Texas Tech basketball: Ivy League big man could be option for Red Raiders

The Texas Tech basketball program is looking for help in the post and Yale forward Jordan Bruner could be a possible option.

Recently, we’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing how Chris Beard is looking at a number of on-ball guards to add to the Texas Tech basketball program.  However, anyone that watched the Red Raiders play this season knows that some reinforcements in the paint are also needed.

That’s why Tech has reportedly reached out to Yale grad transfer Jordan Bruner.  According to Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers.com, Tech and DePaul have reached out to the 6-foot-9 forward within the last two days.  Also reportedly in the mix are Kansas, UCONN, Boston College, South Carolina, Xavier, Georgetown, Maryland, Alabama, Duke and USC.

In 2019-20, the South Carolina native scored a career-high 10.9 points per game while grabbing 9.7 rebounds and dishing out 3.7 assists.  He was named an All-Ivy League selection and now, he’s looking for a new home.

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However, he is also considering the NBA as an option for next year.  In fact, it has been reported that he would like to go through the NBA evaluation process prior to the draft, should that option exist (which is in doubt due to the coronavirus pandemic).

"“I’m thankful for all the interest from a lot of top programs in the country,” he told Steve Clark of Thedevilsden.com “and really it makes sense to me because I feel like if I’m good enough to go and play professionally then a lot of the college programs would potentially reach out to me, especially since I played a lot of high major teams and played well I thought. If the best schools in the country weren’t calling me to come play at their schools, then the way I figure it, I probably wouldn’t fare too well at the NBA level or overseas, so that’s been a blessing to hear from them.”"

Bruner’s productivity in the post would be a huge boost to the 2020-21 Red Raiders after the program graduated T.J. Holyfield, the only player on this year’s roster at 6-foot-9 or taller to start a game this year as well as Chris Clarke, the team’s leading rebounder.  Next year, the Red Raiders will be able to count on some scoring from 6-foot-8 forward Joel Ntambwe who sat out this year per NCAA transfer rules but rebounding is an important aspect of the game Tech needs to improve upon.

This year, the Red Raiders were just 184th in the nation in rebounding margin.  Amazingly, this year, Tech grabbed the exact same number of rebounds as its opponents to end with a 0.00 rebound margin.  While that stat is unusual, it isn’t necessarily positive and for next year to be better, Beard needs to add some muscle inside.

This year, Bruner had 10 double-digit rebounding games including a season-high 15 against North Carolina.  That day, he also scored 11 points to register a double-double.

Yale also faced off with Oklahoma State this past season.  Against the Cowboys, Bruner scored six points and pulled down nine rebounds while handing out three assists and blocking two shots.

As for protecting the rim, he averaged 1.7 blocks per game, which was just a tick better than Tech’s leader, Holyfield, who averaged 1.6 per game. That’s also an aspect of the game that the Red Raiders will want to address this offseason.

"“I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on in the basketball world right now but I think a lot of the pre-Draft events were going to be helpful for my stock,” Bruner told 247Sports’ Evan Daniels. “I think my stock wasn’t going to do anything but go up during those things and without those things I think that I will be hurting a bit. Just trying to evaluate the situation a little bit and being able to go back to college if that’s what I decide to do.”"

It sounds as if Bruner isn’t in any hurry to make his decision, which is unlike many of the players in the portal who have already decided upon new teams.  So file this name away in the back of your mind because this is a player that could become a Red Raider this summer but we might not know what he will do for some time.