Marcus Spears gets emotional watching son Marcus Spears Jr. arrive for 1st Texas basketball game
By Jacob Moss
Published:
The No. 7 Texas Longhorns got their 2026-27 season off to a strong start on Monday night with a dominant 109-59 victory over Chicago State. Five-star true freshman Marcus Spears Jr. made an immediate impact in his collegiate debut, recording 11 points, five rebounds and four blocks off the bench.
The son of former LSU and NFL defensive lineman Marcus Spears, the former high school standout was the centerpiece of the Longhorns’ elite 2026 recruiting class.
As it turns out, the elder Spears was live on Monday Night Countdown as his son arrived for his first game as a college basketball player, and the ESPN crew captured an emotional moment as he watched his oldest son walk through the tunnel of the Moody Center in Austin.
Standing 6-foot-9 and weighing 210 pounds, Spears Jr. was ranked the No. 8 overall player and No. 2 power forward in the 2026 recruiting class, holding offers from pretty much every top program in the country.
He ultimately chose to follow in the footsteps of his older sister, Macaria, a highly ranked college volleyball player at Texas, and committed to the Longhorns under second-year head coach Sean Miller.
Monday night was only the beginning of what looks to be a promising career for Spears Jr., and thanks to the ESPN crew, it was also a moment the entire Spears family can look back on and cherish for years to come.
