1. Hope Brown/Jones/Cunningham are healthy, or get healthy quick.
Of all the times to get hit by the virus and/or contact tracing, I suppose now’s a good time schedule-wise, and thank goodness Andrew Jones isn’t on this list, given his immunocompromised state. But not having Kai Jones, Greg Brown, and Brock Cunningham for an extended period, or having them take a while to get back to full strength in a lung capacity sense, is concerning, and that’s before getting into their own overall health considerations, which obviously take precedent (though to be fair, given the NBA stock of Brown and Jones, their health, basketball, and overall lives are more intertwined than is true for most collegiate athletes).
2. Jase Febres’s return is exciting.
Febres looked like himself out there, which is encouraging given he’d been out around eleven months. He gives the Horns more depth at guard, which they don’t exactly need but is certainly useful, especially given how foul-happy this team sometimes is.
3. What a night for Kamaka Hepa.
It’s easy to love Hepa. He’s a cool story and he brings a lot of energy, making him someone a lot of us hope eventually blossoms. So seeing him come through last night like he did, hitting five of eight threes, warms the heart a bit. The guess would be that any role for him on a fully healthy edition of this team is still small, but it’s interesting that Shaka Smart started Hepa instead of Royce Hamm or Donovan Williams, and if he can shoot the way he did last night, he could be a valuable asset.
Looking way too far ahead…
With Will Baker and Gerald Liddell transferring, Brown likely to go pro, Kai Jones potentially going pro as well, and four recruits coming in, it seems like Texas is going to be even on scholarships even if all the seniors—Matt Coleman, Jericho Sims, Hamm, and Febres—come back and use their extended eligibility and Courtney Ramey or Andrew Jones doesn’t surprise and go pro himself. Even if Kai Jones doesn’t go to the NBA, Hamm’s a graduate transfer possibility, which all goes to say that the numbers on the roster still work out to where nobody else has to transfer, which leaves room for Hepa scholarship-wise, and potentially role-wise as well, though it’ll be interesting to see whether he’s asked to bulk up a bit in the scenario in which he’s asked to play a more significant role on the interior defensively. Now, if Texas gets a late commit (Charles Bediako’s projected to land at Alabama, but 247 characterizes his interest in Texas as “warm”), that would change the numbers game and the role game, but given that the best incomers are four-stars, and given how significant of a role Hepa’s played in the past, those of us who like the Alaskan’s story have plenty of basis to hope it gets better.
4. We’ll see about Wednesday.
The indication is that Iowa State’s going to need to call that game off, but we’ll see. Next up after the Cyclones is a trip to Fort Worth on Saturday, which appears to be the more likely next game. We’ll also see whether any or all of Brown/Jones/Cunningham are back on the court if the next game indeed is on Saturday. If it’s Wednesday, sounds like they’re out.
