After Texas landed Marcus Carr, who averaged 19 points and four assists while at Minnesota, Chris Beard and the Longhorns made a move towards the top spot in Stadium’s Jeff Goodman’s newest preseason rankings.
Goodman now has Texas slated in the No. 2 spot in the country right below the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who signed the second ranked class in the nation according to 247Sports, headlined by Fiba U19 MVP Chet Holgren.
The Longhorns will have a total of seven players who averaged double digit points in 2020, and are now poised to contend at the highest level.
The thing that sets this team apart compared to the Shaka Smart era is the fact that there as an elite amount of depth. At times during the tournament with Texas Tech, Beard utilized a nine player rotation. Not only is that an option, but if he wanted to, Beard could use up to an 11 player rotation, as the Longhorns have arguably the deepest team in college basketball.
The preseason rankings are nice and all, but now that the roster is full, building chemistry is the most important thing. Otherwise, this squad will just be a team with a bunch of great individual players that could not accomplish anything.