{"id":149003,"date":"2026-02-03T12:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/149003\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:39:08","slug":"why-texas-basketball-coach-has-kept-faith-in-his-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/149003\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Texas basketball coach has kept faith in his bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas basketball<\/a> has leaned heavily on its starting core this season, with mixed results. But in Saturday\u2019s 79-69 victory at Oklahoma<\/a>, the Longhorns\u2019 reserves delivered when needed most.<\/p>\n

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Bench energizer Chendall Weaver<\/a>, combo guard Simeon Wilcher and bruising forward Lassina Traore \u2014 the only three Longhorns who see regular minutes off the bench \u00a0\u2014 each made crucial plays down the stretch as Texas (13-9, 4-5 SEC) pulled away for a road win against one of its fiercest rivals.<\/p>\n

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TEXAS AT OKLAHOMA<\/p>\n

When\/where:\u00a06 p.m. Tuesday in Norman, Okla.<\/p>\n

TV\/radio: ESPN; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM.<\/p>\n

The bench production<\/a> proved a bit surprising since the Texas starters account for 76% of the Longhorns\u2019 points. But it also proved promising for Texas coach Sean Miller<\/a>, who says \u201cyou cannot do it in the SEC with just your starting group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA big reason we won at Oklahoma was the three guys who didn’t start the game,\u201d Miller said Monday. \u201cIt was great to see. You need guys to come in off the bench and contribute. And I think some of our best performances this year, somebody from our bench really contributed in a key way. And the Oklahoma game was a direct reflection of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game flipped when Miller went to his bench with Oklahoma leading 56-50 midway through the second half. During the final 10 minutes of Saturday\u2019s win, Texas outscored Oklahoma 29-13 with Traore, Weaver and Wilcher seeing heavy playing time. And each shined in the final stretch with starters\u00a0Tramon Mark and Matas Vokietaitis<\/a> on the bench.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Texas Longhorns: Midseason All-SEC basketball team includes Dailyn Swain. Who else?<\/a><\/p>\n

With Texas leading 70-67 with less than 4 minutes remaining in the game, Jordan Pope hit a 3-pointer behind a solid screen from Traore. Wilcher, who scored in double figures for the first time in seven games, then stole the ball with 2:10 left and a 73-67 Texas lead to give the Longhorns an extra possession. Weaver grabbed four of his six rebounds in the final four minutes and all contributed to a level of defensive energy <\/a>that the Sooners couldn\u2019t match.<\/p>\n

The scoring outburst from Wilcher proved particularly welcomed, Miller said. A former starter at St. John\u2019s who transferred to Texas in the offseason, the 6-foot-4 junior entered the game at Oklahoma shooting 7 of 40 in SEC play and averaging 3.3 points. But against the Sooners, he made four of his seven shots and added two assists without a turnover in 21 minutes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSim Wilcher, we don’t beat Oklahoma without his play,\u201d Miller said. \u201cSim has uncharacteristically not shot the ball well and I think maybe lost some confidence for a brief period of time. I think the Oklahoma game resurrected his confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns guard Chendall Weaver (2) catches the ball in an attempt to keep it in-bounds as a time-out is called and a turnover was avoided in the second half of the Longhorns\u2019 game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Moody Center in Austin, Jan. 24, 2026. Texas won the game 87-67.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Texas could use more from Wilcher and the bench Tuesday against South Carolina. The Gamecocks (11-11, 2-7), who are coming off an overtime home loss Saturday to LSU, rank near the bottom of the SEC in scoring (77.4 points) and field-goal percentage (44.6%) but do run a deliberate halfcourt offense that may slow the high-powered Longhorns. Sixth-year senior point guard Meechie Johnson (15.6 points, 4.2 assists) gives the team one of the most experienced floor generals in the country, and power forward Elijah Strong likes to step out to the 3-point line and open up the lane. They also play a relentless brand of man-to-man defense that belies their conference record, Miller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Carolina is very well-coached, deliberate in their attack, cohesive on defense, tough-minded (and) fundamentally sound on defense,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can’t take that mentality of allowing anybody to sneak up on us (because) it’s such a great conference. From top to bottom, it’s the strongest conference in the country. That’s not my opinion. I think that’s the facts of the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Texas (13-9, 4-5 SEC) at Oklahoma (11-10, 1-7): How to watch<\/p>\n

Where:\u00a0Moody Center, Austin<\/p>\n

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TV\/radio:\u00a0ESPN; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas basketball has leaned heavily on its starting core this season, with mixed results. But in Saturday\u2019s 79-69…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19752,772,51839,19753,5277,27,29,537,19751,28],"class_list":["post-149003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-men-s-college-basketball","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-oklahoma-sooners-basketball","tag-sean-miller","tag-sec-basketball","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-men-s-basketball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}