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Julien Lewis, a sophomore shooting guard, will transfer from the Texas Longhorns following a tumultuous season. He apparently broke the news to Mark Berman, the lead sports reporter for FOX 26 News in Houston.
University of Texas guard Julien Lewis told FOX 26 Sports he has informed the school he is transferring. He was their 3rd leading scorer
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) May 14, 2013
Guard Julien Lewis on decision to transfer from Texas: "Texas is a good school overall, but I can do better things somewhere else."
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) May 14, 2013
Lewis averaged 11.2 PPG and 3.3 RPG during his sophomore year. Though he showed improvement in his efficiency metrics, Lewis failed to step into a leadership void left by the departure of J'Covan Brown and suspension of Myck Kabongo. Expected to make a leap alongside fellow sophomore Sheldon McClellan, Lewis instead vacillated between clutch performances and empty nights, leaving Texas fans and head coach Rick Barnes shaking their heads in frustration.
Like with McClellan, Barnes appeared to have a contentious relationship with Lewis, and cut his minutes towards the end of Big 12 play. A string of four strong games to close out the season, including scoring a season-high 25 points in the Longhorns' season-ending loss to Houston, was apparently not enough to convince Lewis to stay.
Following the season, rumors started to break that Lewis was intent on leaving the program. Those rumors were only further flamed when Barnes recruited a fourth guard late in the recruiting cycle, Martez Walker, to join the 2013 recruiting class. However, as no news had officially leaked, there was still hope that Lewis would stay on to provide an upperclassman presence going into the 2013-14 season.
Per Berman, Lewis had informed the staff of his decision to leave back in April. With no official release from the Athletics Department, nor from any other source, the speculation that Lewis hadn't truly finalized his decision appear true. Now, even though nothing has showed up on TexasSports.com as of yet, it appears the writing on the wall has inked and dried.