If Texas' Chendall Weaver isn't the Big 12's sixth man of the year, then who is? | Bohls
With the Big 12 basketball regular season winding down in its last week, the talk has turned to postseason awards and, specifically, the so underrated honor of Sixth Man of the Year.
Asked for his opinion after Saturday's 81-65 win over Oklahoma State, Texas quintessential reserve Brock Cunningham didn’t hesitate. “There’s only one in the conversation,” he said bluntly.
You didn’t have to look far to find that one.
He was referring to his unassuming teammate sitting to his right at the postgame dais. And he’s right because it’s now clear that sophomore transfer Chendall Weaver leads the league in energy output, defensive clamps, loose balls and floor burns. Pretty much everything but bravado.
Weaver’s as humble as the day is long.
Don’t expect him to brag, though. He’s at the top of his game in luster, not bluster.
“He’ll do anything you need,” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said. “He came in and said, ‘Coach, you need me to guard their best guy? I’ll do it. You want me to cut on offense, I’ll do it. Want me to be a ball mover, get a rebound. Whatever you need.’“
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That’s Weaver, a selfless type who rides Lyft and bums rides from his teammates since he doesn’t have a car. He does have shoes like the new mint-green sneakers he wore Saturday. “I think he buys a new pair every week,” his mother, Shonda Perkins, said.
Shoes notwithstanding, he’s not into all the trappings of college basketball. He’s about the game.
As Terry said of Weaver and the 25-year-old Cunningham, “They get lost in the winning. Both have such a competitive spirit.”
Weaver and Cunningham have been key parts for Texas
That said, they both deserve their share of the accolades. Weaver followed his season-high 15-point performance against Texas Tech on Tuesday with another season-high 16-point game on Saturday. And if he isn’t the Sixth Man of the Year, Cunningham might be. Do I hear Seventh Man of the Year?
“I’m trying to be a star in my role,” Weaver said. “My teammates are trusting me.”
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In actuality, Weaver’s quickly evolved into the second coming of Cunningham, the sixth-year senior from Westlake who has done so much of the dirty work at Texas, the school should give him a broom along with his master’s degree diploma in May.
Before starting 13 games in the Longhorns’ 19-10 season this year, Cunningham had started only four of the 113 previous games he’d played in.
To be truthful, Weaver hadn’t been all that familiar with the bench.
He led his Mansfield Timberview high school team to the Class 5A state championship as a senior, averaging 17 points and eight rebounds a game. Then he made 25 starts and won WAC freshman of the year honors at UT-Arlington, the only Division I program to offer him a scholarship. Yeah, UTA wasn’t exactly his first choice. It was his only choice.
Chendall Weaver has made a quick impression on Texas
He’s always been a Kansas Jayhawks fan, but they didn’t give him a sniff. And he was a teammate of Max Abmas for the Dallas-area Team Bizness AAU club for years, but this Texas gunner also performed in basketball’s backwoods, starring at Oral Roberts until transferring to Austin where he just sank his 500th career trey Saturday.
Weaver’s barely been on campus for nine months and has already won over the fans with his aggressive, no-nonsense style of play.
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Kevin Butler, his AAU coach, marvels at Weaver’s game.
“I think he’s a quiet assassin,” Butler said. “He brings a lot of intangibles. And he’s very explosive, very electric. Very next-level. I think he’s one of the top rebounding guards in the Big 12. He’s a coach’s dream.”
While he’s a strong 6-foot-3, 180-pound guard, he’s also as tough as they come and considers the paint his home ground. Heck, he recently banged his forehead on the backboard after a dunk in a game against West Virginia and never flinched. Neither did Abmas, who took a shot at Texas Tech on Tuesday and needed six stitches to fix his gash above his right eye.
These guys exude toughness and tenacity.
