That'll Leave a Mark: Arkansas Transfer Wing Tramon Mark Commits to Texas MBB
Texas MBB lands a top-10 scorer in the SEC to add to a roster that struggled to get buckets last season.
Primer.
Outside of a big, physical center, Texas basketball’s biggest flaw last season was arguably their lack of diverse wing scoring — sophomore forward Dillon Mitchell did what he could, scoring on cuts, slip screens, put-backs, and in transition, but with the ball in his hands on the perimeter, he was extremely limited by his lack of handle or shooting ability.
Essentially, Mitchell has the skillset of a non-shooting big on offense. Often, he was forced to share the floor with a true power forward in sharpshooter Dylan Disu (graduated/2024 NBA Draft prospect), which made it very difficult to create space for open shooters. With the issues the Texas offense had all season, splitting point guard reps between Max Abmas (graduated) and Tyrese Hunter (transferring), the offense in general struggled to consistently score – or even really run actions – on or off ball.
As hard as the team fought, they just didn’t have the congruent talent to make any kind of deep run in the tournament, and by winning their first-round matchup with 10-seed Colorado State, they truly overachieved.
They played excellent defense against the Rams and against Tennessee in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but when it came down to it, the Longhorns offense just could not get it done in the clutch in the second game against the Vols.
Texas needs a bucket getter, a guy to rely on to get the last shot of the game, who can shoot over defenders and attack the basket from the perimeter.
Enter Tramon Mark.
The native of Dickinson, Texas was the Arkansas Razorbacks’ starting wing and leading scorer last season, a player with real pedigree who was a major pickup for Rodney Terry out of the transfer portal.
Eric Musselman’s last season in Fayetteville was not a particularly memorable one, as the Hogs failed to make the tournament, finishing 16-17. Mark was one of the few bright spots of an underwhelming season, and despite his team’s struggles, he truly was and is one of the best scoring threats in the SEC, finishing 10th overall last season in PPG.
So what’s his game like? Let’s take a look.
Offense.
The primary skill that defines Tramon Mark’s offensive game is his shotmaking ability – he has it in spades. In the past, he’s had a bit of a bad habit of taking difficult shots, including contested midrange and three-point attempts (off the bounce and catch). The redeeming quality is, of course, that he hits a very good portion of them.
Though Mark struggled with field-goal percentage over the first three years of his college career, spent at Houston under Kelvin Sampson, this past year in Fayetteville was far and away his most efficient season, as he put up 16.2 points on 48% FG and 36.4% 3PFG.
The improvement was palpable, and done so on a higher volume (11.3 FGA/game). Compared to the season before with the Cougs, where he shot 39% FG and 32.8% 3PFG on just 8.9 FGA, it’s clear he found his role and had enough confidence to serve as the Hogs’ leading scorer.
Just as he split reps with another scorer in former Razorback Khalif Battle, Mark will share the ball with 2024 shooting guard Tre Johnson, a composite top-five player in his class and another big perimeter player that can create offense for himself. Having multiple scoring options is crucial, especially when it gets to tournament time. Having a five-star freshman is nice as a scoring option of course, but when it’s deep in the tournament, you want a player with experience – Mark is a graduate transfer.
In the clip below, Tramon Mark’s shotmaking prowess is on display as he connects on a fallaway three-point attempt where Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves is too late on the close out, unable to effectively defend the shot after biting on the screen and losing his man on the perimeter.
Mark hits the attempt despite losing his balance on the way down and having Reeves interfere with his landing, though the infraction goes uncalled.
The size and ability to handle the ball allow Tramon Mark to create his own shot from scratch and really shine in iso-motion sets. Anyone who watched last season’s Texas MBB team can attest that they needed someone that could score at will when Max Abmas was struggling with his shot (typically against bigger defensive back courts, due to the fact that both he and Tyrese Hunter are both right around 6-foot).
The former Razorback and Cougar would have been arguably, with Dylan Disu, the best player on the Longhorns offense last year, as back court traps against Abmas and Hunter could be quelled with either a wing iso or off-ball screen.
Advanced stats back up these claims of Mark’s scoring ability. According to Synergy Sports, he is classified as “Excellent” in overall shooting efficiency, the metric of which is Points Per Possession, or PPP.
Mark in 2023-24 averaged a blistering 1.046 PPP, in the 86th percentile overall in this category, including 89th percentile in transition with 1.333 PPP. For reference, 2023-24 SEC Player of the Year, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, was 88th percentile overall with a PPP rating of 1.063, virtually the same exact score as the brand-new Longhorn.
Watch the iso-motion below featuring Mark guarded once again by Antonio Reeves. His teammates clear out as he waves them off, creating enough space for Mark to make his move and get to the basket. He dribbles left, and once in the paint, uses a head fake before going off his pivot foot for the lay-in.
