Kadin Shedrick: "I wanted to come and win and compete for a national championship"

Five months after undergoing a procedure to address a shoulder issue, Texas forward Kadin Shedrick was cleared for full-court action ahead of the No. 18 Longhorns’ season opener versus Incarnate Word on November 6.

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“I just got fully cleared to start going up and down yesterday,” Shedrick said Wednesday. “The goal is to be out there Monday. We’ll see how this week go. But today was my first time was getting up and down, and I’m feeling good.”

How’d Shedrick take the news? “I was ecstatic,” he said.

The 6-foot-11, 231-pound transfer from Virginia knows defense. After being in Cavaliers head coach Tony Bennett‘s program for the past four seasons, protecting the rim and being — as UT head coach Rodney Terry described it — an air traffic controller for the Longhorn defense is something that comes naturally to Shedrick.

There will obviously be conditioning limitations early since he’s just now starting to run all 94 feet, but Texas’ defense is going to rely on Shedrick to be a difference-maker on the back end.

“As the season goes, he’s one of those guys that can erase some mistakes behind for guys that beat us off the dribble and get into the paint,” Terry said.

Shedrick’s defensive ability is why Texas sought the senior who averaged 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game for the ‘Hoos last season. The ability to compete at a high level, along with more offensive opportunities, drew Shedrick to Texas.

“It’s a great opportunity to come here and play a different style, play something that I could probably use a little more at the next level in being up and down a little more,” Shedrick said. “It was great to be at Virginia for those four years because I learned a lot about structure, especially offensively and defensively. Especially defensively, I learned a lot of my defensive principles over there. Those are easily applicable here, but now I’m trying to get used to the offensive rhythm that we have here.”

Last season, Texas was No. 98 in KenPom‘s adjusted tempo metric, a standing good for fourth in the Big 12. In contrast, Virginia was No. 363, the slowest among power conference teams.

As mentioned, Shedrick was looking for more offensive opportunities, and Terry identified some of the ways the Longhorns could use their tallest player.

“We think he can be a guy early right now and give us a presence in the paint with hard duck-ins and as a guy who can score with his right- and left-hand hook,” Terry said.

During a scrimmage with Division II St. Edward’s on Monday, one Shedrick was unavailable for, the Longhorns utilized offense sets featuring a lot of spacing. The Horns even trotted out a five-out lineup to start the game, and it was erratic in its effectiveness against the Hilltoppers. When forward Ze’Rik Onyema was on the floor (the only big available in Shedrick’s and Dylan Disu‘s absences), Texas utilized some pick-and-roll actions.

That part of the Longhorn offense is something Shedrick can’t wait to execute.

“I love pick-and-rolls,” Shedrick said. “It’s probably my favorite thing to do on offense. There’s definitely room for me to grow in pick-and-rolls for sure, but I love it. That’s another reason why I came here, an opportunity to be in a whole bunch of those actions.”

Shedrick mentioned his life as a student and in Austin has been awesome since joining the program. He said he believes the transfer-laden team is getting closer by the week, and that the Longhorns will continue to synergize as the season goes on.

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The increased pace and opportunity to showcase skills on both ends of the floor is part of what brought Shedrick to Austin, but there was one main goal in mind that the cleared-to-play near-7-footer mentioned as being his priority on Wednesday.

“I didn’t want to go from one winning program to a mediocre program,” Shedrick said. “I wanted to come and win and compete for a national championship.”