Before Texas men’s basketball plays a single game that counts, it already has a reputation to live up to. The Longhorns are a national contender. A top-10 team. A Final Four hopeful.

On paper, at least.

The Longhorns enter head coach Sean Miller’s second season ranked No. 7 in the AP preseason poll and picked to finish second in the Southeastern Conference preseason media poll, carrying ambitions of reaching the Final Four for the first time since 2003.

But for a program that’s almost completely unrecognizable from a year ago, there’s a difference between the team everyone imagines and the one that actually has to perform on the court.

“All of our players, our staff, and I’ll say myself, we signed up for high expectations,” Miller said in an Oct. 19 media availability. “Why would you ever want to go to a program that has to trip over themselves to apologize about what they can’t do, what they don’t have? … We have to embrace it.”

The expectations aren’t without justification.

Over the offseason, Miller and his staff assembled the nation’s top-ranked overall newcomer class, according to 247Sports, around lone returning starter junior center Matas Vokietaitis. The result is a roster that, by all indications, appears capable of competing with the nation’s best.

“I think this team is more talented, like very, very talented,” Vokietaitis said when asked to compare last season’s roster and this season’s. “Everybody is sacrificing every single day.”

But a roster sheet can only tell you who the team has. It can’t tell you what that team will become. And while the Longhorns have been projected as one of the nation’s best teams, what they’ve shown on the court so far hasn’t always reflected that reputation.

The Longhorns’ 87-74 exhibition loss to St. John’s on Oct. 25 offered an early reminder of that disconnect.

The Longhorns looked unfamiliar with themselves. They struggled to find an offensive rhythm, finishing with 16 turnovers and 12 assists. Defensively, Texas had few answers for the Red Storm’s attacks in transition.

But a single exhibition hardly defines what Texas will become. Just as its preseason ranking doesn’t guarantee success, Sunday’s struggles don’t necessarily indicate what the Longhorns will look like come March.

“We’re nowhere near where we one day can be with this team,” Miller said. “And I don’t mean beyond this year. I’m talking about this year.”

For now, the Longhorns live in the gray area between the expectations surrounding them and the team they’ve yet to prove themselves to be.

And the players understand that distinction.

“Obviously, we see the media and see stuff like that,” sophomore guard Isaiah Johnson said. “But honestly, it doesn’t really matter because we haven’t really played a game yet at all.”

Beginning Monday against Chicago State, those expectations will face the reality of the regular season. There will be growing pains, adjustments and eventually, an SEC schedule that will require more than individual talent.

Each game will offer another glimpse of who the Longhorns truly are, gradually replacing preseason expectations with something more tangible.

For months, Texas has been defined by the team everyone imagines it could become. By March, there will be far less to imagine.