Texas Basketball: Horns open in the top five of the Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll
There is a lot of excitement around the Texas Longhorns basketball program heading into the 2021-22 season. After Shaka Smart left the program for another coaching gig, athletic director Chris Del Conte was able to land Chris Beard from Texas Tech.
He has loaded up on talent through the transfer portal and has fans excited about Longhorns basketball once again something that hasn’t really happened since the days of Rick Barnes. The expectation level was high with Smart, but he was never able to reach that potential. Beard is a coach that fans have seen build a program in the Big 12 to a national contender, despite how loaded the conference is.
Texas is now one of the top five teams in the preseason according to the USA TODAY Sports Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll that was released on Wednesday.
Full Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll:
Rank | Team | Points (First Place Votes) |
1 | Gonzaga | 771 (29) |
2 | UCLA | 709 (2) |
3 | Kansas | 705 |
4 | Villanova | 658 |
5 | Texas | 634 |
6 | Michigan | 627 |
7 | Purdue | 578 |
8 | Baylor | 542 |
9 | Duke | 490 |
10 | Illinois | 466 |
11 | Kentucky | 438 |
12 | Oregon | 382 |
13 | Alabama | 360 |
14 | Houston | 343 |
15 | Arkansas | 340 |
16 | Memphis | 337 |
17 | Tennessee | 280 |
17 | Ohio State | 280 |
19 | Florida State | 225 |
20 | North Carolina | 224 |
21 | Maryland | 150 |
22 | Auburn | 87 |
23 | UConn | 73 |
24 | St. Bonaventure | 71 |
25 | Virginia | 60 |
Others receiving votes:
Michigan St 55; Texas Tech 46; Southern California 38; West Virginia 18; Indiana 13; Virginia Tech 9; Loyola-Chicago 9; Oklahoma State 8; Arizona 8; Creighton 7; Syracuse 6; Colorado St. 5; Drake 4; Richmond 3; Notre Dame 3; Iowa 3; Rutgers 2; Louisiana State 2; Colorado 2; Xavier 1; Nevada 1; Butler 1; Boise St. 1.
