Some notable pickups by Texas coach Sean Miller in the transfer portal have the Longhorns projected by some as a preseason top-10 team.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Sean Miller is stoked.
Just 13 months removed from accepting the Texas basketball job, the second-year head coach approaches his next season with a whole lot more confidence than he did in Year 1.
And a whole team to boot, too.
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Amazing what a $20 million payroll, give or take, can accomplish. While Miller strongly refutes that number reported by On3 — which stands by its story — it’s certainly in the ballpark in today’s spending spree that is college basketball’s new trend.
And the inroads he’s made this offseason has attracted so much attention, some are projecting his team as top-10 material.
When asked if the amount of money devoted to Longhorn basketball approached $20 million, Miller shook his head and said, “No, no, no. We’re not.”
Is Texas in the neighborhood?
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“I won’t go beyond that,” he said, “but we’re not.”
While he had to make do with a patchwork lineup built on the fly last spring, he did a lot. While his defensively challenged team had no true point guard and no frontcourt that could deny shots at the rim, Miller has put together a 14-player roster with five transfers, a pair of top high school recruits and a returning foundation built around 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis, All of the transfers have more than one year of eligibility remaining, and four were four-star recruits.
And they can play defense, too.
That will come in handy because those players from last year’s 21-15 team, while offensively robust and confident during its Sweet 16 run, were deficient on that side of the ball.
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That especially holds true for dynamic TCU power forward David Punch, who, well, brings one. Mlller recruited the solid 6-7, 246-pound junior-to-be at his former Xavier job and has always kept an eye on him. Punch averaged 14 points a game and reportedly was offered $3 million to stay in Fort Worth. Mokietaitis will make closer to $4 million.
“David’s been able to go inside and out with the Big 12,” Miller said at the SEC spring meetings Tuesday. “We were thrilled to have David. When we were at Xavier, he was actually under the radar coming out of high school, so we had familiarity with him. So being able to get David gets us help at the four position.”
His presence rectifies a glaring omission from last year’s club because 6-7 shooting specialist Cam Heide was playing out of position at the four last year and Vokietaitis has yet to become an efficient shot-blocker inside. This was probably the most critical piece of the puzzle because Miller’s trying to copy the model of versatile big men that teams like Florida and Arizona have perfected.
“The three positions for us that have great meaning because of our style is the point guard, the four man, and the five,” Miller said. “Because in college basketball, the best right now have a big or somebody at that position that can really punish you around the basket, and sometimes they’re adept and go inside and out. Think of Florida, think of Arizona, so is Michigan.”
Miller also turned the point guard position into one of strength when he landed sophomore Isaiah Johnson out of Colorado to run the team. Johnson was regarded as one of the top scorers in the portal with an estimated NIL valuation of $1.3 million.
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“Isaiah played in the Big 12 at 18 years old, so he should have or could have been a senior in high school,” Miller said. “He loves the game of basketball and again has a really bright future.”
Texas also landed Tennessee swingman Amari Evans, 6-8 Auburn small forward Elyjah Freeman and Saint Mary’s shooting guard Mikey Lewis. The first two are regarded as elite defenders on the wing. Freeman and Johnson were rated top-10 transfers.
Miller said Freeman and former Longhorn Dailyn Swain are remarkably similar.
“Dailyn and he have a lot of similarities, because if you track Dailyn Swain a couple years ago, not a lot of people in this room would have known who he is,” Miller said, “and I think just his work ethic, his body, his athleticism. A lot of the same traits Elyjah has Dailyn had.”
Miller was on record when he told On 3 when asked how many basketball programs have a payrolls of at least $20 million, “I would say 20 to 25. (The) University of Texas is investing in our basketball program to allow us to compete for the top prize, and I think we’re in the company of about seven or eight (that) are really along the same lines as us.”
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He would include in that list teams like Duke, Tennessee and Louisville and said others within that range are Indiana, North Carolina, Texas A&M, UConn and Houston.
Texas beefed up its non-conference schedule, adding Memphis, a game against Miami in Houston, and Georgetown and either UCLA or Saint Mary’s in a San Diego tournament. The Longhorns had scheduled a game with Ohio State in San Antonio, but the plans fell through. They also will play a road game in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
Longhorn fans can expect a much less rocky transition this fall as coaches cope with makeovers almost on an annual basis.
“It’s a puzzle, but it was a puzzle that was put together with a lot more thought and organization,” Miller said. “A year ago, we didn’t have that ability, and, and you probably felt that watching us throughout sometime in November and December, where you know we were doing the best that we could. I think we’ll come into this season more organized because we had the ability to get a few pieces right.”