Getty Image / Porter Binks
The 2022-23 college basketball season was an eventful one for the Texas Longhorns.
They started the season with big expectations and a top 15 ranking.
Non-conference wins over Gonzaga and Creighton had them in the top 10 and fans believing they could make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Then they fired their coach.
The move to an interim head coach had many wondering how the team would respond.
They responded by continuing to be one of the nation’s best teams and making a run to the Elite Eight.
That run earned the interim coach a permanent position leading the team.
Now in his first offseason in charge, fans will be hoping he can keep the program moving in the right direction.
Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten off to the best start for him.
Today, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Jonathan Givony revealed that 5-star guard AJ Johnson would be decommmitting from Texas to play in the Australian NBL.
ESPN Reporting with @DraftExpress: California high school guard AJ Johnson – a projected 2024 NBA Draft lottery pick – has decommitted from Texas and signed a deal with the Illawarra Hawks of the Australian NBL: https://t.co/vGwl3hgj0o
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 13, 2023
Losing Johnson is a pretty big blow for the Longhorns. Without him, they now have the nation’s 73rd ranked recruiting class, which features just one player. That one player is the 6th ranked recruit in the country, but he is all they have coming in between recruiting and the transfer portal right now.
247 Sports rates AJ Johnson as a top 15 prospect in the Class of 2023 and he is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Playing professionally instead of going to college for a year has become a much more common move in recent years. There are 3 American players that didn’t go to college projected for the top 10 this year and Victor Wembanyama is projected at the top of the draft.
If he can impress in the Australian league, maybe he’ll join that list of top 10 picks that didn’t play in the NCAA.