Anyone who sleeps on Weaver and discounts his offense does so at his own risk. He’ll find his points wherever he can as he and Cunningham did Saturday. Between them, they provided a bounteous 24 points along with 11 rebounds, three triples, three assists and a pair of steals.
'I think his best basketball is ahead of him'
Weaver’s role reminds Terry of the presence of former Longhorns power forward Tristan Thompson, who was overshadowed by more offensive scorers on that 2011 team like Jordan Hamilton and J’Covan Brown.
“We didn’t run one play for Tristan when he was here, but he impacted the game at a high level,” Terry said of the 11-year NBA player. “Chendall’s one of those guys. We don’t run any plays for him, but he impacts the game at a high level offensively and defensively.”
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He does so offensively in the paint and in transition plays and on putbacks because he’s always in the area.
“He just has a knack for it,” Terry said. “Like Dennis Rodman, who was always around the ball.”
Weaver was a 40% shooter behind the line in his one year at UTA and figures to show off that stroke next year after a subpar season from deep with just six in 30 tries this year. His 3-pointer late in Saturday’s game was only his second in league play in 16 attempts, but Terry blames that on his lack of shooting practice last summer because of a wrist injury.
Just wait, Terry said. It’s coming.
He expects Weaver to drastically improve his offensive game before next season. So does Butler, who said, “I think his best basketball is ahead of him.”
And opposing coaches will be punished for missing out on Weaver.
“He was used to being overlooked,” said Perkins, whose daughter Chennedy was a star player at Texas A&M who's currently playing in Turkey but will be on the Chicago Sky roster this year. “He’s always been one of the smallest on the court, but with the biggest heart.”
Weaver very nearly remained a UTA Maverick. Following his lone season there, he’d go to the basketball offices to enter his name into the transfer portal, and three times he came home after being talked out of it. Finally, he relented.
So why did he eventually agree to transfer?
“I made him,” said Perkins, who has missed only three of his Longhorns games. “Or he’d still be there.”
Weaver visited A&M on a Sunday and Texas on a Tuesday and committed to Terry on the spot, canceling a visit to Texas Tech.
This year he’s been part of a bench brigade that has been invaluable for Texas. They’re the glue guys, and they stick to their opponents like Velcro. Dylan Disu, the MVP of this team and a lock for All-Big 12, could hardly stop with his effusive praise for Weaver, this team’s equivalent of jumper cables.
In so many respects, Weaver gives the Longhorns juice and makes them go.
“I think Chendall has found his spots and has figured out where he can score his points,” Disu said. “He’s been in the perfect position. He does all the little things finding ways to score without the ball in his hands, and he ratchets his energy up.”
By the time Disu’s monologue on Weaver’s merits had ended, Cunningham chipped in, “I guess I’m just chopped liver.”
No, because Weaver and Cunningham were anything but side dishes Saturday in Texas’ first back-to-back wins since January victories over Baylor and Oklahoma. In fact, one could argue that aside from Disu’s team-high 17 points and scoring machine Max Abmas’s 15 points, those two reserves were the main course.
For a team that has lacked a reliable third scoring option much of the season, Weaver and Cunningham have supplied it of late. While the Longhorns are looking more for rebounds and defensive stops out of that feisty duo, their offensive contributions are much appreciated.
And Weaver’s got his coach’s vote for sixth man of the year.
“I’m a little biased,” Terry said, “but Chendall, without question, has come in and put his mark on every game. If Brock and he star in their roles at a high level, it definitely changes our team.”
Mike Boynton certainly noticed.
“You can talk about lot of people from a talent standpoint before you get to Brock Cunningham and Chendall Weaver,” the Oklahoma State head coach said. “They’ve got the same kind of moxie. Some don’t mind playing the drums in the back.”
Not if the result is music to Terry’s ears.
Monday's game
Texas (19-10, 8-8) at No. 15 Baylor (21-8, 10-6), 8 p.m., ESPN, 1300
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas' fiery guard Chendall Weaver sparks Horns to key victory
