AUSTIN, Texas — Thanks to Texas coach Chris Beard’s aggressive activity in the transfer portal, the Longhorns now have all kinds of new pieces to launch themselves into Big 12 title contention. Only thing missing was a point guard.
The Horns fixed that problem Saturday by landing the most coveted point guard on the transfer market.
Minnesota’s Marcus Carr, the second-best available player in the portal, announced Saturday on Instagram he will join the Longhorns. National recruiting outlets had reported this week that Carr was weighing Texas and an offer to play professional basketball in Australia.
Carr (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) averaged a career-high 19.4 points per game last season with the Gophers. He played one season at Pittsburgh (2017-18) and then transferred to Minnesota, sitting out the 2018-19 season and playing two more.
Carr, a third-team All-Big Ten pick last season, has career averages of 14.8 points, 5.1 assists and a .336 shooting percentage from 3-point range. ESPN ranked him the No. 2 player on its college basketball transfer rankings for the 2021-22 season.
With Carr’s addition, the Horns are likely to become a preseason top-five pick, possibly even higher. The roster is loaded with all-conference transfers like Timmy Allen (Utah) and Tre Mitchell (UMass) along with versatile big men Christian Bishop (Creighton) and Dylan Disu (Vanderbilt).
Devin Askew (Kentucky) is another guard who might benefit from a fresh start at a new school. Avery Benson (Texas Tech) was known as the Energizer bunny and fan favorite in Lubbock.
Returning lettermen Andrew Jones, Courtney Ramey, Jase Febres and Brock Cunningham are expected to guide the newcomers throughout Cooley Pavilion. Jaylon Tyson is another incoming freshman who first signed with Beard at Tech but followed the coach to Austin.
Carr’s decision certainly won’t be celebrated news in the Hub City.
Spurned Texas Tech fans, now on eagle-eyed alert waiting for Beard to slip up, went wild on social media when a photo circulated this week showing Carr with Texas players. Several recruiting sites reported that Carr was scheduled to visit Texas on Tuesday, thus it made sense he’d be photographed with UT players.
A team spokesman said UT compliance determined the visit was no recruiting violation even though it happened during an NCAA-mandated dead period.
According to the NCAA bylaw 13.7.2.1, no recruit can make an unofficial visit during July “unless he has signed a National Letter of Intent or the institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid.” Essentially, Carr’s visit would have only been acceptable had he already signed Texas’ scholarship paperwork.
Asked when Carr signed an athletic scholarship agreement, a Texas spokesman had no comment.
Unlike a national letter of intent, there is no limit to how many ASAs an athlete can sign. There’s also nothing wrong for an athlete to sign an ASA at one school and then chose to go elsewhere. For the recruit, signing an ASA is harmless.
Carr’s addition to the Horns’ roster will be a lightning bolt. He’s an athletic scorer who can distribute the ball, plus veteran enough to handle just about anything thrown his way.
These Horns now bear little resemblance to coach Shaka Smart’s last team that went 19-8 last season and won the Big 12 tournament. Beard has assembled a team to win now — and win big. Texas has not won a single NCAA Tournament game since 2014.
The Horns will find out quickly just what they have. Texas is scheduled to play Gonzaga, another preseason top-three team, in November.
