Next year and the portal is now open

On3.com crystal ball showing Texas a slight favorite (over aggy) to land Oregon St transfer Jordan Pope. He would be a nice addition.

 

Pope would be great as a Marcus Carr type. He absolutely chews up minutes as a scoring PG. It would alleviate the issue of needing Larry to play PG instead of coming off the bench.

 

Horns11, I think you are spot on regarding Pope. When I watched some of his highlights he reminded me of Carr. He appears to be able to get his own shot when the offense breaks down and the shot clock is running low. Something the Horns lacked this year as Abmas wasn't built for that role and Hunter was too inconsistent/streaky. Pope would be a great get and has the potential to really solidify the back court.

 

Both good assessments on Pope. He shot the ball 14 times per game last season at 45% FG and 37% 3pt. I like that level of production.

in other portal news, Tyrese Hunter is a hard commit to Memphis and Chris Johnson is hard committed to…..SFA??

 

I think Chris Johnson just needs his confidence back. There's no way a guy who committed to KU and Texas would just vanish into thin air. SFA might be a building block for him to get back to a Power-6 team.

 

Saw that Pope was going to announce tomorrow between Texas and aggy. Choose wisely young man.

 

He (Pope) chose wisely. Good pickup for Terry. Now go get the c/f from Kentucky that entered the portal (probably wishful thinking).

 

I have a good feeling about this one

 

Revised lineup:

Pope - Larry
Mark - Weaver
Tre Johnson - Pryor
Kent - Codie
Shedrick - Onyema

 

Still would like one more PF/C to spell the forwards. If Tre stays with the good guys, he'll be enough to handle for any of the guard positions.

Brandon Garrison was apparently the "sleeper recruit" (compared to the football transfers) in town. Like I said earlier in the thread, he didn't play well against Texas during the regular season, but he really filled out scoresheets towards the end of the season.

 

How would you rate the lineup above to our roster from this season?

 

On paper, it is an upgrade. More length in the backcourt, should be better shooting from multiple positions, and Pope looks to be stronger with the ball than Abmas or Hunter. Going to miss Disu for certain, but Johnson and Mark should make up for that. Still undersized inside and lack of depth to bang with the bigs. If the pieces fit together they should be better and more consistent than last year but that is always a big "IF".

 

The only real upgrades over 2023-24 (as an entire unit) would be Tre Johnson over anyone/everyone and an edge to the new bench over last year.

Losing Disu and replacing him with Shedrick/Onyema is a big deficit.

I think adding Pope but losing Abmas and Hunter is kind of a wash.

Tramon Mark is kind of an x-factor where I'm not sure if he's going to be an offensive or defensive upgrade at the moment. I'd like to see which position he's playing and how many minutes.

Kent vs. Dillon Mitchell is about the same, but a slight nod to Mitchell for athleticism.

Pryor and Codie are unproven and are no better than whatever we were bringing off the bench as of this moment.

 

insiders showing Garrison to OU

 

Norchad Omier out of Miami is still available. We briefly mentioned him the last time he portaled out of Arkansas State. Big body and incredible rebounder. He's pretty much a 15-10-1 guy every game. He was 11-9-2-2 against us in the Elite 8 game.

 

Jonas Aidoo out of Tennessee is kind of a question mark at the moment. The guy was SEC All-Defense and Barnes doesn't have room for him?

He didn't have great games against us these past couple seasons (XII/SEC challenge and against Tenn in the tournament), but his blocks are insane and he could provide frontcourt depth.

 

Moussa Cisse - Ole Miss

He followed Beard from OK State and has never put up exceptional numbers, but he's a solid blocks/boards guy. Never strays away from the paint. I'd love for him to be Shedrick's backup and use Onyema as more of a 4.

 

Just landed Vandy transfer Malik Presley.

 

The last Vandy transfer worked out pretty well (except for an untimely injury).

 

Aidoo to Arkansas

 

Wonder if we'll be an option for New Mexico's JT Toppin?

 

Presley was a San Marcos Rattler and a lot of people caught on to him late in the recruiting process (including us). Hence, the commit out-of-state.

He was used off the bench as a minutes and defensive stopper, so my guess is that will be his role for us as well. He's a poor shooter but does enough with his length to frustrate opponents. He's most likely going to be part of an "energy" package featuring intense, defensive-minded guys when we need stops or at the end of game when we swap offense for defense on possession changes. He's always been listed as G/F, so I could see him going in at the 3 or 4 and maybe moving Johnson to the 2 when we need that kind of lineup.

 

I think I'd still prefer Omier or Cisse, but Toppin checks all of the boxes for our remaining needs. Boards and blocks. He actually scores, too, but I think that number would go down in our system.