2020–21 Texas Longhorns men's basketball team explained

Mode:Basketball
Year:2020–21
Prev Year:2019–20
Next Year:2021–22
Team:Texas Longhorns
Conference:Big 12 Conference
Short Conf:Big 12
Coachrank:21
Aprank:9
Record:19–8
Conf Record:11–6
Hc Year:6th
Asst Coach2:Neill Berry
Asst Coach3:Cody Hatt
Champion:Big 12 tournament champions
Maui Invitational champions
Tourney Result:first round

The 2020–21 Texas Longhorns men's basketball team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. They were led by sixth-year head coach Shaka Smart and played their home games at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas as members of the Big 12 Conference. They finished the season 19–8, 11–6 in Big 12 play to finish in a tie for third place. As the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 tournament, they defeated Texas Tech in the first round and advanced to the tournament championship game due to COVID-19 issues at Kansas. There they defeated Oklahoma State to win the Big 12 Tournament championship. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 3 seed in the East region. They were upset in the First Round by Abilene Christian.

On March 26, 2021, head coach Shaka Smart left the school to take the head coaching job at Marquette.[1] Shortly thereafter, the school named Texas Tech coach Chris Beard the team's new head coach.[2]

Previous season

The Longhorns finished the 2019–20 season 19–12, and 9–9 in Big 12 play. They were slated to play Texas Tech in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament but the tournament was canceled before the quarterfinals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] The NCAA tournament, National Invitation Tournament, and all other postseason tournaments were also canceled due to the pandemic.[4]

Offseason

2021 Recruiting class

Schedule and results

Source:[6]

|-!colspan=9 style=|Regular season|-!colspan=9 style=|Big 12 Tournament|-!colspan=9 style=|NCAA tournament

Player statistics

* – Recorded statistics when playing for Texas|Andrew Jones| 19|| 19|| 31.7 || .406|| .302|| .807|| 5.0|| 2.11 || 1.11 || 0.11|| 15.4|-|Courtney Ramey| 19|| 19|| 34.4 || .417|| .437|| .831|| 2.8|| 3.95 || 0.95 || 0.11|| 14.1|-|Matt Coleman III| 20|| 20|| 34.4 || .476|| .353|| .800|| 3.9|| 4.25 ||1.20 || 0.10|| 13.0|-|Greg Brown| 19|| 19|| 22.5 || .426|| .351|| .672|| 7.4|| 0.26 || 0.63 || 1.11|| 10.9|-|Kai Jones| 19|| 2|| 22.7 || .582|| .423|| .660|| 4.8|| 0.74 || 0.95 || 0.74|| 8.2|-|Jericho Sims| 19|| 19|| 23.5 || .640|| .000|| .520|| 6.8|| 0.58 || 0.58 || 0.84|| 8.1|-|Donovan Williams| 12|| 0|| 12.3 || .327|| .174|| .846|| 1.2|| 0.25 || 0.42 || 0.25|| 4.1|-|Kamaka Hepa| 7|| 1|| 7.6 || .471|| .500|| .000|| 1.0|| 0.14 || 0.14 || 0.29|| 3.4|-|Jase Febres| 6|| 0|| 14.1 || .286|| .263|| .000|| 1.7|| 0.67 || 0.50 || .50|| 2.0|-|Royce Hamm Jr.| 16|| 1|| 10.4 || .559|| .500|| .300|| 2.9|| 0.19 || 0.13 || 0.50|| 2.6|-|Gerald Liddell| 7|| 0|| 11.5 || .429|| .286|| .167|| 1.7|| 0.43 || 0.14 || 0.14|| 2.1|-|Brock Cunningham| 18|| 0|| 16.8 || .237|| .233|| .333|| 3.4|| 0.94 || 0.89 || 0.11|| 1.4|-|Blake Nevins| 2|| 0|| 0.6 || .500|| .000|| .000|| 0.0|| 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0|| 0.0|-|Andrew Deutser| 1|| 0|| 1.1 || .000|| .000|| .000|| 0.0|| 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0|| 0.0|-|Drayton Whiteside| 2|| 0|| 0.9 || .000|| .000|| .000|| 0.0|| 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0|| 0.0||}

Rankings

See also: 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings. ^Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mar 26. FOX Sports Wisconsin. ET. 2021 at 11:59a. 2021-03-26. Marquette hires Shaka Smart as new men's basketball head coach. 2021-04-07. FOX Sports. en-US.
  2. Web site: 2021-04-01. Longhorns name Red Raiders' Beard as coach. 2021-04-07. ESPN.com. en.
  3. Web site: All Power 5 leagues cancel conference tournaments. ESPN.com. 12 March 2020 . December 4, 2020.
  4. Web site: NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships. 12 March 2020. NCAA.org. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200312202043/http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-cancels-remaining-winter-and-spring-championships . 2020-03-12 . December 4, 2020.
  5. News: Westlake product, Longhorns center Will Baker enters transfer portal . December 4, 2020 . KXAN . November 28, 2020.
  6. Web site: 2020-21 Men's Basketball Schedule . . December 4, 2020.