2024-2025 College Basketball Preview: Iowa Hawkeyes
Mike Randle
Check out our entire college basketball season preview!
The college basketball season is less than two weeks away, and here at FTN Fantasy we have you covered for what promises to be another thrilling year of upsets and incredible finishes. We will be previewing each team from all of the major conferences along with some mid-majors as well. We will recap betting trends from last season, list projected starters, preview the season and talk about any key players for that program.
The SEC is known as the best conference in football, but don’t be fooled, they’re loaded with talent when it comes to basketball as well. The SEC has added the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns, which will make things even more difficult in conference play for each program.
In this preview, I’m going to talk about SEC newcomers, the Texas Longhorns.
2024-25 College Basketball Season Preview: Texas Longhorns
Conference: SEC
Head Coach: Rodney Terry (2nd full season)
2023-2024 Record: 21-13
ATS: 14-20
O/U: 20-14
Projected Starters: G Jordan Pope, G Tramon Mark, CG Tre Johnson, F Arthur Kaluma, C Kadin Shedrick
The Longhorns will usher in the SEC era with Rodney Terry at the helm and a completely revamped roster. It was a mass exodus for the program with players either graduating or transferring out of town. Dylan Disu, Max Abmas, Tyrese Hunter, Dillon Mitchell, Ithiel Horton, Brock Cunningham and Chris Johnson are no longer with the team. That’s nearly 50 PPG worth of scoring, which makes the transition to the SEC that much harder.
Luckily, Terry and his staff were another group that were aggressive in the transfer portal. They added Jordan Pope (17.6 PPG at Oregon State), Tramon Mark (16.2 PPG at Arkansas), Arthur Kaluma (14.4 PPG at Kansas State), Jayson Kent (13.5 PPG at Indiana State), Julian Larry (11 PPG at Indiana State) and Malik Presley (2.2 PPG at Vanderbilt). The addition of McDonald’s All-American Tre Johnson is another addition that gives the team optimism.
The only returners of note are big man Kadin Shedrick (7.7 PPG) and Chendall Weaver (6.2 PPG). Shedrick is expected to hold down the starting center position, while Weaver has been drawing rave reviews from the staff and beat reporters about his development over the summer.
Key Player: Tramon Mark
This team will have to come together quickly with a litany of new faces and everyone in the rotation will have to contribute in order for this team to be competitive in such a tough conference. The straw that stirs the drink is former Arkansas and Houston transfer, Tramon Mark. He has a ton of experience playing basketball at a high level and averaged 16.2 PPG, 4.3 RPG and 1.2 SPG in 31 games for the Hogs in 23-24. He also shot just under 48% from the field and 36.4% from long distance.
Mark will be expected to play heavy minutes for this team and will be an excellent mentor for Tre Johnson while also helping Jordan Pope’s transition from the nearly deceased Pac-12 to the much tougher streets of the SEC. He is also a vicious defender and actually had a career-high 24 blocks last year with Arkansas.
Projection
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