Texas Basketball: Greg Brown's Commitment Shows Texas Made the Right Call in Keeping Shaka Smart

The Longhorns landed the nation's top power forward on Friday thanks in large part to his relationship with the Texas head basketball coach

On Friday afternoon, five-star prospect out of Vandegrift High School, Greg Brown, officially committed to play his collegiate basketball career at The University of Texas at Austin. This is a huge get for coach Shaka Smart who’s been on the hot seat for the past year.

2020 prospect Greg Brown has committed to Texas, he announced.

5-star recruit.

Big get for Shaka Smart.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 24, 2020

As the top ranked power forward prospect in the 2020 class, Brown will look to make an immediate impact on a Longhorn team that was on the bubble of making the past NCAA Tournament. Throughout the recruitment process, Texas always seemed to be the favorite, although some other programs such as Memphis, Auburn, Michigan, and Kentucky were in the conversation as well.

More notably, unlike the No.1 prospect of the 2020 ESPN 100 class, Brown passed on the opportunity to forgo college ball and head straight to the G League developmental program. ESPN’s Marc Spears announced that Brown had an offer of more than $125,000 to join the G League - showing Brown’s strong intentions to make a name for himself at UT and the college basketball world as a whole

“It was a very, very tough decision, I was back-and-forth all the way up to this last hour," Brown said via Instagram Live. "With that said, I will be committing to the University of Texas."

"I just want to create a legacy like my mom and dad did at UT. Coach Smart was the first coach to offer me in the seventh or eighth grade. We just developed a great relationship ever since. All the other schools were great, but I just have to leave a legacy here at Texas.”

Brown voiced his full support for the program to keep coach Shaka Smart, telling 247Sports in early March that “If Shaka keeps his job, I’ll most likely be going there”. A couple of weeks later Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte made the decision to indeed retain coach Smart for the upcoming season. Director Conte seemed to make the right call, as the Horns might’ve received their best prospect since NBA superstar Kevin Durant last played in Austin during the 2006-07 season.