Twitter reacts to Greg Brown III choosing Texas

A recruitment that didn’t seem to have much drama down the final stretch took a sharp turn last week when the G League entered the picture for Vandegrift forward Greg Brown III, but during a Friday announcement, Brown decided to stay home and play for the Texas Longhorns.

Texas Twitter lit up in response.

Head coach Shaka Smart was pumped — he was the first coach to extend an offer to Brown in eighth grade and allowed him to play pickup games with Texas players from that young age. So Friday was the culmination of a relationship five years in the building.

Assistant coach Jai Lucas served as the lead recruiter for Texas. He’s spent years building a relationship with Brown, too. In fact, the Austin-area product has long worked out in Houston with John Lucas and that connection to his father and the state basketball scene is one of the reasons why he’s such a valuable recruiter for the Longhorns.

The combined recruiting efforts of Smart and Lucas helped Texas win over over national powers like Kentucky and the appeal of a lucrative G League offer.

Now Brown will continue a run of top talent coming through the Forty Acres under Smart, including Jarrett Allen, Mo Bamba, and Jaxson Hayes. Bamba certainly took notice of the news.

The good news is that Brown will play more on the perimeter than the other one-and-done players in the Smart era, so the transition to college shouldn’t be as difficult — he can handle the ball well enough to get out in the open court to make plays or slash to the basket and his jump shot is credible.

According to his high school head coach, Brown is also an extremely hard worker, a work ethic that his father Greg Brown Jr. helped instill in his son after playing defensive back for Texas.

Brown committed to Texas because he believes the Longhorns can compete for conference and national titles next season. Sophomore guard Donovan Williams feels confident, too.

Now the hope is that Brown is the final piece in a puzzle that currently includes every player from the 2019-20 team returning. It will be experienced, deep, and talented. So this might finally be the year that Smart and the Longhorns break through. It needs to be the year.