Shaka Smart and Texas basketball are rolling on the recruiting trail. Top-100 recruit Kamaka Hepa has become their fourth commitment for 2018.
Texas basketball has been tremendous on the recruiting trail during the last couple of years. During the 2017 class, head coach Shaka Smart and company were able to snag the No. 3 overall recruit in the country in Mohamed Bamba. He is expected to be a huge part of their potential success this season, but he was not the only major recruit in the 2017 recruiting class for Texas.
Matt Coleman, Jericho Sims, Royce Hamm, and Jase Febres committed to Texas and were all top-100 recruits according to 247Sports Composite ranking. With these commitments, the Longhorns’ recruiting class ranked No. 6 in the nation last season.
So far, Smart has followed up that 2017 class tremendously well in 2018. With the early signing day coming up for the class, Texas has now secured commitments from four players (two in the top-100), including Kamaka Hepa most recently.
Hepa, the No. 50 recruit by 247Sports, committed on Oct. 31 to join the #HookEm nation and he will be expected to come in and play a big role. The 6’9″ power forward is the best recruit out of Oregon (although he is originally from Alaska) and chose Texas over Gonzaga, who was the runner-up to the National Championship in 2017.
Hepa is a versatile scoring big man who showed his talents on the Nike EYBL circuit over the summer. Hepa played in 16 games for Portland BC and flashed his all-around game, averaging 12.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game. In addition, he shot a 47.7% from the field and a very efficient 41.6% from 3-point land on a reasonable sample size of 77 attempts.
This versatility will greatly help the Longhorns when he arrives on campus for the 2018-19 season. According to Scout.com, Hepa had this to say about his decision to go to Texas:
"“Now, he’s here with Mo Bamba and other fours that he has and he showed me film on how they have executed their offense and ran me through some of their sets and how the majority of it ran through their fours,” he added. “Me being a four, that was something that I wanted to do, I wanted to be a big part of the offense and I feel like my skillset can help the program.”"
Bamba is expected to be a one-and-done player at Texas, which will allow Hepa to be a starting caliber player the second he steps on campus. There will be plenty of opportunities for him to show his talents once he joins the team next season.
With this commitment, Texas’ 2018 recruiting class is now ranked No. 16 in the country.
Next: Big 12 announces 2017-18 preseason awards
Shaka Smart is off to a great start in recruiting in his time at Texas and hopefully those players impress on the court for the program. This is a big season coming up with several high ranking recruits. The team will be in contention for an at-large bid throughout the year and they have the talent level to reach the NCAA Tournament.