a seventh straight. As Diggs says, they’ve been rolling through the Big 12. At some point, a new challenge is needed. And by all accounts, the Southeastern Conference is where they’ll find it.

Trevon Diggs is no stranger to Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, facing the Sooners in the 2018 Orange Bowl, a matchup the Crimson Tide won.

Based on our projections of how the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns would stack up in a newly realigned SEC, Diggs has it pegged pretty accurately.

The SEC has dominated the national championship landscape. Since Texas won the Big 12’s last national championship in 2005, the SEC has won 11 of the last 15 national championships spanning the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff.

Though the Big 12 has been a strong conference during its time, it lost a bit of luster after the last round of realignment. The losses of Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Colorado hurt the conference though those schools have had mixed results since leaving. The reality is the Big 12 lost some of its brand power and depth with that last realignment.

The SEC presidents will meet this Thursday and it’s expected they’ll vote on adding Oklahoma and Texas to their membership. Universities hoping for admission require 11 of the 14 schools to vote “yes.”

After months of leg work out in by Oklahoma, Texas, and the SEC, it seems inevitable that the two Big 12 schools will be headed that direction.

Though there’s no telling at the moment exactly win a move to the SEC could occur, there’s some speculation it could come as early as 2022. Whenever it comes, new matchups and new rivalries are on the horizon for the Sooners.

Report: How soon could we see Oklahoma and Texas in the SEC?

One SEC source believes that Oklahoma and Texas will join in 2022.

With the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns sending out their joint statement, the question now becomes a matter of when they could join the SEC.

Well, the first obstacle has been cleared, the two rival schools have declared their intentions to the Big 12 Conference. That is just the first of many still standing in the way of both members of the Red River Rivalry. The next obstacle is an actual invitation from the SEC. While no word has been made on when the conference is set to meet. According to conference bylaws, a vote of 11 members saying yes is needed for the invitation.

According to Matt Hayes of Saturday Down South and Stadium, the expectation would be for Oklahoma and Texas to join in time for the 2022 college football season.

That seems more in line with the timing of the statement from both schools. In a recent interview with former Alabama player George Teague, he stated the same. His opinion is this move doesn’t wait three years if the teams are already making their declaration to leave.

“I don’t think they would even start talking about this move unless it was a year out.” –Teague to Sooners Wire

If the source to Hayes is indeed correct, Oklahoma and Texas would be set to join the SEC for 2022. Likely setting up return battles against their former conference rivals, Texas A&M.

[lawrence-related id=33822]

With so many moving parts to this story, it is still a wait-and-see approach. Right now it is your move commissioner Greg Sankey.

[listicle id=33916]

Texas takes first official step in changing conferences, sends letter to Big 12

Game on! The first official step was taken to back up the claims that Texas and Oklahoma will leave the Big 12 to join the SEC.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Continue reading “Texas takes first official step in changing conferences, sends letter to Big 12”

Report: Oklahoma, Texas release joint statement on future with the Big 12

After reports surfaced Wednesday afternoon, the Sooners and Longhorns made their grant of rights plans official in joint statement.

What has been expected since Wednesday has come to pass. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are on their way out of the Big 12.

After several days of reports, the University of Oklahoma officially announced in a joint statement with the University of Texas that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will break with the Big 12 when their grant of media rights expires in 2025.

Though the Sooners “intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreement,” they believe that providing notice at this juncture was important “in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement.”

While both universities intend to honor the existing agreements, they did leave space for that to change as they “continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate landscape.”

College football as we know it has been upended over the last couple of months. Just as the name, image and likeness era has begun, two of the Big 12’s premier college football teams will be migrating to a new conference, presumably the Southeastern Conference.

Though nothing’s official at this stage, it’s expected the Sooners and the Longhorns will land in the SEC when it comes time to announce their new conference affiliation.