Big 12 Basketball: Top 15 impact players from 2020 recruiting class

5. Texas Longhorns: Greg Brown

At 6’8 and 190 pounds, the top ten recruit from Vandegrift High School is being projected to make an immediate impact in the Big 12, if not in all of the NCAA. He is Texas Basketball‘s only commit, which makes him all the more important as Coach Shaka Smart strives to improve upon a 9-9 conference record.

The primary reason the Longhorns only have one recruit is that they will be returning everybody except senior Drayton Whiteside who totaled six minutes in 2019-20.  Despite being 6’8 with athleticism that cannot be denied, Brown played small forward in high school and the opponents are only going to get bigger. With the three-guard front that Coach Smart instituted, albeit out of necessity, was effective. Matt Coleman, Andrew Jones, and Courtney Ramey all averaged between eleven and thirteen points. The question arises, would Coach Smart continue to bring Jones off the bench for 26 minutes per game?

Many have little doubt that Brown is going to bring Texas into Big 12 contention and his highlight dunks accompanied by his volume rebounds support that. Yet, he is ranked number eight nationally and is barely cracking the top five in this Big12 article. Anybody who has seen him play more than one game knows at times he looked uninterested on the court, granted he did play well in many big games and at crunch time, but things came very easy for him in high school and he was able to switch it off and on.

As well, even if Coach Smart options to keep Jones on the bench and start Brown at small forward, Brown has the same game as, now a sophomore, Kai Jones. They both are athletic slashers from the perimeter waiting for the swing pass. Coach Smart has a lot of options, Some of those options will limit the impact Greg Brown is able to make.