The Texas Longhorns did not have a player that could consistently do that in 2023-24. It was easy for opposing teams with any degree of length to lock up UT’s perimeter players and essentially force them into dribbling the air out of the ball for 20 seconds before putting up a contested shot as the clock expired. It went like that fairly often for the Texas offense, but with the group being brought in, scoring probably won’t be the primary issue.
Here’s another Tramon Mark iso below, this time resulting in a pull-up midrange jumper off of the bounce, which he hits with ease. His stroke is natural and the height plus high release point makes it a much more difficult shot to contest than those of the smaller ball handlers that ran the Texas offense last year.
This kind of scoring opportunity will be welcomed next season.
On display here is his rip ‘n’ run ability, taking a defensive rebound, running the floor with the ball, and finishing through contact in the break. Instead of using just his speed to blow by North Carolina’s Elliot Cadeau, he puts the UNC freshman on his heels with a hesitation crossover before using his size to his advantage and bullying his way to the rim.
Mark is a return to productivity from the wing spot, and an upgrade over Dillon Mitchell, Ithiel Horton, and the other players Rodney Terry had to shoehorn into the small forward role.
Defense.
While definitely a player known more for his offense than his defense, Tramon Mark has the size and athleticism to at the very least be a passable defender. He was better at Houston on the defensive end than he was at Arkansas, but a lot of that was due to toxic chemistry issues within the Razorback locker room that led to lacking effort.
Not only that, but any player is going to look better on D when playing for Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars, so likely Tramon Mark’s overall prowess on that end of the floor is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes – for example, he’s probably not as good as his 91.3 DRtg his last season at Houston, but not as bad as his 111.2 rating at Arkansas.
Despite his length, Mark is still fairly slight, and occasionally struggles with screen navigation when chasing an offensive player off ball. Below, he gets caught off guard by a (moving?) screen from Kentucky’s Zvonomir Ivisic, which allows DJ Wagner to get free.
An illuminating game for understanding Mark’s role on defense was their Valentine’s Day matchup at home against then eighth-ranked Tennessee. The previously referenced SEC POTY Dalton Knecht was Mark’s primary assignment on defense, and…it didn’t go well for him or for his team.
Tennessee dominated the Hogs in Fayetteville, 93-62, and Knecht was the Vols’ second-leading scorer with 22 points. He shot 7-for-14 from the field overall, 1-for-3 from three, and 7-for-10 from the free-throw line.
Below is another example of trouble in screen navigation – in this OOB play, Knecht uses an off-ball screen and cuts to the basket untouched, hammering it down for two points. Mark was in the correct position to start the set, but got caught up in the screen by Santiago Vescovi.
Occasional mental errors like the one below can help to explain the uninspiring DRtg he had on the season. The miscommunication here between Mark and teammate Khalif Battle here leads to a wide-open three-point shot for Tennessee.
He’s demonstrated flashes of good defense occasionally as well – I don’t want to paint him in a negative light, because he is an absolutely massive pickup for this Texas team and immediately makes them a scarier squad in the upcoming season.
It’s also hard to gage his defense from year to year given the fundamentally massive differences between the system ran by Kelvin Sampson vs. Eric Musselman’s scheme. Obviously, his DRtg is going to look better on a team where he’s surrounded by elite lockup guys giving it their all to trap ball screens and interfere with passing lanes. The defensive intensity and discipline that define UH’s program were not in play for the Hogs.
To be fair, I’ve put below a few defensive highlights of Mark’s – his effectiveness on defense is very much reliant on his motor, but in the right circumstances, I believe he can rise to the occasion.
Conclusion.
It’s hard not to like what Rodney Terry has been up to so far in the portal, as he already has three committed players: Mark, as well as Indiana State’s Jayson Kent and Julian Larry.
It’s already obvious, at least to me, that next year’s roster is going to make a lot more sense from a scoring perspective, and Tramon Mark is a major piece of that. So far, Texas has on its basketball roster:
G Chendall Weaver | Junior
F Kadin Shedrick | Senior
W Tramon Mark | Grad Transfer, Arkansas
W Jayson Kent | Grad Transfer, Indiana State
G Julian Larry | Grad Transfer, Indiana State
G Tre Johnson | ★★★★★ | Link Prep (MO)
F Nic Codie | ★★★★ | Newman-Smith (TX)
They’re also targeting the following transfers:
G Jordan Pope | Junior, Oregon State
F/C Brandon Garrison | Sophomore, Oklahoma State
F Rytis Petraitis | Senior, Air Force Academy
Terry is getting after it in the portal, and stocking up for next season’s first foray into SEC Basketball.
Now the next step is to get Brandon Garrison to commit. ASAP.
– Keenan Womack
Aren't Pryor and Onyema still on the roster?