The last time a basketball player from the Austin area transferred from Vanderbilt to Texas, things worked out for both the Longhorns and recent graduate Dylan Disu.
Texas hopes to repeat that success with Malik Presley, a San Marcos graduate who announced his commitment to the Longhorns on Monday.
Presley, a 6-foot-6 freshman forward, appeared in 26 games with five starts this past season for the Commodores while averaging 2.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per game. A star at San Marcos High School who averaged 20.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.7 steals per game as a senior, Presley held an offer from Texas out of high school before joining Vanderbilt.
Presley will become the fifth transfer player to sign with Texas, which has already retooled its backcourt by signing guards Jordan Pope from Oregon State and Julian Larry from Indiana State as well as wings Tramon Mark from Arkansas and Jayson Kent from Indiana State .
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The Longhorns now have nine players ready for the rotation, not counting incoming freshman forward Nic Codie and seldom-used sophomore Devon Pryor. Head coach Rodney Terry and Texas basketball general manager Chris Ogden had hoped to reel in a commitment from coveted Oklahoma State post Brandon Garrison, who visited Texas last week, but Garrison chose Kentucky over the Longhorns on Tuesday.
Players have until the end of Wednesday to submit their names to the portal but can sign with a school any time before the fall semester.
Texas needed the use the transfer portal to revamp its roster after losing four players to graduation and five other scholarship players to the portal, including two-year starters in guard Tyrese Hunter and forward Dillon Mitchell . In addition, former 2024 signee Cam Scott received a release from his national letter of intent to play at Texas and signed with South Carolina.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball reels in San Marcos graduate Malik Presley from transfer portal
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