Right now, in my eyes the Texas basketball program is analogous to LSU football circa 2001 in Saban's 2nd year. At that point LSU routinely sent loads of talent to the NFL and despite some recent success the ridiculous level that the program would reach over the next 20 years wasn't exactly predictable to anyone back then. However, all the necessary ingredients required for their coming success was already present within the program and state at that time. By that same token for Texas basketball, all of the previous hurdles preventing schools from the state from having sustained college basketball success have been slowly removed over the past couple of decades. Everything from instate skill development and talent busting at the seams, to newly established NIL rules reducing the reluctance of some schools from getting too heavily involved in the basketball recruiting muck. I really don't think it's clear to most Longhorns fans outside of maybe the most ardent basketball aficionados how good Texas high school basketball is compared to the rest of the country right now. Having a guy like Beard (hopefully keeping him if we can) at the helm of the program at this moment in time is a godsend in terms of taking advantage of all that is available for building and sustaining a championship level program.