JT Toppin picks Texas Tech over Texas basketball. What that means for the Longhorns.

Coveted power forward JT Toppin, a top portal target for Texas basketball, announced his decision to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and sign with Texas Tech on Tuesday. His decision still leaves the Longhorns thin up front after a busy offseason that fortified the backcourt.

Toppin, the Mountain West’s freshman of the year last season with New Mexico, would have been the sixth 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, Jayson Kent from Indiana State. and Malik Presley from Vanderbilt.

Now, Texas still needs to find a big man who can complement its array of guards and wings, which also includes returner Chendall Weaver and incoming freshman Tre Johnson.

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The 6-foot-9 Toppin, a Dallas native, would have brought good size and lots of production to the guard-heavy rotation by teaming with the 6-11, 230-pound Kadin Shedrick, a senior who will return for his second season with the Longhorns after averaging 7.7 points and three rebounds in 17.2 minutes this past season.

Ze’Rik Onyema, a 6-8 senior, is the only other big man on the team with experience. After playing for Texas head coach Rodney Terry at UTEP, he transferred to Texas in the offseason but averaged just 3.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in 9.1 minutes a game. He didn’t play more than six minutes in a game in the final two months of the season, but Terry and his staff hope his first season at Texas helped him adapt to Power Five basketball.

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What’s next for Texas basketball?

The Longhorns now have five transfers, three returners from this past season’s 21-13 team and an incoming freshman in Johnson that seem set for significant minutes. That group doesn’t include incoming freshman forward Nic Codie and seldom-used sophomore wing Devon Pryor, who could also earn playing time. Terry and Texas basketball general manager Chris Ogden are still pursuing another big body to bolster the Longhorns in the paint, and they have at least two scholarships available.

Players in the portal can sign with a school any time before the fall semester. Those include graduate transfers, which have been preferred additions by Terry and his staff over the past two seasons.

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-years 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: Coveted forward JT Toppin picks Texas Tech over Texas basketball.