Texas men\u2019s basketball head coach Sean Miller\u2019s roster has a major influx of young talent this season, with six of the 15 players entering their freshman season on the Forty Acres.<\/p>\n
The young talent Miller brought in isn\u2019t ordinary by any means. Just ask freshman guard Austin Goosby.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I feel like we have the best freshman class, just the most talented in general,\u201d Goosby said.<\/p>\n
Goosby\u2019s claims are not that far off, as Texas held the No. 4-ranked 2026 high school recruiting class by 247Sports with a pair of five stars and a trio of four stars in Miller\u2019s first full recruiting cycle.<\/p>\n
The freshman class of five-star Goosby and forward Marcus Spears Jr., four-star guard Bo Ogden, guard Joe Sterling, guard Mantas Laurencikas and forward Coleman Elkins has fit right into Miller\u2019s program from the get-go.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur freshman class, I love those guys \u2026 and who they are,\u201d Miller said. \u201cNot just because of their talent but as a group, they have been incredibly coachable. They\u2019ve come in eyes wide open, willing to listen and learn, showing up, working at it, embracing this is our program. \u2026 We\u2019ve had zero problems with pulling them along.\u201d<\/p>\n
The freshmen have hit the practice court alongside the rest of the Longhorns returners and transfers over the summer and heading into the season.<\/p>\n
Throughout their time on the court together, the six freshmen have made strong impressions on their teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t play like freshmen, none of them; they\u2019re all amazing,\u201d sophomore guard Isaiah Johnson said.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns have plenty of experience that will help the six freshmen in their first year of college basketball.<\/p>\n
Texas has five juniors, four of whom will be major contributors, and two key sophomores who have seen plenty of playing time. All those players will help the six freshmen get accustomed to the college game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a process,\u201d junior forward David Punch said. \u201cOffseason, all the way into the season, it\u2019s a process. Every game is a learning experience, and I tell the guys when it comes to game time, don\u2019t worry about making mistakes, just go out there and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the freshmen will have plenty of older guys to depend on, they will also lean on each other to develop and grow in their first season in Austin together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great having those other people to go through new things with,\u201d Sterling said. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely a super tight-knit group already, the freshmen and the whole team as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
For any freshman, an adjustment period will be necessary, especially getting used to the pace of the college game and the speed at which Miller runs his offensive system.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the beginning, it was like, man, this is fast; you got to get used to it,\u201d Ogden said. \u201cIt definitely slows down as you go through, but it\u2019s still way faster than high school, so you (have) to adjust a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller looks to build on the run the Longhorns had to the Sweet Sixteen a season ago, and he\u2019ll do it with several young players on his roster.<\/p>\n
The freshmen know that if Texas reaches where it wants to be in March, they\u2019ll have to break through the inexperience label.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve come in here, and we\u2019ve been able to work and be here all summer, and we\u2019re going to show what freshmen can do,\u201d Goosby said. \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter how old you are; if you\u2019re coming here to compete, you\u2019re going to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas men\u2019s basketball head coach Sean Miller\u2019s roster has a major influx of young talent this season, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-458567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458567","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=458567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}