{"id":247246,"date":"2026-04-13T06:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T06:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247246\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T06:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T06:50:11","slug":"david-punch-an-all-big-12-forward-with-tcu-to-join-texas-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247246\/","title":{"rendered":"David Punch, an All-Big 12 forward with TCU, to join Texas basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas basketball<\/a>\u00a0coach \u00a0Sean Miller<\/a>\u00a0continued to rebuild his roster with the portal commitment of former TCU forward David Punch, according to a report by The Athletic.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-7, 245-pound Punch will likely step into the starting power forward role next to 7-foot post Matas Vokietaitis, who announced his decision to return to Texas Friday. Last season, Punch averaged 14.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.98 blocks a game while becoming one of the Big 12\u2019s best two-way power forwards.<\/p>\n

Punch, who has two remaining years of eligibility, joins former Colorado guard Isaiah Johnson as the two portal players who have committed to Texas. Punch and Johnson ranked seventh and 12th, respectively, in ESPN\u2019s list of the top 60 available transfers.<\/p>\n

Miller and Texas general manager Chris Ogden still have some work to do since the Longhorns lost seven of the eight players in their rotation during an NCAA Tournament run that ended with a 79-77 loss to Purdue<\/a>\u00a0March 26 in the Sweet 16. Guards Tramon Mark, Chendall Weaver and Jordan Pope used up their eligibility, and Miller lost starting forward\u00a0Cam Heide<\/a>, reserve forward\u00a0Nic Codie<\/a>\u00a0and reserve guard\u00a0Simeon Wilcher<\/a> to the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Forward\u00a0Dailyn Swain<\/a>\u00a0declared for the NBA draft after an All-SEC junior season.<\/p>\n

But a starting rotation is starting to take shape. Vokietaitis and Punch will likely start in the front court, and Johnson will likely start alongside 6-5 McDonald’s All-American recruit\u00a0Austin\u00a0Goosby<\/a>, the jewel of the Longhorns\u2019 2026 recruiting class. A starting wing to replace the departed Swain seems like a top priority, along with guard depth.<\/p>\n

A set of forwards in rising sophomore Declan Duru and\u00a0rising redshirt freshmen John Clark and Lewis Obiorah are expected back, since none have yet announced any intentions to transfer. Incoming freshman Coleman Elkins will be another forward on next year\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

Miller will also welcome in two more freshmen in shooting guards Bo Ogden and Joe Sterling. Ogden, the son of Texas general manager Chris Ogden, recently earned\u00a0the All-CenTex player of the year award<\/a>\u00a0from the Austin American-Statesman after leading Westlake High School to the state tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas basketball\u00a0coach \u00a0Sean Miller\u00a0continued to rebuild his roster with the portal commitment of former TCU forward David Punch,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2692,116,118,117,46466,537,19751],"class_list":["post-247246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-college-basketball","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-ncaa-transfer-portal","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-men-s-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247246","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=247246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}