{"id":367297,"date":"2026-07-09T20:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/367297\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:21:08","slug":"dynamic-prep-star-marcus-spears-jr-commits-to-texas-longhorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/367297\/","title":{"rendered":"Dynamic Prep star Marcus Spears\u00a0Jr. commits to Texas Longhorns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dynamic Prep five-star power forward Marcus Spears\u00a0Jr., the nation\u2019s second-ranked boys basketball recruit in the Class of 2027, delivered some huge news Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-10 Spears announced on Instagram that he was committing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/texas-longhorns\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a>, but that wasn\u2019t the biggest revelation. ESPN reported that Spears is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jeffborzello\/status\/2075292279078850681?s=20\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow\">reclassifying to the Class of 2026<\/a> so he can play for UT this upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexas basketball is becoming a big thing again, and I am excited to be part of it,\u201d Spears told ESPN. \u201cThe Texas fans can expect a worker with a lot of energy. I will be trying to bring Texas a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spears, the top-ranked recruit in Texas, also considered Arizona, Kentucky and LSU. His sister, former Plano Prestonwood Christian star Cari Spears, plays volleyball at UT and was a third-team AVCA All-American in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarcus Jr. grew up in Texas, and there\u2019s nothing like playing for your home school and winning,\u201d Spears\u2019 father, ESPN analyst and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/article\/cowboys-nfl-draft-marcus-spears-billy-joe-dupree-22218133.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">former Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears<\/a>, told ESPN. \u201cI experienced that growing up in Louisiana at LSU. This is his decision and his future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because Spears just turned 17 in April, he is two years away from being eligible for the NBA draft and will need to spend two years in Austin, according to ESPN. He joins a UT recruiting class that is ranked No. 7 in the nation for the Class of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Spears told ESPN that he developed a strong relationship with Texas coach Sean Miller.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got along with him, very well,\u201d he said. \u201cHe showed me everything about the program and knew my game. He explained my position and explained his plan for me. He is laid back off the court, but on the court he will get into you and get the most out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dynamic Prep five-star power forward Marcus Spears\u00a0Jr., the nation\u2019s second-ranked boys basketball recruit in the Class of 2027,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44546,1638,94936,27,29,28,88145],"class_list":["post-367297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-boys-basketball","tag-brief","tag-sports-texas-longhorns","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-colleges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}