Texas Tech basketball: What to expect from new transfer Jamarius Burton

Roster Implications

NCAA basketball teams can have 13 scholarship players on the roster at one time.  Even if Burton redshirts, he will be counted against that total.

That leaves Tech with five players set to arrive this summer: Burnett, Micah Peavy, Chibuzo Agbo, Esahia Nywie, and now Burton.  They will join the 11 players set to return from this year’s team.  The only players from the 2019-20 team that have departed are seniors Chris Clarke and T.J. Holyfield.

So there are currently 16 players in the mix for 13 spots.  That’s a numbers problem that Beard will have to sort out.

There’s increasing evidence that Jahmi’us Ramsey is going to head to the NBA.  In fact, on Monday college basketball insider Jeff Goodman included Ramsey on a list of players yet to declare for the draft that are expected to eventually do so.

Should Ramsey make the jump, that leaves Tech with 15 players in the mix.  There are three logical options for potential players that might depart with one additional wild card to consider.

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With Tech now secure at the point guard position for at least the next two years and possibly three if Burton redshirts this year, one has to wonder if Clarence Nadolny has a future in Lubbock.  As a freshman this year, the Frenchman played just an average of six minutes per game in the 24 appearances he made.

He saw action in just 12 of the 18 conference games despite the team’s lack of a true PG, which is what he is.  Thus, it would seem like he might be a player whose path to significant minutes is blocked with Burton and Burnett coming to town.

Not a point guard, Andrei Savrasov is also a player who doesn’t seem to be in line for much playing time in the upcoming season.  That’s because he is a pick-and-pop forward who doesn’t bring much physicality to the table despite being 6-foot-7.

With players like Terrence Shannon, Kevin McCullar, Tyreke Smith, and Joel Ntambwe already able to do what Savrasove does and do it better than he does, it’s hard to see what value the Russian could bring to the table in his sophomore season after he played in only 21 games this year.  What’s more, he will fall even farther down the forward pecking order when 2020 signees Micah Peavy and Chibuzo Agbo arrive so it isn’t a stretch to envision him moving on.

It is more difficult to see a scenario in which Russell Tchewa doesn’t return.  The 7-footer showed flashes of talent this season in limited action and could be a potential rotation piece next year because he has elite size, a nice work ethic, and more lateral mobility and agility than most players his size.  Still, as one of the three players on the roster that saw the fewest minutes this year, we have to at least consider the possibility that he won’t return.

The wild card could be Avery Benson.  Put on scholarship in January as a redshirt sophomore, he was a great story after walking on two years ago.  However, will he bring as much value to what will be a more veteran roster next year as he did to this season’s young squad?  Likely not.

Thus, it might make sense for Benson to look to spend his final two years at a smaller school where he can see more playing time.  Might he follow former Tech assistant Brian Burg to Georgia Southern this offseason?

Either way, the addition of Burton is going to force an even greater shakeup of the roster than we were already expecting.  Thus, Tech fans will be keeping an eye out for more news out of Chris Beard’s program in the upcoming weeks.