When Texas men\u2019s basketball hits the floor for the 2026-27 season, it will be in its second year under head coach Sean Miller, with a roster full of new faces \u2014 11, to be exact.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns will have four returning players from the 2025-26 team that was one possession away from the Elite Eight. Following the end of that season, Miller had plenty of work to do in his second offseason to reconstruct his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While no official games have been played, Miller feels confident that he made the correct offseason decisions. At the Southeastern Conference Media Day on Wednesday, he complimented the character of his new team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really have an amazing group of kids,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI\u2019m talking about guys that really love the game; don\u2019t talk about it, but show it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller used both the transfer portal and the high school ranks to bring in the new players, with five players coming from different programs and the other six players beginning their college basketball careers at Texas.<\/p>\n
Miller wasn\u2019t shy about why he added the players that he did for the upcoming season and what goal he was building toward.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarch, we can accept it as coaches in college basketball or try to fight it, but March Madness is what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to be a part of March Madness. I don\u2019t think anybody can truly understate the importance of being in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, with the collection of talent in Austin, Miller has another task on his hands: getting all the talent to buy into the Texas program.<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s newly-assembled team has not dug its head in the sand on that point, as the Longhorns continue to work toward becoming a team, not just individuals, heading into the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still gelling,\u201d junior guard Mikey Lewis said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve come a long way since our first day. So, we\u2019re hoping, like Coach Miller says, to have a good product out there ready to go on night one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buying into the program has not been much of a struggle, as the players have led the effort to grow stronger as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just met (at the) beginning of the summer,\u201d junior forward Elyjah Freeman said. \u201cBeing around each other (in) the weight room, and going through as hard of the workouts as we go through in the weight room and on the court, \u2026 brings us closer together. So when the season comes around, we\u2019re able to play with each other against everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new version of the Longhorns won\u2019t be hitting the court until an exhibition game against St. John\u2019s on Oct. 25.<\/p>\n
With the season still being a few weeks away, Miller will rely on his team\u2019s personal ideals, not just for the start of the season but through its entirety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have all come to Texas to win and be a part of something bigger than just their own goals,\u201d Miller said. \u201cYou feel it when you\u2019re around them; it\u2019s in the energy that you can\u2019t fake, and I think more than any other component, I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to call on all season long as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Texas men\u2019s basketball hits the floor for the 2026-27 season, it will be in its second year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-466374","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\/466374","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=466374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}