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Longhorn legend Lance Blanks has passed away


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1 hour ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

a class act , from Conroe McCollough and transferred from UVA .  Heavily recruited as # 1 Texas recruit. 

RIP, Lance

He was the 2nd best HS basketball player I've seen in person behind LaBradford Smith.

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I only knew who the guy was because of the LHN, but a couple guys I know that are pretty plugged into Texas sports have met him and said he was a wonderful guy, very sad news. You never know what someone is going through behind the scenes.

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What a terrible loss. RIP Lance.

I hate to be that guy but I'm going to be that guy. The "check on your friends you never know what they're going through" makes it sound like suicide/drugs. Is that right?

Feel free to ignore me or delete me. Not trying to create drama. It's just a shocking loss.

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2 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

wow. i've known Lance my entire life. this is jarring. i'm speechless right now. how could i know that the last time i saw him would be the last time i saw him. i'm speechless. i guess it time that i go through all of those old photos from way back when. shit this is tough. i'm totally stunned. RIP Lance. 🤘🏼 

 

Was Lance the one who transferred from VIrginia? If so, I knew he was going to be a big time player - I was at Anna Hiss shooting around and a random guy asked me if I wanted to play two on two against two college basketball guys who were shooting around on the other end of the court. I'm like 5'10" and worked out so I had a bad shot but I was quick and could dunk, played great D and would get every loose ball and trash bucket out there and was willing to pass to a better shooter. Anyway, the guy who asked me was a little taller than me and was a high school teammate of Lance Blanks and was telling how good Blanks was. We played the pickup game and beat the fuck out of the other two guys. I thought to myself, if this guy who basically single-handedly beat the shit out of two college basketball guys is telling me how good of a player Lance Blanks is, I'm a believer. And it turned out to be true.

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Talk about All Gas, No Brakes....that was those Penders teams at Texas. That Elite 8 run was so much fun. I took it all for granted. Lance was larger than life to me back then. My heart breaks for his family.

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Not the news I expected to come home to. First a rush of excitement following the portal/transfer news ... but then this.

BMW wasn't my introduction to UT hoops, but it was the high point for more than a decade. What a gut punch.

 

Sympathies to those who knew and loved him.

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37 minutes ago, MotownHorn said:

What a terrible loss. RIP Lance.

I hate to be that guy but I'm going to be that guy. The "check on your friends you never know what they're going through" makes it sound like suicide/drugs. Is that right?

Feel free to ignore me or delete me. Not trying to create drama. It's just a shocking loss.

Was thinking the same thing. Dont wanna jump to conclusions though. 
 

fuck, Lance was a fantastic guy by all accounts and I actually liked him on the basketball broadcasts. Extremely sad

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Damn. Shocking. He seemed like he was fine and in good health and a young guy.

I was such a huge fan of the Runnin' Horns back in the day. I was a teenager back and then and I totally lived and died with those teams. Thanks for all the memories Lance. 

Just...wow...my condolences to all his friends and family and all his co-workers over at LHN.

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RIP Lance you gave us some great memories.

I saw him on campus once while in school and it made my day. I could not understand how this campus star could be standing there waiting on the shuttle with the rest of us.

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10 hours ago, Red Five said:

Side note. I don't know what we were doing then but all of our sports teams in the late 80s/early 90s had the most incredible looking burnt orange. 

my dad once explained to me that one of the things that makes burnt orange so unique is that it's a very difficult color to actually produce. that the true, authentic burnt orange, which has some official name like G357FHPO-169, is actually very difficult to produce, even for people whose job it is to "produce colors" if you will. we had real deal burnt orange back in the late 80's/early 90's, and we've gone so far away from it since then it's crazy, and disappointing. i don't know if we're getting the player price to roll with the fake burnt orange or what, but yeah- they really don't make that color like they used to. 

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Lance was great.  I worked for one of the West Campus property management companies in college, and Lance owned a couple of condos that my boss managed for him.  He would stop in from time to time when he was in town, just to check in and see if anything needed to be addressed.  He was always happy to tell a few war stories to some guys who watched him play a few years earlier.  RIP Lance.

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Wow, sorry about this. We spent an evening together at Sam Houston Racetrack with other people betting and losing but he told great stories and was such a nice guy.

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That Xavier game in 1990 is still my all-time favorite Horns hoops moment (even above beating Sparty to go to the Final 4), and Lance was the spark that brought us back down 16 in the 2nd half. RIP Lance…..

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21 hours ago, MotownHorn said:

What a terrible loss. RIP Lance.

I hate to be that guy but I'm going to be that guy. The "check on your friends you never know what they're going through" makes it sound like suicide/drugs. Is that right?

Feel free to ignore me or delete me. Not trying to create drama. It's just a shocking loss.

 And not sure who this is, but:

But I blame Galindo.  RIP Lance.

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2 hours ago, OU Sucks said:

 And not sure who this is, but:

But I blame Galindo.  RIP Lance.

It's just really sad. I have no idea what happened but nothing is worth ending your life unless perhaps a terminal illness.

I feel really bad for Lance if he couldn't get past those demons. Life comes in waves and goes up and down. I feel terrible for anyone who feels that desperate during the downs. I also don't judge. It's simply very sad and tragic.

No matter what happened it is a very terrible shame to lose such an amazing human at such a relatively young age. RIP Lance

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I never got the chance to meet him, but all the exposure I have had to him starting with that BMW team has been positive.  The man was able to use his talents to work himself into a position in life where he was making a positive difference in so many peoples' lives.  Some people got a smile, a handshake, a wave or pat on the back, and others got more, like all the kids he counseled and encouraged.  

Now in the day of NIL and portals things are so different for these athletes.  It's so much easier to make it about themselves.  But still there are a lot of good athletes that are even better people, because of the positive influence men like Lance Blanks gave them. 

I'm saddened by his passing, but I am also proud to support UT athletics, which seems to attract and nuture athletes and students of such good character.  

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I was a student when he played.  That team was super fun and the 89 Arkansas game when Richardson walked out was probably the best basketball game I have seen live.  Blanks gave the team some swagger.  I remember I thought he must have been a super cocky guy but when I met him he was the total opposite.  His dad was really involved in his career and I often thought they had cooked up the whole "bad guy" image for him which was attractive to the Pistons at the time.  

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I went to the Elite 8 game in Reunion Arena... freakin' "Barnhill South".

Horns did not play their best game, but freakin' refs certainly helped arky...

RIP Lance !!! 🤘

 

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11 minutes ago, CTC2 said:

the 89 Arkansas game when Richardson walked out was probably the best basketball game I have seen live.  

I was a student then too, and was at that game with my dad. Never seen a better game.

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Blanks, Mays and Wright.   I was still in Jr High and had been a Longhorn football fan for a while but hadn't really hooked into basketball.  They were my hook.  Rest in peace Lance.  

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17 hours ago, MotownHorn said:

It's just really sad. I have no idea what happened but nothing is worth ending your life unless perhaps a terminal illness.

Be thankful your brain wires work this way.

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Incredibly sad news to hear.  I sort of view Lance Blanks as the "Godfather" of Texas basketball.  He was exactly the sort of human being you felt proud to be associated with as an alumni of The University of Texas.

Prayers to his family and those close that truly feel the loss.

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On 5/6/2023 at 9:58 AM, Underdog said:

Terrible news RIP.  The BMW team was good, fun basketball.

It was exactly what we needed after the Bob Weltlich years. 

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