Christian Bishop announces commitment to Texas Basketball for 2021-22

Christian Bishop, who played three years with the Creighton Bluejays has committed to the Longhorns. Bishop chose Texas Basketball over North Carolina and Kansas and adds to an impressive offseason for the Longhorns. Chris Beard has had quite a first few weeks since joining the Longhorn staff. He has now signed three premiere transfers in Devin Askew (Kentucky), Timmy Allen (Utah), and now Bishop of Creighton.

Bishop is a talented frontcourt threat, who averaged 11.0 points per game and a team-high 6.4 rebounds. He plays at a high intensity and overachieves in the post for his height (just 6’7). He was forced to play the center spot in Creighton’s flowy scheme but is a forward by nature. Being undersized helped Bishop take advantage of post players who weren’t as quick defending off the dribble. Although, at Creighton, the majority of his buckets came at the rim by way of the alley-oop. Bishop shot 68.1% from the floor last season, one of the highest marks in the country.

Texas still awaits decisions from frontcourt standouts Greg Brown and Jericho Sims. Signs seem to be pointing at Brown leaving, while Sims staying for one more year. This pair of Sims and Bishop seems ideal for the way Chris Beard likes his big men to play down low. These are two rim grazing, athletic bigs that can get up and down the court.

Bishop is also a solid defender, especially when guarding players that weren’t towering over him. For example, Bishop held Villanova’s Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to just 22 points (on 9-26 from the field) in their two meetings this past year combined. With other options at center, Bishop will likely be able to guard a forward where he saw his most success on both offense and defense.

Bishop is a significant addition to Texas, whose prospects next season looked bleak a mere few weeks ago. Now, they look like a legitimate Big 12 title contender if they’re able to keep Sims or Brown and potentially add one more quality piece. Earlier this week, guard Andrew Jones announced he’d be coming back to play another year.

Bishop and Teddy Allen are arguably two of the best under-the-radar transfers in this whole 1300+ name transfer portal. Allen can score 25+ on any given night, and his efficiency will only improve now that there are other guys to worry about playing alongside him.

The addition of Christian Bishop not only raises the ceiling but really limits the floor of this Texas team next year. After getting Askew and Allen, the main question mark was the frontcourt for Chris Beard. This really seems to be the perfect fit in a Chris Beard-style team and I wouldn’t be all that shocked to see Bishop truly rise to his full potential.