“It’s not to our advantage to be ranked where we’re ranked and have one returning player.”
In the midst of significantly heightened expectations for the No. 7 Texas Longhorns in the 2026-27 season, head coach Sean Miller’s statement last Monday put into perspective how much growth will be necessary during the non-conference season.
Heading into next Saturday’s season opener against Chicago State in Austin, Sunday’s 87-74 exhibition loss to No. 13 St. John’s at Madison Square Garden featured some real growing pains for Texas, especially in a first half that saw the Longhorns enter the break trailing by 18 points. The only lead for Miller’s team came after scoring the game’s first basket.
The high-profile transfers for St. John’s led the way for the Red Storm — Auburn transfer forward Keyshawn Hall scored a game-high 24 points on 8-0f-13 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 shooting from the line and Baylor transfer guard Tounde Yessofou added 23 points, five assists, and four rebounds.
For Texas, junior center Matas Vokietaitis and sophomore guard Isaiah Johnson were able to get to the free-throw line frequently in the second half, contributing to the Longhorns winning the final 20 minutes by five points. Texas posted a 24-to-8 advantage in free-throw attempts in the second half as Vokietaitis went 7-of-8 shooting from the line and Johnson went 6-of-8 shooting. Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points while Vokietaitis notched 14 points.
Texas didn’t exactly take advantage of those opportunities in shooting 64.7 percent from the line, a disappointing outcome after a much more positive offseason shooting program, including missing the front end of one and ones on multiple occasions.
The value of playing the Rick Pitino-coached team on the road in an exhibition was quickly apparent in how poorly things went for the Horns as the Red Storm delivered heavy pressure early, quite literally in the sense of full-court pressure, and more figuratively in their ability to make Texas pay for turnovers with transition baskets, ultimately scoring 11 fastbreak points in the opening 20 minutes. The length of St John’s and the physical defense played by Red Storm were also good learning experiences for the Longhorns.
The initial halfcourt defense wasn’t much better for the Longhorns as Vokietaitis hedged ball screens more frequently than last year, causing breakdowns in the off-ball rotations, and Texas was frequently beat off the dribble, exposing the continued lack of rim protection from Vokietaitis, who was at least more disciplined in avoiding fouls than he has been in the past.
St. John’s finished with 19 layups and five dunks — freshman forward Marcus Spears Jr. has some real ability to clean up mistakes at the rim, but overall, this Texas team is going to need to stay in front of people on the perimeter to avoid hemorrhaging points in the paint.
Last year’s team struggled creating turnovers, but achieved its level of offensive efficiency by not giving the ball away. On Saturday, the Longhorns only forced 12 turnovers and didn’t do much with them, turning those giveaways into just seven points. On the other end of the court, there were way too many bad decisions, and greater opportunism by St. John’s — Texas had 16 turnovers that resulted in 20 points, an area that improved after halftime with the number of turnovers reduced from 10 to six.
Spears and freshman guard Austin Goosby were particularly sloppy with the ball, understandable given their youth. In the absence of secondary ball handler Mikey Lewis, the junior guard out with injury, Goosby had a team-high five turnovers with only one assist while Spears had three turnovers, but at least added two assists. Miller is giving Spears the freedom to turn rebounds into transition ball handling and there are going to be resulting short-term mistakes. Pay offs are already evident and will become more frequent.
The ball-security problems were also widespread, with Johnson contributing four turnovers, Vokeitiatis giving it away three, and junior forward David Punch turning it over twice.
The athleticism of Spears flashed on offense and defense with three blocks and finishes at the rim.
Late in the game, Spears added a fast-break dunk.
Another one of Miller’s statements is also looking accurate.
“I believe that we can get there, and I would just say that when you watch us, we should be better as we move forward,” Miller said. “I said that a year ago because we had the same thing going — new staff, new team. Year one to year two is different, but I do believe part of us are growing pains, and what we have to do is be better as we move along because of our lack of experience.”
Fortunately for Texas, there’s plenty of time to achieve that improvement with a non-conference schedule that only features two opponents who profile similarly to St. John’s in No. 11 Louisville and No. 14 Miami — when non-conference play begins in nine weeks, these Longhorns should be significantly better, and will need to be.