Three games into his tenure as Texas basketball coach, Sean Miller has picked up a few things about his program.
He’s gathered that transfer big man Matas Vokietaitis has more offensive game than anticipated; the 7-footer is averaging 16 points on 72% shooting. And Miller has figured out his team has plenty of depth, as evident by 10 players averaging at least 10 minutes a game. And that he wants open scrimmages to help prep his team for the start of the season.
When asked after his team’s win Wednesday over Fairleigh Dickinson whether Texas will participate in public preseason scrimmages in the future, Miller said yes and explained why.
“I think moving forward, it’s very helpful to play in front of a crowd, home or away, and we’ll look to incorporate that before (next) season begins,” Miller said. “We’ve already thought about it, talked about it. How can we be better? That’s one of the things that I think could help us earlier in the year.”
This is the first season that the NCAA has allowed public preseason scrimmages with official scoring. In previous years, these exhibitions were approved through a waiver process with the NCAA, and the proceeds from the games were donated to a charity, which happened when Texas played Arkansas in a preseason game at Moody Center before the 2022-23 season.
Miller said “it’s difficult in your first year” to quickly schedule preseason scrimmages. However, he says the Longhorns already have one arraignment for the 2026 preseason. He didn’t give specifics since details still need to be worked out, but he expects his team to play two open scrimmages.
As Miller saw Nov. 4 in his team’s season-opening 75-60 loss to Duke before a rabid crowd in Charlotte, N.C., that no amount of practice can make up for a lack of court time in front of fans. Duke had traveled to Tennessee for a physical preseason scrimmage in October before a sold-out crowd, and Miller said that scrimmage helped the Blue Devils handle the rowdy atmosphere at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center.
“Duke and Tennessee played an open exhibition game in front of 12,000 people and three referees, etc.,” he said. “Game experience is big. It’s that game pressure that everybody feels that you can’t simulate in any closed scrimmage or practice environment. You learn a lot.”
For now, Miller just wants to focus on improving with each game, including Saturday’s matchup against visiting Kansas City.
“Once games begin, you have a great opportunity to improve, and that’s so big for us in the month of November, to win as many games as we can but to be on the rise, to be a team that is getting better and better,” he said. “Every time that you watch us play, it should look smoother. It should look more confident. And I think, just as a fan, you should start to see the way we’re trying to play the game, both on offense and defense.”
Where: Moody Center in Austin
TV/radio: SEC Network+ / 1300 AM / 98.1 FM