Texas F Royce Hamm Jr. enters the NCAA transfer portal

Senior forward Royce Hamm Jr. became the first Texas Longhorns basketball player to make a decision about his future by announcing on Tuesday that he’s entered the NCAA transfer portal and will pursue other opportunities for his final season of eligibility.

The 6’8, 214-pounder from Houston enrolled at Texas as a member of the 2017 recruiting class ranked as the No. 90 overall player and the No. 20 power forward, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Hamm committed to the Longhorns over offers from Kansas State, Nebraska, Rice, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, and Virginia Tech.

Hamm largely served as a reserve during his career, but did see several stretches of increased playing time due to injuries — the Houston product played an important role in the five-game run to the NIT title in 2018-19 and started the final seven games of the 2019-20 season.

As a senior, Hamm saw his playing time decrease from 12.3 minutes per game to 8.3 minutes per game with the improvement of sophomore forward Kai Jones and the arrival of freshman forward Greg Brown III. Hamm didn’t always deal with it well, allowing his frustrations to boil over publicly after he failed to see the court against Kansas State in early February.

In his final game at Texas, Hamm played six minutes in the first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Abilene Christian, recording five rebounds, one steal, and a turnover.