{"id":247693,"date":"2026-04-13T15:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247693\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:38:07","slug":"forward-for-texas-basketball-enters-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247693\/","title":{"rendered":"Forward for Texas basketball enters transfer portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas basketball<\/a>\u00a0lost its third forward of the offseason to the portal Monday when Declan Duru announced his decision to transfer.<\/p>\n

Duru, a 6-foot-8 freshman from Germany, appeared in 12 games for Texas this past season and averaged 1.3 points, 1.2 rebounds, 0.4 steals and 0.1 blocks per contest He only played in two SEC games and didn\u2019t see the court during an NCAA Tournament run that ended with a 79-77 loss to Purdue<\/a> in the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

Texas coach Sean Miller<\/a> and general manager Chris Ogden have now lost nine players from this past season\u2019s squad, including seven of their eight rotational players who appeared during the NCAA Tournament. Guards Tramon Mark, Chendall Weaver and Jordan Pope used up their eligibility while starting forward\u00a0Cam Heide<\/a>, reserve forward\u00a0Nic Codie<\/a>\u00a0and reserve guard\u00a0Simeon Wilcher<\/a> entered the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Forward\u00a0Dailyn Swain<\/a>\u00a0declared for the NBA draft after an All-SEC junior season. Forward Lassina Traore, who did not play after injuring his knee in early February, is also out of eligibility.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns are off to a strong start with a rebuild of their roster, which includes Sunday\u2019s portal commitment of former TCU forward David Punch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 6-7, 245-pound Punch will likely step into the starting power forward role next to 7-foot post Matas Vokietaitis<\/a>, 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<\/a> 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.2<\/p>\n

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

Rising redshirt freshmen John Clark and Lewis Obiorah are expected back, since neither 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\u00a0lost its third forward of the offseason to the portal Monday when Declan Duru announced his decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19752,46466,27,29,537,13558,28],"class_list":["post-247693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-men-s-college-basketball","tag-ncaa-transfer-portal","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-basketball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247693","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=247693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}