Texas head coach Chris Beard continues to build the Longhorns’ 2021-22 roster through the transfer portal, picking up another critical piece for his debut campaign on Friday with the addition of former Creighton forward Christian Bishop. The 6-foot-7-inch, 220-pound Bishop picked Texas over Kansas and North Carolina, posting a social media graphic to announce his decision.
“They got a new coach who’s a really good coach who made it to a national championship two years ago,” Bishop told Dushawn London of 247Sports ahead of his decision when breaking down what he liked about his three finalists. “He’s always been successful with transfers and I feel like they have a good culture down there in Texas, so they can be a valuable choice for me. It obviously takes multiple good players to make a great team. They’re trying to win a national championship so they want to bring in guys who can win and I’m a winner so that’s why they like me.”
As a junior for Creighton, Bishop started all 31 games for the Bluejays, who went 22-9, won the Big East Tournament title and advanced to the Sweet 16. Bishop averaged 11 points per game on 68.1-percent shooting on the season, which led the Big East and was the best in the nation among Division I players who recorded 200 or more field goal attempts on the season.
Bishop led all Creighton players with an average of 6.4 rebounds per game during the 2020-21 season. Ranking second in Creighton history in both single-season and career field goal percentage (64.5 percent), Bishop’s 82 career blocked shots rank nine in school history.
Bishop is the second frontcourt body Beard has added through the transfer portal with the Longhorns landing a commitment from former Utah forward Timmy Allen earlier in the week. A first-team All-Pac-12 performer in his final season with the Utes, the 6-foot-6-inch, 197-pound Allen averaged 17.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
Former Kentucky guard Devin Askew, who signed an athletic scholarship agreement with Texas on Friday, rounds out the three Division I transfers Beard has added since he was hired to replace Shaka Smart on April 1. The 6-foot-3-inch, 198-pound Askew averaged 6.5 points, 2.9 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game and ranked second on the team with 73 assists in his one season with the Wildcats.
With three transfers and 2021 four-star signee Jaylon Tyson (signed with Texas Tech, was released from his National Letter of Intent and followed Beard from Lubbock to Austin) join two returning Longhorn guards (Jase Febres and Andrew Jones) and one returning forward (Brock Cunningham) to give Beard seven bodies he can count on being there for his first season on the job. As for the rest of the roster, Beard is going through the process of letting guard Matt Coleman and forward Jericho Sims decide on their own timeframe whether they want to take advantage of the additional season of eligibility granted to winter sports student-athletes by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Along with Coleman and Sims, junior guard Courtney Ramey has yet to announce his plans for next season. The game is true for freshman forward Greg Brown, although the former 247Sports Composite five-star prospect has long been expected to enter the 2021 NBA Draft.
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