NCAA Basketball: Top 25 team frontcourts heading into 2021-22 season
. Longhorns . 1. team. 467. .
I’m a big believer in team chemistry and giving a benefit of the doubt to teams that bring back most of their core positional group from the season prior. However, the exception to that rule is what head coach Chris Beard and Texas did this offseason, collecting the kind of talent that couldn’t be done in fantasy drafts.
After losing three bigs to the NBA Draft and everyone else to the transfer portal, the Longhorns brought in some of the best big men in NCAA Basketball to join together. The best of this group is Tre Mitchell, a 6’9 center/forward from UMass that averaged 18.8 ppg and 7.2 rpg last season, shooting 52% from the field and 38% from three-point range.
The next is Dylan Disu, who had a breakout campaign for Vanderbilt as a sophomore. In 17 games, the 6’9 forward averaged 15.0 ppg and 9.2 rpg, making 49% of his shots and vastly improving from deep, going from 30-37% from three-point range this past year.
Utah sucked as a team last season but Timmy Allen at least did his job, coming off of producing 17.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg, and 3.9 apg. Allen is a combo forward who mainly shoots from mid-range or slashes to the basket, as he has just 23 made three-pointers in three years. But as a pure scorer and underrated facilitator, Allen has a unique skillset for Texas.
And there’s also Christian Bishop, a 6’7 undersized big man that doesn’t spread the floor at all. But he can take opponents off the bounce and is a quality defender and at his new stop can play the “glue guy” role. Although, that’s what returning forward Brock Cunningham does, as he doesn’t do much for the stat-sheet but still has an impact whenever he’s on the court.
That doesn’t even include Jaylon Tyson, a top-40 incoming freshman that was a former Texas Tech commit before following Coach Beard to Austin. Don’t be surprised if he finds a way into the rotation as well.
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If you combine the four transfer forwards production from last season, that makes it 62 ppg. Of course, that’ll decrease since they’re competing with each other for minutes. But while the rotations have yet to be seen, there’s no debate as to which NCAA Basketball program has the best collection of talent in terms of proven production.
If the pieces fit, Texas could end up being the team to beat next season.